Home Free - Fern Michaels [34]
“Your president appears to me to be, as you Yanks like to say, ‘on the ball.’ She has her fingers on everything, not just the nuclear button. Maybe it isn’t Miss Spritzer but the companion she took with her. Didn’t you say the girls told you about her new paramour? Maybe that’s where we should be looking instead of at Maggie.”
Annie cupped her chin in her hands and stared at Fergus, all thoughts of what had transpired during the previous hours now just a memory. “But that’s chancy. Maggie could just as well have invited Ted or anyone else and not the man who caused Nikki’s and Alexis’s antennae to start waving.
“From what I can gather, the man is not involved in politics. He’s some kind of financial wizard, or so he would like you to believe. And yet, the girls feel like he sought out Maggie for a reason. Woman’s intuition on that score.”
“I, for one, would never argue with a woman’s intuition. Especially a vigilante’s intuition. For whatever this is worth, and it is just my opinion, Annie, the girls warned Maggie, and she is at heart still a reporter, so her instincts have kicked in, which is just another way of saying she will be on high alert.”
“In your gut, do you think Maggie’s invitation to Camp David has anything to do with you and your colleagues’ visit to the White House yesterday?”
“Annie, I honestly don’t know. Our meeting was more of a fact-finding kind of meeting. The reason for our invitation to Camp David had more to do with timing than anything else. The president had to cut our meeting short when she was summoned by her chief of staff. We had traveled here from Europe and were planning on leaving today, as a matter of fact, but the president extended the invitation so that we could meet tomorrow, finish up at Camp David, and be on our way back home tomorrow.
“As I told you earlier, I was just a stand-in for my replacement, who was scheduled to arrive Monday. Things just got bollixed up for some reason. Now, I don’t know if my replacement is coming or whether he will do a webcam solo tomorrow. I’m technically out of the loop here.”
“Let me ask you this,” Annie said as she leered at Fergus, and there was no mistaking her intent, which was, “Tell me what I want to know, or you are outta here.” Fergus correctly interpreted the look. “In your opinion, was your meeting primarily about how the European countries handle, monitor, and deal with their governmental slush funds? Those billion-dollar babies the public is not privy to? Or was that just a side issue?”
Fergus had a momentary vision of himself driving away from Annie’s house, his visit a distant memory, as his nostrils fought the tantalizing aromas he’d helped create. He decided it was in his best interest to step up to the plate. “We did spend what I thought was an inordinate amount of time discussing the matter. My colleagues agreed with my assessment, and when we were having coffee while the president went off to do whatever she had to do, we did agree that your . . . organizational funds were at the heart of our meeting.”
Annie digested the information and decided Fergus was telling her the truth as he saw it and as much of that as he was allowed to talk about. “Okay. That’s pretty much what I thought.” She smiled.
Fergus sighed so loud, he knew the sound could be heard all the way to the interstate. Fergus got up to check the turkey. “Have you decided on how you are going to explain my being here to your friends?” he asked casually.
“I thought I would go with the truth. You can’t go wrong when you tell the truth. I . . . ah . . . might leave out a few details, but yes, I think I will just go with the truth. The girls will either figure it out or they won’t. But either way, it really