The Book of Fate - Brad Meltzer [88]
“You mean like a trust list?” Lisbeth asks.
“I guess . . . sure,” Dreidel replies. “That’s what I’d want to know if I had a new staff.” For the first time, he’s stopped biting his manicured hand.
“I’m not sure I follow,” I say.
“Think about what was actually going on those first few weeks we were in the White House. That bus bomb in France and all the internal arguing over whether Manning’s response took it seriously enough. Then we had all those slap-fights about redecorating the Oval . . .”
“Those I remember,” Lisbeth says. “There was that piece in Newsweek about the red-striped carpet . . . what’d they say the First Lady called it again?”
“Fruit-stripe gum,” Dreidel says dryly. “The bombing and the bad carpet—those were nonsense stories about internal arguments. Uh-oh, captain can’t steer his new ship . . . But the only reason those things got out was because some loudmouthed staffer decided to take it out.”
Lisbeth nods, knowing this one all too well. “So what Manning was really worried about back then . . .”
“. . . was finding out who was leaking all our internal baggage,” Dreidel says. “When you have that many new staffers flushed with that much new power, there’s always someone who wants to rush off and brag to their friends. Or the press. Or their friends who happen to be press. And until you can plug the leaks, those stories take away from your entire agenda.”
“Okay,” I say. “Which means when this list was made, Manning was hunting for staffers who were leaking to the press?”
“Not just staffers,” Dreidel adds. “Those stories were from conversations happening at senior staff levels. That’s why Manning was so nuts back then. It’s one thing when some intern leaks that the President’s wearing unmatched socks. It’s another to open up the Washington Post and read a verbatim blow-by-blow on the front page from a meeting with your five most trustworthy lieutenants.”
“If that’s the case, then why include himself on the list?” Rogo asks as we all glance back at the crossword.
“Maybe it’s a list of who was at a particular meeting—Manning, Albright, Boyle, etc.—then they were just trying to narrow who let a particular piece of info out,” I say.
“That would explain why I’m there,” Dreidel adds. “Though maybe it wasn’t just leaking to the press.”
“Who else is there?” Lisbeth asks.
“Think back to what you said about The Roman and the six-million-dollar prize they wouldn’t approve. Those top informant payments are in the PDB too.”
I nod, remembering the old meetings. “It’s not a bad call. Whoever was leaking the info could’ve leaked it to The Roman, telling him who was responsible for denying his payout.”
“And you think that’s why Boyle got shot?” Lisbeth asks. “Because Boyle was the one who said no to The Roman’s payday?”
“I’d believe that,” Rogo says. “Six million bucks is a lot of money.”
“No question,” Dreidel says. “But it seems pretty clear that if you want to know who on the list couldn’t be trusted, it’s the guy who, until recently, we thought was dead. Y’know, the one the FBI is chasing . . . rhymes with Doyle . . .”
“That’s why I had the Presidential Library pull Boyle’s files,” I say. “They’ve got everything: his schedules, what issues he was working on, even his official personnel file with his FBI background check. We’ll have every single sheet of paper that was ever in Boyle’s desk, or written about him.”
“That’s fine—so two of us can go to the library,” Lisbeth says. “But it still doesn’t tell us why a secret list Manning made during the first year of the administration has anything to do with Boyle being shot three years later.”
“Maybe Boyle was mad at the President for not trusting him,” Rogo says.
“No,” Dreidel says. “According to Wes’s FBI guys, whatever Boyle and Manning were up to, they were in it together.”
“Which has to be true,” I point out. “The ambulance . . . having the blood type ready . . . how else could Boyle possibly pull that off without help from Manning and the Service?”
“So what’re you