David Baldacci - First Family

"How're Tuck and the kids?"

"Not great. Have you made any progress?"

"Yes, can you put Tuck on?"

"Can't you tell me?"

"I really need to talk to Tuck about this."

Sean heard a noise come out of the woman's throat that made it clear she did not appreciate this slight at all. Still, a moment later he heard Tuck's voice.

"What's up, Sean?"

"Is Jane standing next to you?"

"Yeah, why?'

"You're going to need some privacy when you hear what I have to say. Find it."

"But-"

"Find it!"

"Uh, hold on."

Sean heard him mumble something, and then other noises came over his phone that suggested Tuck was walking somewhere, and then a door closed. He finally came back on.

"Okay, what's this all about?"

"I was in Jacksonville."

"Why?" Tuck snapped.

"I needed a tan."

"Sean-"

"I know it all, Tuck. In fact, I know way more than you do."

"I told you that-"

"I spent all afternoon with Cassandra the Exhibitionist. That is, after Greg Dawson finished paying her off."

Tuck shouted, "Greg Dawson!"

"Knock down the decibels, Tuck, I'm losing my hearing fast enough as it is. So here's the scoop. Dawson found out about you and Cassandra and now the lady is working for him in screwing you out of your big government contract. I'm sure they've got pictures and everything of you two together in the sack to entertain DHS with."

"That asshole. And that bitch!"

"Yeah. By the way, this is a real good lesson in why fidelity is the way to go."

"You didn't tell Jane-"

Sean broke in. "That's not my job. In my book you're a total shitbag for pulling this crap on your wife and the mother of your kids, but who cares what I think."

"She came on to me, Sean. I swear. She seduced me."

"Grow up, Tuck. Manipulators like Cassandra always come on to saps like you; that's what they do. And it's your job as a happily married man to tell her where to go. Hell, even I did when she flashed some ass at me, and I'm single! I could've jumped her bones without a guilty thought; luckily my good taste saved me. But I'm not a marriage counselor and that's not why I called."

"So why did you phone?" Tuck asked nervously.

"Cassandra said the two of you had a falling-out over the issue of Pam maybe having an affair. Is that true?"

"Well…"

"Either start telling me the truth or you can find Willa on your own."

"Yes. It's true."

"That would have been really nice to know before, Tuck," Sean said.

"I… I was confused about stuff, not to mention having my head knocked in."

"Cassandra said you overheard some conversations and you actually saw Pam with a guy."

"That's right. I couldn't believe she might be cheating on me."

"Yeah, can you believe the nerve of the woman? Okay, here's the next big question. I know your plane got in early. You said you never stopped, so where did you spend the extra hour or so you had between leaving the airport and arriving home?"

"How did you-"

Sean impatiently cut him off. "I'm an investigator, Tuck, that's what I do. We're wasting time and your kid is out there somewhere with some seriously violent folks. So where were you? And if you even think about lying to me I'm coming over there and, Secret Service protection or not, I'm gonna kick the shit out of you."

"I was outside my house," he said hastily.

"Outside your house?"

"Yeah. I was watching it. I thought if Pam believed I was still in Jacksonville, she and her 'friend' might get together. I wanted to catch them in the act. But nobody showed up, so I drove into the garage and went in the house."

"And if the guy did show, what exactly were you going to do?"

"Do? Um, I'm not sure. Kick his butt probably."

"And then what, confess to Pam your own infidelity and let her kick your ass?"

"Look, you asked and I told you. I don't need a sermon, okay?"

Something about this explanation was not adding up to Sean. "Your house is down a long driveway with woods on either side. Where were you watching from?"

"The driveway curves and there's a break in the treeline on the east side of the property. You have a clear line of vision to the front door as well as the garage side."

"It was night and it was dark."

"I had a pair of binoculars in my car."

"You just happened to?"

"Okay, so I bought them with that thought in mind."

"When you were watching your own house, did you notice anyone around who shouldn't have been there?"

"No. There was nobody."

"There was obviously somebody, Tuck. They weren't in the house while you were watching it or else you probably would have heard screaming. They had a surveillance zone set up before they made the hit, spotted you right away, and waited for you to go in before they slammed your house."

"But I would've seen them, Sean."

"No, you wouldn't. They obviously knew what they were doing. And you obviously didn't," he added.

"Shit," grumbled Tuck.

"What did you overhear on the phone calls? As detailed as you can."

"There were two calls. I just happened to pick up the same time as Pam did on one of them. I heard a guy's voice. He said something like, 'I want to meet. And soon.' And Pam wanted to do it later. That's all I heard before I got nervous and hung up."

"And the other time?"

I was walking past the bedroom. She must've thought I had already left, but I forgot my briefcase and had come back from the garage. She was talking in a low voice but I heard her say that I was leaving town in two days and they could meet then."

"And what happened?"

"I only pretended to leave town. I changed my flight and followed her. She went to a coffee shop about a half hour away."

"And you saw the guy?"

"Yeah."

"Hair color, build, race, age?"

"Big guy. About your height. I know that because he stood when she walked in. He was white with short dark hair that had some gray. Maybe about fifty. Real professional-looking."

"So what did you do?"

"I sat in my car for about half an hour. Then Pam came out and I took off."

"Why didn't you wait around for the guy to come out and then confront him?"

"I told you, he was a big guy."

"Is that the only reason?"

Silence.

"Tuck, talk to me!"

"Okay, okay. He was dressed in a suit. I could see them looking at papers. They never did anything lovey-dovey. So, I suddenly started thinking…"

"What, that maybe he wasn't her lover boy? That maybe he was a lawyer and Pam was thinking about divorcing your ass?"

"Or that he was a PI like you that she'd hired to check up on me."

That was probably what Pam had wanted to meet with me about.

"Wait a minute, if you thought that, why did you come back from Florida early, the night Pam was killed? You said you wanted to catch them in the act, maybe kick the guy's ass. But now you just admitted you took off before because he was a big guy. And you also admitted that you started thinking he wasn't her lover but maybe a PI. Stop the bullshit. I want the truth."

"This is embarrassing, Sean."

"Tuck, do you want to get Willa back?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then forget your feelings of embarrassment and tell me the truth."

Tuck blurted out, "I thought if I caught the guy coming out of our house, I could intercept him and maybe buy him off."

"Why?"

"The same reason why Dawson obviously did what he did. If Pam found out about the affair and went public the contract was down the crapper. I couldn't let that happen, Sean. I'd worked my tail off. It meant everything."

A big part of Sean wanted to reach across the ephemeral mist of cellular signals and flatten Tuck Dutton.

"Well, obviously it meant more to you than your marriage. And that story you and Jane fed me at the hospital? About your partner trying to force you to sell because you needed the money. That was all BS!"