Стюарт Вудс - Indecent Exposure

Stone and Holly were having lunch in the kitchen when Dino called.

“Hey.”

“Happy new year,” Dino said.

“Didn’t we cover that last night?”

“There’s stuff we didn’t cover last night.”

“Tell me.”

“We took a throwaway cell phone off the dead guy from last night. Guess who called him a couple of hours before he met his maker?”

“I give up.”

“Danny Blaine.”

“That’s weird. What does it mean?”

“We brought Blaine in and went through his cell phone. He had a call from Alphonse Teppi around the same time you saw him at Studio 54.”

“Uh-oh.”

“And get this — Danny Blaine and the shooter were neighbors at Fishkill. Blaine bought protection from the guy Jackson, known as ‘Crank.’”

“I think I’m getting the picture — both of them are friends of Gloria Parsons.”

“I’ve got two detectives getting a search warrant for her phone right now. She refused to give it to them earlier.”

“So this was about me, not Holly?”

“What did I say to you last night?”

“Let me know what you find on her phone.”

“I’ll get back to you.” Dino hung up.

When Gloria got home the two detectives were sitting in the living room with Benton, drinking coffee. This surprised her, because she didn’t know that Benton knew how to make coffee.

“Give them your cell phone,” Benton said, holding up a sheet of paper. “They’ve got a warrant.”

The detectives received the phone, then stood up. “We’ll bring it back later.”

“Wait a minute,” Benton said, holding up a single finger. He looked over the warrant. “This gives you the right to search it, not confiscate it.”

“Okay, my partner can do what we need.”

His partner began going over the phone. “There’s nothing here,” he said after a couple of minutes. “It’s been scrubbed clean.”

“It’s new,” Gloria said.

“When did you buy it?”

“What is this about?” Gloria asked. “Tell me, and I’ll tell you if I know anything.”

“Gentlemen?” Benton said. “Ask your questions.”

“All right. When did you last see Alphonse Teppi and Danny Blaine?”

“It’s been several weeks,” she replied, “maybe months. The governor and I went to Bermuda for a week.”

“Right,” Benton said.

“Then I was on assignment in the Florida Keys for a week after that.”

“And before that?”

“I don’t remember the last time I saw either of them,” Gloria said. “These are the sort of people I would run into now and then when I was writing gossip-based stuff, but they weren’t really friends. I don’t do that kind of work anymore.”

“Governor,” a detective said, “why did you commute Danny Blaine’s prison sentence?”

“Because I asked him to,” Gloria said quickly. “I felt sorry for the kid. He was being abused in prison.”

“Actually, he wasn’t being abused,” the cop said. “He was buying protection from a fellow inmate.”

“He wrote me a letter saying he was being abused,” she said. “I didn’t ask for details, and I don’t know who his friends were in prison.”

“I can help you out there — he was buying protection from Crank Jackson.”

“Who the hell is that?” she asked.

“He’s the man who shot the secretary of state on New Year’s Eve. You were there, remember?”

“Of course I remember,” she said, “but I don’t know this man.”

“Are you trying to tie Ms. Parsons to the shooting?” Benton asked.

“We’re investigating the shooter.”

“Well, Ms. Parsons was with me at a party at the police commissioner’s apartment, and I can tell you, she had nothing to do with a shooting.”

“What would I have against the secretary of state?” Gloria asked. “I admire her. I wrote a complimentary magazine piece about her.”

“I think that’ll do it, gentlemen,” Benton said. “You’re obviously on the wrong track, here.”

“Thank you, Governor, Ms. Parsons,” the man said, and they gave Gloria back her phone and left.

“Gloria,” Benton said when they had gone, “why did you get a new cell phone?”

“I had all sorts of stuff on my old phone — notes for pieces, people I’d interviewed, lots of stuff,” she said. “I didn’t want them pawing through all of that.”

“Okay,” he said. “I just wondered.”

“Sweetie,” she said, putting her hand on his crotch, “I am not part of a conspiracy to murder the secretary of state. The whole business is preposterous.”

“You’re right,” Benton said, as she unzipped his fly.

Stone was watching Holly get dressed for her speech at the UN, and she was using her wounded shoulder, though gingerly. “It’s good that you’re moving that,” he said.

“I know.”

“What’s your speech about at the UN?” he asked her.

“Middle East terrorism. I’ve spoken to the Security Council once before, but this is my first speech to the General Assembly.”

The phone rang, and Stone didn’t wait for Joan to pick it up. “Hello?”

“It’s Dino.”

“Good morning.”

“Okay,” Dino said, “here’s where we are. We can connect Alphonse Teppi and Danny Blaine through cell phone calls on the night, and Parsons received a call from each but says she sent them to voice mail, but Teppi and Blaine were using throwaways, and they had only one connected call each. We can connect Crank Jackson with Danny, but only with one call. Parsons used Teppi and Blaine as informants for magazine pieces, but we can’t put her together with them for weeks. She says she no longer needs their services and doesn’t want to know them.”

“So?”

“So, we’ve got a glimmer of a case, but no grounds for arrest and no chance of a conviction based on the available evidence. And it’s my people’s considered judgment that we’re not going to get any further. Frankly, we’ve no motive for Gloria Parsons wanting you dead. It’s my guess that she may have said something offhand about knocking you off, and they may have taken it seriously. As far as we can tell, she harbors no ill feelings toward you.”

“So, everybody walks?”

“Everybody but Crank Jackson. He’s not going anywhere but to potter’s field.”

“Okay, I buy that. I think you got it right.”

“If I’m wrong, we’ll hear from some of them again, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. They know how close we came to nailing them. If we’d landed Jackson and turned him, they’d all be on Rikers Island right now.”

“Tell you what I’m going to do,” Stone said. “I’m going to put it all right out of my mind.”

“I’m happy for you. See ya.” Dino hung up.

Stone turned back to Holly; she was dressed and ready to go, and she was wearing an Hermès silk scarf as a sling for her arm. “Changed your mind, huh?”

“It’s a look,” she said.

On the way to the UN he told her about Dino’s call. “Looks like they were after me all along,” he said. “You’ve nothing to worry about.”

“Do me a favor,” she said. “Don’t say a word about that to anybody.”

Stone laughed. “My lips are sealed.”

They were met at the front door of the building by a UN official, who escorted them to the General Assembly hall. Stone was escorted to a seat in the VIP gallery while Holly waited in the wings.

The president of the General Assembly introduced her, and she walked to the podium. Applause became a roar when they saw her arm in the sling. The audience of diplomats — even the Russians and Chinese — stood and cheered for a good two minutes.

Finally, Holly quieted them. She opened the notebook containing the speech, looked for the Teleprompter screens, and began to speak.