The President's Daughter - Mariah Stewart [12]
“I wanted you to know that I’ve read the pages of Lethal Deceptions you sent me.” Norton drew on his pipe. “I’m pleased with what I’ve seen. Your book has a lot of promise, Simon. It needs work, needs polish, but it has great potential.”
“Really.” Simon sat on the edge of the sofa, drinking in the news as eagerly as a dusty field drinks in the summer rain. “You really think so.”
“Yes. I really do.” Another puff on the pipe. “I have a few suggestions that we’ll talk about when the time comes, but all in all, I think it is quite good.”
“Thank you, Philip.” Simon felt the slow release of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Now, how are you doing with the project at hand? Have you had time to look over any of the materials I sent to you?”
“You mean the fourteen boxes of documentary videos, newspaper and magazine articles, and interview transcripts?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been plowing through them since they arrived.”
“And?”
“And I’m starting to develop a feel for the subject. Hayward appears to have been a man who had many more friends than enemies. I started making a list of people I’d like to speak with and was just trying to track them down through the Internet.”
Norton cleared his throat. “Who’s on your list, if I may ask?”
“Well, I suppose the dead ones don’t much matter,” Simon muttered while he shuffled a few more papers in search of his list. “Of the ones who I know are still alive, I’m having the most difficulty hunting down Aaron Follows, Mike Huntley, and Miles Kendall.”
“The last I heard, Follows was living in San Diego, but I can check that for you. Huntley I’d steer away from. And as for Miles Ken—”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why steer away from Huntley?”
“Because he’s a mean-spirited SOB who spent most of his time on the Hill starting feuds between other people. He won’t have anything good to say about anyone, but of course, it’s your call.” Norton added, “It is your book, Simon.”
Simon got that feeling again—that Norton was keeping something from him. He found it annoying. Of course, he would track down and interview Mike Huntley, whether Norton wanted him to or not.
“What about Miles Kendall? I can’t seem to bring up an address for him, though Social Security indicates he’s still alive. As Hayward’s Chief of Staff, I thought he’d have some interesting anecdotes to share.”
“Well, he probably does, but he won’t remember any of them. Kendall’s an Alzheimer’s patient. From what I understand, he recalls nothing of his days in the White House.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Having been so close to the President for so long—he was a Rhode Island boy, too, I understand. . . .”
“And a Brown grad as well.”
“Yes, I saw that someplace. You must have known him well.”
“We knew each other, yes. We have lost touch in the years since the President died.”
“You and Kendall weren’t close friends, then?”
“We were both closer to the President than we were to each other.” Norton appeared to choose his words carefully.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find him, would you?”
“He’s in a nursing home.”
“Do you know where that nursing home might be?” Simon had the distinct feeling he was being played with, and he didn’t like it.
“He’s in Saint Margaret’s, in Linden.”
“Linden, Maryland?” Simon’s brows rose.
“Yes. I think I recall hearing something about Kendall having been ill and living with a nephew for a time; then the nephew was transferred to Houston and he made arrangements for Kendall to be moved to Saint Margaret’s.”
“No children?”
“No. Kendall never married.” Norton paused before asking, “I suppose you’ll be seeing him as well as Huntley?”
Simon laughed. “With any luck.”
“Who else do you have there?”
“The only other person I have on my short list is Adeline Anderson.”
“The reporter for the Washington Press who covered the capital social scene back in the day.” Simon could almost see Norton nodding his approval. “Good choice. She knew everyone in town back then, knew what they were doing and who they were doing it with. It was