Home Free - Fern Michaels [62]
Abner held the gate so that Isabelle could step inside the elevator. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought she might black out. What was happening to her?
You silly girl, you know what’s happening to you, so don’t even go there, she warned herself.
Chapter 17
Maggie Spritzer was madder than a wet hen. Her fingers drummed on her desk as she waited for Ted Robinson to answer her call. She blasted him the moment she heard his voice. “Where are you? Your phone has been off. I gave you that assignment and told you it was ASAP five days ago.” Had it really been five days? How had the time gotten away from her like this?
“My phone wasn’t off. I ran out of juice and had to recharge. You need to have a little more patience, Maggie. Checking out four politicians from the moment of birth was not and is not an easy task. I’m doing the best I can, but from what I’ve gathered so far, there are no smoking guns, no proverbial rabbits in the magician’s hat, no scandals that I can find. Those guys are just like every other politician in this town. Their wives are social climbers, mean and catty, but other than that, I’m coming up with zip.”
“Then dig deeper, harder. There has to be a connection.”
“Says who?” Ted asked, belligerence ringing in his tone.
“My gut, that’s who. There’s something there. I can feel it, smell it, taste it. Get it for me so I can own it.”
Never one to argue with Maggie’s gut, Ted said, “Okay, I’ll do my utmost best.”
Maggie broke the connection. It was four thirty, time for her to head over to Walter Reed to see Gus Sullivan. She could hardly wait, even though she would spend only an hour at the most with him. Then she would come back to the paper, finish up, and head home. She made a mental note to find someone to set up her Christmas tree.
A last thorough check of her office and the kitchen area took ten minutes. Five minutes later, she was in a cab headed to Walter Reed and the hour she would spend with Gus. She felt giddy. Today, though, it wasn’t just personal. Today was business. Of a sort.
Maggie hated that it got dark so early these days, but once she was inside the massive hospital, the light was blinding. She found her way to Gus’s floor and down to the common room, where he waited for her. She wished, and not for the first time, that she could visit earlier in the day, but visitation then would interfere with his therapy. He was always tired at this hour of the day, but he made a valiant effort to be as cheerful as he could under the circumstances. Just yesterday he had nodded off, so she’d left. He called an hour later to apologize.
The moment she spotted him at the far end of the room, Maggie knew he’d had a good day: he was grinning like a Cheshire cat. She wanted to kiss him till his teeth rattled, but she held herself in check. Instead, she reached for his hand, squeezed it, then pecked him on the cheek. “Listen, Gus, I need your help on something. You said you read every newspaper in the District, not to mention all the political newsletters that come off the Hill. Tell me what, if anything, you know about these four guys. Adam Daniels, Barney Gray, Henry Maris, and Matthew Logan. I need to record your responses. I hope you don’t mind,” she said, putting her minirecorder in the middle of the table.
Gus’s brow furrowed. He closed his eyes for a minute. “Daniels is with the CIA, Gray is in the FBI, Maris is something or other in Homeland Security, and Logan is at the Department of Justice. Money guys. Daniels and Maris are the two guys who can freeze money, freeze assets. Gray and Logan, I think, are actuaries. Of a sort.”
“Do you think or know if those four guys interact either personally or through their different agencies? Aside from various interagency meetings.