Murder at the Kennedy Center
Page 34
“Ya know, Greist looked like a guy with a bum ticker,” Buffolino said.
“Anybody hear anything new about the Miguel person?” Annabel asked.
Buffolino said, “They’ll never get him to admit any connection to Morales.”
“Or to Kane,” Smith said.
“Or to Backus,” said Buffolino.
“Or to Thornton,” Annabel said.
“Possibly because he didn’t have a connection to any of them except Morales,” Smith said.
“Getting soft in your old age,” Annabel said.
“No, just getting less cynical as I enter into middle age. More champagne?” Smith asked. He refilled their glasses.
Buffolino asked, “Do you believe your buddy, Shevlin, about the box in Mae Feldman’s house?”
Smith grunted, nodded. “Yes, I don’t see any reason for him to lie to me. The FBI has wanted those files for a long time. They figured out where they might be and took them. They just also ended up with a couple of hundred thousand dollars in cash. What they didn’t figure out was that Mae Feldman and Carla Zaretski were one and the same. Sorry you had to learn it under such nasty circumstances, Tony.”
Buffolino scowled. “And I got cold-cocked in her house by a couple of Bureau guys.” He looked up as though to commune with God. “Jesus, there I was with a box with all Ewald’s files and all that cash.” He laughed. “You never would have seen me again.”
“I doubt that,” Smith said. “You’re a man of honor, Tony.”
“Yeah, that’s me, the honorable Anthony Buffolino.” He raised his glass. “A toast to Mackensie Smith, who did good by me. I hope you know how much I appreciate everything, Mac.”
“My pleasure.” Smith had paid Tony a bonus, and arranged a security job for him at the university.
“A toast to you, Tony,” said Annabel. “You’re a lot nicer than what Mac said you’d be.”
“Hey, Mac, what did you tell her? No matter. To you, Annabel, a real classy lady.”
“Ready for an announcement?” Smith asked.
“What kind a’ announcement?”
“We’ve decided to get married.”
“No kidding?”
“Yes,” Annabel said, giggling. “Isn’t it wonderful? Two can live as cheaply as one, if you cut down on the takeout dinners. We’re going to London on our honeymoon.”
“Hey, congrats. If you have any problems, married-people problems, any questions, just ask me. I got experience.”
“Up to being best man, Tony?” Smith asked.
“I thought I was all along.” He stood and twirled his cane in the air. “London. I can’t wait.”
Mac and Annabel looked at each other.
“I’m goin’ with you, right?”
“No,” Smith said.
“No,” Annabel said.
“No?”
“No,” they said in unison.
“I guess you mean no.”
“Yes, we mean no.”
Tony Buffolino was invited to remain in San Francisco for a few days after the convention as the personal guest of Ken Ewald. He was put up in a penthouse suite at the Mark Hopkins, for, as Ewald said, “your heroism in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel on my behalf.” Tony was delighted; he’d fallen madly in love with Alicia, a cocktail waitress at the Top of the Mark, and told Mac Smith that if he moved fast enough, there might be a double wedding.
Mac and Annabel shook their heads and flew back to Washington the day after the convention. Newspapers on their laps said it all: EWALD DEM CHOICE BY ACCLAMATION. BACKUS HIS VEEP. A large photograph of Ewald and Backus with their hands clasped and raised, their families at their sides, dominated the front pages.
“I’m proud of you,” Annabel said, after their flight had taken off.
“For what?”
“For the way you turned Ken down when he asked you to manage his campaign, and to become attorney general.”
“What else could I do with a redheaded honey badger standing within striking distance behind me?”
“For a second, I thought you might say yes.”
“Not a chance. My brief moment in the political arena will last me a lifetime. Ken Ewald and Jody Backus. Strange bedfellows, as the saying goes.”
“Incredible more than strange,” Annabel said.
“I suppose so,” said Smith. “I believe Ed Farmer when he says that it was Backus who made the deal with him to buy Ken’s files on DAF, Morales, and Kane. But Ken doesn’t believe it, which is just as well, I suppose.”
“Not if Backus sells him out in some way when he’s the VP.”
“I don’t think that will happen, Annabel. This is politics, not real life. Hell, Germany and Japan tried to kill us in World War Two, and as a reward we’ve helped them kill us economically. No, Backus will be a loyal and useful VP, for whatever that’s worth.”
“Ken Ewald and Jody Backus, our next president and vice-president.”
“Probably.”
“Will we go to the inaugural? I’ll need a new gown.”
“We’ll watch on TV. When it’s over, we’ll become not-so-strange bedfellows, and fool around a little.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Any objections?”
“Only one.”
“What is it?”
“That we not have to wait until January twentieth. I propose we celebrate our own upcoming inaugural the minute we get back, provided that animal you call a dog will give us the bed.”
“I miss Rufus already.”
She growled. He laughed. And they clinked glasses, settled back, and fell asleep as if on schedule.
For Aimee Elizabeth Daniel
with love
from Gammy
By Margaret Truman
MURDER IN THE WHITE HOUSE*
MURDER ON CAPITOL HILL*
MURDER IN THE SUPREME COURT*
MURDER IN THE SMITHSONIAN*
MURDER ON EMBASSY ROW*
MURDER AT THE FBI*
MURDER IN GEORGETOWN*
MURDER IN THE CIA*
MURDER AT THE KENNEDY CENTER*
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL*
MURDER AT THE PENTAGON*
MURDER ON THE POTOMAC*
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY*
MURDER IN THE HOUSE*
MURDER AT THE WATERGATE*
MURDER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*
MURDER IN FOGGY BOTTOM*
MURDER IN HAVANA*
MURDER AT FORD’S THEATRE*
MURDER AT UNION STATION*
MURDER AT THE WASHINGTON TRIBUNE*
MURDER AT THE OPERA*
MURDER ON K STREET*
Nonfiction
FIRST LADIES*
BESS W.TRUMAN
SOUVENIR
WOMEN OF COURAGE
HARRY S. TRUMAN
LETTERS FROM FATHER:
The Truman Family’s Personal Correspondences
WHERE THE BUCK STOPS
WHITE HOUSE PETS
THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE*
*Published by Ballantine Books
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MURDER.
