‘Someone told me,’ continued Winters, ‘that poor Frazier-Pyke lost a considerable amount of money in a venture she was associated with but came away with a wife. It was the OffShore Investments crowd.’
‘Some fine-tuning he had,’ added Mandel. ‘Goniffs, every one of them. He should have checked with his polo ponies or even the silent Rothschild.’
‘Perhaps he did. She didn’t last long and old Emory has always been a stickler for the straight and narrow. She could have been a thief, too.’
Strike Samuel Winters? The traitor in Inver Brass would not raise the speculation.
‘In one way or another,’ commented Varak without emphasis, ‘you are all at least aware of her then.’
‘I wasn’t,’ said Margaret Lowell, bordering on the defensive, ‘but after hearing the others I can tell you who else knows her—”aware” is a touch too dull. My ex-husband, the alley cat; it was the Frazier-Pyke that did it.’
‘Walter?’ Sundstrom’s voice and expression were both humorously questioning.
‘My boy made so many business trips to London I thought he was advising the Crown, and he frequently mentioned that this Frazier-Pyke was his banker over there. Then one morning the maid phoned me at the office saying that Casanova had an urgent call from an “FP” in London, but she didn’t know where he was. She gave me the number and I called saying to somebody—I assumed a secretary—that M. Lowell was on the line for “FP”. I was subsequently greeted by an exuberant voice virtually yelling at me, “Dahling, I’ll be in New York tomorrow and we can have five full days together!” I said, “How nice” and hung up.’
‘She travels in the right circles for her purposes,’ said Gideon Logan, chuckling. ‘Andy-boy Vanvlanderen will keep her in blue chips and sables until he gets bored.’
Varak had to change the subject quickly! If he was right about there being a traitor around the table, and he was right—whatever was said about Ardis Vanvlanderen would get back to her and he could not permit anything further. ‘From everyone’s reactions,’ he said pleasantly, aimlessly, ‘we can assume that there are some opportunists who are immensely capable. However, it’s not important.’ Watch them. Every face. ‘She serves the Vice President well but that’s essentially immaterial to us… Back to our candidate, everything proceeds on schedule. The Midwest newspapers, starting with Chicago, will be the first to speculate on his credentials, both in columns and editorials. They’ve all been provided with extensive background material on Kendrick as well as tapes of the Partridge Committee, the Foxley show, and his own quite remarkable press conference. From this core the word will spread both east and west.’
‘How were they approached, Milos?’ asked the spokesman, Samuel Winters. ‘The newspapers and the columnists, I mean.’
‘A legitimate ad hoc committee that we’ve formed in Denver. The seed, when planted, grew quickly. The Colorado branch of the party was enthusiastic, especially as the money was contributed by donors who insisted on remaining anonymous. The state functionaries see a potentially viable candidate and the wherewithal to launch him, as well as the attention it focuses on Colorado. Win or lose, they can’t lose.
‘That “wherewithal” could be a legal problem,’ said Margaret Lowell.
‘Nothing significant, madam. It’s provided in sequences, no amount over the legal limit as mandated by the election laws—which are quite obscure, if not mystifying, in my opinion.’
‘If I need a lawyer, I’ll call you, Milos,’ added Lowell, smiling and sitting back in her chair.
‘I’ve furnished each of you with a copy of the names of the newspapers, their editorial writers and the columnists involved in this phase—’
‘To be burned in our coal stove,’ broke in Winters softly.
‘Of course;’ ‘Naturally;’ ‘Most certainly,’ came the chorus of quiet replies.
Which was the liar?
‘Tell me, Varak,’ said the brilliant, cherubic Sundstrom. ‘According to everything we know, everything you’ve brought us, our candidate hasn’t displayed an iota of that “fire-in-the-belly” we hear so much about. Isn’t it terribly important? Doesn’t he have to ultimately want the job?’
‘He’ll want it, sir. As we’ve learned, he’s what might be called a closet activist who runs out of the closet when the conditions call for his abilities.’
‘Good Lord, Samuel, he’s a rabbi, too?’
‘Hardly, Mr. Mandel,’ replied the Czech, permitting himself a tight grin. ‘What I mean to say, no doubt poorly—’
‘The words are lovely, Milos.’
