William Krueger: The Devil's bed

“That’s politics, Bobby.”

“Alan Carpathian wouldn’t call it politics. He’d call it character assassination.”

“Carpathian’s dead,” Dixon snapped. He took a moment, then forced a grin. “Remember the Michigan game?” He was talking about their days together at Stanford, when they’d both played on the team that won the Rose Bowl in their senior year. “I called a post pattern. You argued for a hook.”

“I know. That pass won the game.”

“The post pattern.” Dixon stood up, walked to his old friend, and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know what I’m doing, Bobby. I can handle Llewellyn and my father. And don’t worry about Kate. She’ll be fine. Look, it’s been a long day. How about we call it quits for this evening?”

“Sure, Clay.” Lee got to his feet and headed for the door.

After Robert Lee left, Dixon wandered to the window behind his desk and looked out. It was a hot, humid August night. He knew if he were able to slide open the pane, the air would hit him like warm water. Even after nearly four years in the White House, he wasn’t used to summer on the eastern seaboard. He thought about August along the high plains near the Rockies in his home state of Colorado. He missed the clear, dry air, the smell of sage. He missed the million stars that were the gift of the night. In D.C., the ever present haze and the city lights generally made the night sky a murky, impenetrable darkness.

He glanced at his watch and realized it was his daughter’s bedtime.

Dixon left the West Wing, accompanied by two Secret Service agents on POTUS detail. At the private stairs to the Executive Residence, he bid the agents a cordial good night. Unless called upon by the First Family, or summoned by an alarm, the Secret Service kept away from the second and third floors of the White House. As much as possible, the Residence was maintained as a sanctuary of normal life. At the top of the stairs, Dixon turned left down the center hall toward the west bedroom, where Willie Lincoln and John-John Kennedy had slept and Amy Carter had played with her dolls. He found his daughter Stephanie already under the covers. Kate sat in a chair next to the bed, reading from a Harry Potter book. Stephanie was so engrossed in listening to the story that she didn’t notice her father come into the room. He stood inside the doorway, watching silently.

Stephanie was seven, and Dixon loved her deeply. She had her mother’s long, blonde hair and pale complexion. She was smart and funny and loved to laugh, all very like her mother. From her father, she’d inherited athletic ability, a willful way, and a love of football. They often spent a Sunday afternoon together watching the Broncos or the Redskins on television.

Stephanie’s eyes drifted down from the ceiling and found him. She smiled and said happily, “Hi, Daddy.”

Kathleen Jorgenson Dixon looked up from the book she held. She didn’t smile.

Dixon came to the bed, leaned down, and kissed his daughter’s forehead. Her skin smelled faintly of Noxema. “What did you think of Ms. Walters?”

“I thought she was nice.”

“Me, too.”

“I got her autograph.”

“You can add it to your collection.” His daughter had practically grown up in the White House, surrounded by celebrities and the great people of the day. She collected autographs that she kept in an album. Her favorite was J. K Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, whom she’d met at a charity reading her mother had sponsored.

“I think that’s enough about Hogwarts for us Muggles tonight,” her mother said. She closed the book, set it on the stand, and rose from her chair. She kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Sleep tight.”

“Can I read a little more? I’m not very sleepy.”

“A little more,” her mother agreed.

“Night, Pumpkin,” Dixon said.

As they left the room, Kate closed the door behind them.

“I was going to have a glass of sherry,” Dixon said. “Care to join me?”

“I don’t think so.” She walked past him.

“You were great this evening,” he said behind her. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

“I did what I had to do.”

He accompanied her down the hall to the master bedroom of the presidential suite. Inside, she continued toward the dressing room. Dixon followed but hung back at the doorway, watching as she opened a bureau drawer and began to gather a few things.

“Do we need to talk some more?” he asked.

“I don’t know what else there is to say.”

“That you understand would be good. You haven’t said that yet.”

She bowed her head, thought, then turned to him. “Do you remember the night Alan Carpathian came down to the ranch and asked you to run for governor?”

“Of course.”

“We sat on the porch until midnight, the three of us, drinking scotch.”

“We talked until sunup. You were on Alan’s side. You encouraged me to run, Kate.”

“I couldn’t stand watching you mope. When you retired from football you were lost.”

“That night on the porch you said I could do great things.”

“And you saidwecould do great things. That you wouldn’t do anything unless we did it together, remember?”

“I remember.”

“Four years ago when Alan finally convinced you to run for the White House, I thought we made the same deal.”

“Things have changed. Alan’s gone. I have other advisers now. Rooms full of them.”

“Your father’s people.”

“They know what they’re doing.”

“Do they? It was on their advice you ambushed Wayne White.”

“It wasn’t an ambush. It was a political maneuver.”

“Dredging up an allegation twenty years old? Anybody who knows Wayne White’s history knows that his wife was an alcoholic then. What the truth of the incident really was, God only knows. The woman has passed away and can’t help her husband refute the sordid aspects of the story. And Wayne White, God bless him, is too fine a man to defend himself by sullying her memory. All very convenient for you. And I love how the information just happened into the hands of a tabloid. And that awful picture of her with the bruises. My God, where did that come from?”

“Nothing that came out wasn’t the truth. And it’s not as if Wayne White isn’t above a little slander himself. I quote, ‘It’s hard to believe this nation has chosen as its leader a gridiron gorilla who barely made it through college.’”

“There was a time when you thought ‘gridiron gorilla’ was a compliment. And it’s true that you were no scholar. Besides, Wayne White said those things long before he put his hat in the ring. He’s been quite civil since.” She turned back to the bureau. Her hands moved quickly, selecting then discarding with an angry motion. “Your father was the architect of all this duplicity. But you, you’re worse because you pretend you’re not like him. I think you even believe it.”

Dixon quit the dressing room and walked to a small rosewood table near the window where he kept a decanter of sherry. He poured himself a glass.

“Tell me something,” she said, her voice coming disembodied from the dressing room.

“Anything.”

“During the primaries, when opponents in his own party questioned Wayne White’s war record, did the senator have a hand in that? Did he feed the information?”

“That’s a crazy question.”

“Is it? After what’s happened, I don’t think so. The senator seems to know anything bad about anybody. Was he already at work trying to torpedo the man’s campaign, even then?”

“There was good reason to doubt the congressman’s claims about his military service.”

She stepped into the bedroom, looking stunned. “You knew.”

“The questions that were raised were reasonable questions.”