First Daughter - Eric van Lustbader [76]
Plus there was an edge, a toughness to Emma, the hardy scuff picked up in the street. She was fearless. Privilege, Alli had reason to understand, made you soft, vulnerable, fearful, as if your body had been turned inside out, pink and pulsing. It was a hateful disfigurement, one she felt powerless to reverse until Emma came into her life.
Then everything changed.
TWENTY - FIVE
IT'S A total blackout," Chief Bennett said, "as if the Dark Car never crashed."
"What about the gunshots on Kirby Road?" Jack asked.
Bennett shook his head. "Only a small item about a milk truck that caught fire."
The two friends sat in Tysons Corner in a small coffee shop with a striped awning out front and bistro tables inside. From where Jack sat, he had a good view through the front window of the leafy side street and the occasional passing car. As soon as he had dropped a thoroughly rattled Armitage off at his office, he called Bennett. Then he ran every red light to get here. The pursuit by the Dark Car, the shooting, and its aftermath had shaken him more than he cared to admit. He felt as if he had entered a new and far more dangerous arena.
Bennett turned his coffee cup around and around as if something about its symmetry made him uncomfortable. "Someone very high up in the government food chain is spinning the news at a furious clip," Bennett said.
"According to your information, that would be the president, the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, or the National Security Advisor. Why in the world would any one of them want me dead?"
Bennett watched a middle-aged man enter, then slide into a booth where a young woman waited for him. She smiled, took his hand in hers. Bennett lost interest in them.
"I've been in this business thirty years," he said. "I've never run up against a brick wall like this. Jack, I've made a career of getting around the brick walls of various government agencies, but this one's different. None of my contacts can help me—or they won't."
"Too scared?"
Bennett nodded. "I'm sorry, Jack. I should have followed you, should have protected you."
"It's not your job."
"I agreed to have you seconded to Hugh Garner's band of merry men." He gave Jack a lopsided grin. "I knew more or less I was throwing you to the dogs."
Jack nodded. "You warned me. But it was Edward Carson who asked for me. I don't see how you could've refused."
There was an unhappy pause while the waitress refilled their cups. Bennett's eyes strayed out through the side window, across the avenue. Following his gaze, Jack saw the bottles of wine, whiskey, designer vodkas, aged rums artfully displayed in the window of the shop across the street.
"I suppose it doesn't get any easier."
Bennett shook his head. "It's like a siren's call."
"As long as you're securely lashed to the mast like Ulysses."
Bennett's gaze swung back to him. "I lost my wife because I was drunk all the time; I'm not about to go off the wagon now."
"I'm happy to hear it."
Bennett poured half-and-half into his cup, along with lots of sugar. That was his treat. "Speaking of wives, you ought to get back with Sharon."
"I was wondering why you insisted she come down to the hospital."
"To be honest, Jack, she was glad I asked. I think she wanted to come."
Jack sipped his coffee, said nothing.
"I know you're still pissed about her and Jeff."
"You could say that. He was my best friend."
"Jack, what he did—he was never your friend."
Jack's eyes slid away, staring at nothing.
"Sharon did it to get back