‘Thank you, sir, you’re too kind. But what I’m trying to say is that on two dramatic occasions in his life—one extraordinarily dangerous to him personally—he chose to take the most difficult course of action because he felt he could effect a change for the better. The first was his decision to replace a corrupt congressman; the second, of course, was Oman. In short words, he must once again be convinced that his person and his abilities are needed—uniquely needed for the good of the country.’
‘That’s a tall order,’ said Gideon Logan. ‘He’s obviously a man of realistic sensibilities who makes a pretty fair appraisal of his qualifications. His bottom line may be… “I’m not qualified.” How do we overcome that?’
Varak looked around the table, his expression that of a man trying to be understood. ‘I suggest symbolically, sir.’
‘How’s that?’ asked Mandel, removing his steel-rimmed glasses.
‘For example, the current Secretary of State, although he is frequently maligned by his colleagues and the White House staff as a stubborn academic, is the most reasoned voice in the administration. I know privately that he has managed to block a number of rash actions recommended by the President’s advisers because the President respects him—’
‘He damn well should,’ exclaimed Margaret Lowell.
‘I think the European alliance would fall apart without him,’ offered Winters.
‘There wouldn’t be an alliance without him,’ agreed Mandel, anger on his normally passive face. ‘He’s a beacon of rationality in a sea of belching Neanderthals.’
‘If I may, sir? Could your use of the word “beacon” be construed as a symbol?’
‘That’s logical,’ answered Gideon Logan. ‘Our Secretary of State is by all means a symbol of intelligent moderation. The nation, too, respects him.’
‘He intends to resign,’ said Varak simply.
‘What?’ Sundstrom sat forward. ‘His loyalty to Jennings wouldn’t permit it.’
‘His sense of integrity shouldn’t permit him to stay,’ said Winters with finality.
‘Out of loyalty, however,’ explained Varak, ‘he’s agreed to attend the Middle East NATO conference at the UN mission on Cyprus in three weeks. It’s both a show of unity and a way of giving the President’s men time to find a replacement who will be acceptable to the Congress. Then he leaves for “pressing personal reasons”, the main one being his frustration with the National Security Council, which continues to undercut him.’
‘Has he explained that to the President?’ asked Lowell.
‘According to my source, he has not,’ replied Varak. ‘As Mr. Mandel has pointed out, he’s a rational man. He understands that it’s easier and far better for the country to replace one person than an entire council of presidential advisers.’
‘Tragic,’ said Winters, ‘yet inevitable, I imagine. But how does the Secretary of State relate to Evan Kendrick? I fail to see the connection.’
‘It’s in the symbol itself,’ said Eric Sundstrom. ‘He’s got to understand its importance. Am I right, Milos?’
‘Yes, sir. If Kendrick’s convinced that it’s crucial for the country to have a strong vice president who’s perceived by our allies and enemies alike as a voice of reason within an imperial presidency—where the benign emperor frequently has no clothes—and that the world will breathe easier for it, then, in my judgment, he’ll again make the difficult choice and be available.’
‘From all we’ve learned, I suppose he would,’ agreed Gideon Logan. ‘But who the hell is going to convince him of that?’
‘The only man he’ll listen to,’ said Milos Varak, wondering if he was about to sign a death warrant. ‘Emmanuel Weingrass.’
Ann Mulcahy O’Reilly was a Washington secretary not easily disturbed. Over the years since she and Paddy moved down from Boston, she had worked for the bright and the unbright, the would-be good and the would-be thieves; nothing much surprised her any more. But then she had never worked for anyone like Congressman Evan Kendrick. He was the all-time reluctant resident of Washington, its most persistently unwilling politician, and a perversely demurring hero. He had more ways to elude the ineluctable than a cat with nine lives cubed, and he could vanish with the agility of the Invisible Man. Yet his proclivity for disappearing notwithstanding, the congressman always left open lines of communication; he would either call in on a fairly regular basis or leave a number where he could be reached. However, for the past two days there had been no word from Kendrick and no number at which he could be found. Those two facts by themselves would not normally have alarmed Mrs. O’Reilly but two others did: throughout the day—since nine-twenty that morning—neither the house in Virginia nor the home in Colorado could be reached by telephone. In both cases the operators in Virginia and Colorado reported disruptions of service, and that status was still unchanged at nearly seven o’clock in the evening. That disturbed Annie O’Reilly. So quite logically she picked up the phone and dialled her husband at police headquarters.