MARGARET TRUMAN.
National bestsellers available from Fawcett Books.
Is there one you missed?
MURDER IN THE WHITE HOUSE
MURDER ON CAPITOL HILL
MURDER IN THE SUPREME COURT
MURDER IN THE SMITHSONIAN
MURDER ON EMBASSY ROW
MURDER AT THE FBI
MURDER IN GEORGETOWN
MURDER IN THE CIA
MURDER AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
MURDER AT THE PENTAGON
MURDER ON THE POTOMAC
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
MURDER IN THE HOUSE
MURDER AT THE WATERGATE
MURDER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
MURDER IN FOGGY BOTTOM
MURDER IN HAVANA
MURDER AT FORD’S THEATRE
MURDER AT UNION STATION
MURDER AT THE WASHINGTON TRIBUNE
MURDER AT THE OPERA
MURDER ON K STREET
MURDER AT THE WATERGATE
It is home to the powerful, the glamorous, and the politically connected. It has a gorgeous view and a notorious history. Now the Watergate, a vast complex of hotel rooms, apartments, health spas, and fine restaurants, is famous for something else: two shocking murders whose victims have ties to Mexico. As the case reaches from the Watergate into the White House, law professor Mac Smith and his wife, Annabel, set out to uncover the truth. Because the ultimate dirty trick is threatening a political career and a nation’s future. And the killer is already plotting his next lethal move.…
“Truman’s inside knowledge adds to the crisp plot, and her portrait of capital people … is superb.
Who can you trust? In D.C. politics, there’s no way to know.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MURDER IN THE HOUSE
He died beneath the Statue of Freedom, clutching a 9-mm pistol in his hand. But as dawn rose, the politician would die again—in a hail of rumor and character assassination.
Now one man suspects the shattering truth: that the congressman’s suicide was a carefully planned murder. In the heart of the free world, a furious struggle begins: to reclaim a man’s innocence, expose a woman’s lie, and stop a chilling conspiracy of murder that reaches halfway around the world.…
“This is the 13th in her Capital Crimes series, and it’s as rich as the others in behind-the-scenes Washington detail.”
—People
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
When the senior curator at Washington’s famed National Gallery finds a missing painting by the Renaissance master Caravaggio, he mounts a world-class exhibition—and plots a brilliant forgery scheme that will stun the art world.
But an artful deception suddenly becomes a portrait of blackmail and murder—as gallery owner and part-time sleuth Annabel Reed-Smith and her husband go searching for clues in the heady arena of international art and uncover a rare collection of unscrupulous characters that leads all the way to Italy.
“A thrilling chase.”
—Publishers Weekly
MURDER AT THE PENTAGON
The chief engineer on Project Safekeep, an antimissile system under contract to the Pentagon, is murdered and a senior CIA official is accused of the crime. Major Margit Falk is a combat pilot and a lawyer with little trial experience who must defend the man accused of murder in the Pentagon. The closer Margit comes to the truth, the more she realizes that her career, her love of the military, and her life are in dire jeopardy.
“Margaret Truman has become a first-rate mystery writer.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
Murder didn’t stop Mac Smith and Annabel Reed from falling in love, or from getting married at the glorious church on the hill in Washington, D.C., the National Cathedral. But the brutal murder of a friend drags them from their newlywed bliss into an unholy web of intrigue and danger.
The body is found in the cathedral. There are scant clues and no suspects. And to further complicate matters, a parallel crime is committed at a church in England’s Cotswolds, where the honeymooners have recently been visitors. Across the sea go the Smiths again, and straight into the center of an ungodly plot of secret agents, a playboy priest, a frustrated lover, and a murder so perfect it’s a sin.
“A vigorous tale of twists and turns… An authentic thriller.”
—The Washington Post Book World
MURDER IN THE CIA
The doctors call literary agent Barrie Mayer’s death a heart attack, but her best friend, Collette Cahill, has her doubts. A CIA agent herself, Collette knows that Barrie was carrying more than just contracts to Hungary. Then Collette gets the orders from above: Find out what happened to Barrie. And, more important, what happened to her briefcase.
So Collette sets off on a search that takes her from restaurants to psychiatrists’ offices to bedrooms. After all—even CIA agents lose their hearts every now and then. But Collette may lose her life.…
“Her most far-ranging and, arguably, her best.”
—New Woman
MURDER IN GEORGETOWN
Valerie Frolich, the beautiful twenty-year-old daughter of New Jersey senator John Frolich, was among the youngest guests at the elegant Georgetown party. Her provocative dancing raised a few eyebrows—but could someone have found it distasteful enough to kill her?
Assigned to report on her murder is Joe Potamos, of The Washington Post’s police beat. What he finds out about Valerie—a top-notch journalism student as well as a heart-breaker of men young and old—leads to a number of startling questions about Georgetown’s most powerful men and women.
Someone from above does not like Potamos’s particular brand of reporting, and he is pulled off the case. But Potamos is in too deep to stop investigating. And as the smell of corruption in high places becomes stronger, he realizes that it’s not just his job that’s at stake. It’s his life.
“A smooth-running, fast-moving narrative.”
—Chicago Sun-Times