T. Bunn - Drummer in the Dark

“No.”

Another glance, this one timed to a switch across lanes, a marginal lowering of their breakneck speed. The senator aimed for the off-ramp and asked, “A man?”

“Not for over a year.”

“That bad?”

Worse than bad. A prince charming who grew into a nightmare demon. Shane was locked away now, caged like the beast he was. And still he terrified her. “That bad.”

Trilling had the ability to be as spare with her expressions as her words. A single tight grimace, there and gone. “A lot of them out there. It horrifies me, all the risks my daughter doesn’t see.”

The journey took them through an endless suburban sprawl. From the freeway they took a stoplight-riddled asphalt ribbon to nowhere. Clusters of stores and condos reluctantly gave way to housing developments and a few trees fortunate enough to have missed the bulldozer’s scouring. There was no order or center upon which the mind could rest easy, just haphazard bands of habitation through which they drove and drove and drove. A light mist began to fall, robbing the place of season as well as style.

The Fairfax County Hospital was just another building off just another road. Jackie waited while Kay Trilling made her way to the information desk, then followed her up to the third floor. The hallway outside Graham Hutchings’ room was jammed with people of every race, walk, and status. Jackie searched the group but did not see Esther. She watched as Kay Trilling approached and was enveloped by arms and greetings. Jackie selected an empty wooden bench back from the fray, resuming the same spot she had occupied most of her life-on the outside looking in.

She sat and listened to the throng’s attempt to be quiet. Watched the intensity of their expressions when Esther Hutchings exited the hospital room. Saw how they gathered tightly together, barely giving Esther room to reach over and hug the senator. Best buddies now. The argument of two nights ago apparently forgotten. Esther spoke in whispers, which were passed along. Jackie watched the crowd’s tension ease a notch farther. One thing was definitely coming clear. These people were not an easy-living crowd. Many of their confessions would no doubt be as wrenching as her own. Yet they managed to confront the calamity of living with compassion and determination; Jackie wanted that for herself.

Esther had separated herself from most of the group and was deep in conversation with the senator. The women measured Jackie with grave gazes, then walked over together.

Esther seated herself and demanded, “How are you, dear?”

“I should be asking you that.”

Esther bore the features of the emotionally drained. “Graham is better. We won’t know how much better for another couple of days. But the surgery seems to have improved the circulation in his brain.”

“I’m glad.” The words were not enough. “I heard him speak yesterday.”

“The evil banking empire address,” the senator offered.

“I hated it whenever he gave that speech. He always looked ready to explode by the end of it. He used it quite a lot. Too often for his own good. How was the assembly?”

“You mean, how was Congressman Bryant?” Jackie watched Senator Trilling seat herself on Esther’s other side, and addressed her directly. “You didn’t just happen by my hotel and offer me a ride.”

“I needed to know,” Trilling replied, “what you wouldn’t tell me.”

“Congressman Bryant wasn’t at all what I expected. He didn’t seem to have any idea what he was doing there.”

“He made no move for the limelight?” This from Trilling.

“He specifically refused to address the group. He didn’t even want to be introduced. He chose a seat midway back.”

Esther asked, “Did he say anything?”

“He asked me what the Jubilee movement was all about. When I told him, he said it didn’t make sense.”

“What didn’t?”

“He wouldn’t say.”

The two older women exchanged worried glances. It was the senator who reluctantly said, “Maybe Sybel is right.”

“I still don’t trust him,” Esther replied, too weary for rage. “The man is a menace to everything we stand for.”

“Sybel doesn’t think so.” The admission brought Kay Trilling no comfort. “And we both trust her judgment above almost anyone’s.”

“I’m sorry,” Jackie said. “Who is Sybel?”

“Wynn’s sister,” Esther said, her mind elsewhere. “Sybel Bryant Wells.”

The name rang all sorts of bells. “The wife of Governor Wells?”

But the pair were already moving on to other concerns. “I hate how she’s maneuvered us.”

Trilling gave another of her swift smiles. “Like you maneuvered us over Ms. Havilland?”

“That was different.”

“It always is.”

“I suppose we’ll need to send someone. Passing Sybel’s message to her brother isn’t something we can handle over the phone.”

“Don’t look at me,” Trilling said. “It’s one thing for Sybel to make these pronouncements, and another to get me publicly involved.”

“How about Carter?”

“Not a chance. He’s as busy as a one-armed paper hanger with a seven-year itch. He’s personally reviewing all the material I’m taking to Cairo. Not to mention the fact that he loathes Wynn more than you do.”

“I suppose,” Esther said reluctantly, “I could ask Nabil to go for us.”

“He’ll do it,” Trilling agreed. “But he’s only met Wynn once, and that was in my office. We argued. Nabil is a formal sort of guy. You’ll need to arrange an introduction.”

Two pairs of eyes refocused upon Jackie.

Jackie raised a hand to halt Esther before she could begin. “First there’s something I need cleared up.”

Esther grew even more uncomfortable. “We could be here for days, trying to answer your questions.”

“Just one point now. The rest can wait.” She sought to remove the sting with a soft tone. “Why did you hire me?”

Even spoken as it was, the query drew a wince from the exhausted woman. Jackie resisted the urge to reach out, tell her to forget it, this didn’t matter any more. She wasn’t angry, not even now that she already knew the answer. She just needed to hear it said, have a level of honesty established on all sides.

“I had no idea,” Esther said, “we would ever get to this point.”

“I was a lure.” Jackie spoke the words so Esther would not have to. “Just to see if they were still tracking you and the movement.”

“Not anymore,” Esther replied. “This is important work, and you are an important part of our team.”

“But in the beginning,” Jackie pressed as softly as she could. “I was tied like bait to the end of a pole.”

“Done in utmost secrecy,” Esther said, regret in her face, her tone, her stricken gaze. “Hoping you would never be noticed.”

“But I was.” Thinking aloud now. Fitting the fragments together. “They came after me and ransacked my apartment, which means they still consider you a threat.”

“Us,” Esther corrected. “Consider us a threat.”

“So it wasn’t just your husband they were worried about. Isn’t that it? You needed to know whether they were worried about more than your Graham.”

“They would never have come after someone so far removed from the Washington scene,” Esther quietly agreed. “Not if this were just a battle over legislation we have less chance of enacting with every passing day.”

“They’re worried about us finding something out,” Jackie said. “Which means time is important here. Important enough for them to show their hand when they learned I was sniffing around.”

“She’s good,” Trilling murmured, not liking the taste of those words, but saying them just the same. “Very good indeed.”