by Dan Willis
And soon.
His thoughts were interrupted as the cab eased over to the curb in front of a nondescript office building. As he paid the cabbie and got out, he saw Detective Norton having a smoke near the building’s main door with a newspaper tucked under his arm.
“I was beginning to think you sent me for a buggy ride,” he said as Alex approached.
“Sorry I’m late,” Alex said, checking his watch. “I had to go out to Maryland and look at a crime scene.”
“The museum case?” Norton asked with a sly grin.
Alex opened his mouth and then shut it again.
“How do you know about that?”
Norton chuckled and handed over his newspaper. It had been turned to the society section as Alex unfolded it and he groaned as he read the headline.
New York Society Detective Steps out on Sorceress Girlfriend.
Accompanying the headline was a picture of Alex in the lobby of the Hay-Adams hotel with Zelda Pritchard on his arm. The article below the picture suggested that Alex had come down from his room with Zelda, which was true, but the story intimated that she’d been in his room the previous night.
“I take it your former girlfriend won’t be joining us?” Norton asked with a smile in his voice.
As if on cue there was a soft popping sound and Alex felt a wave of magical energy wash over him. Sorsha appeared at the end of the sidewalk, looking a bit green from the teleport.
“Sorry I’m late,” she apologized after taking a cleansing breath. “Did I miss anything?”
Norton chuckled and looked at Alex.
“Do you want to tell her?”
“Tell me what?” Sorsha asked.
Alex sighed and handed over the paper. Sorsha scanned the story then gave Alex an exasperated look.
“You were right,” she said, much to Alex’s surprise. “With you escorting this child all over town, the FBI is convinced that we aren’t working together.”
Norton’s face fell and he snatched back the paper, looking intently at the picture of the young and beautiful Miss Pritchard.
“You let him go around with her?” he asked Sorsha.
“It wasn’t my idea,” she said, giving Alex a stern look. “But the FBI seems to think I can’t solve cases without Alex to hold my hand, so this actually helps.”
Norton rolled his eyes.
“My wife wouldn’t let me in the same room with that girl,” he said.
Alex thought about commenting on that statement, but decided against it.
“If we’re done with the news,” he said instead, “I suggest we go find Duke Harris. He’ll give us access to the legislation Senator Young was working on.”
As it turned out, they didn’t have to look far. No sooner had Alex and his companions entered the building lobby than a young man with broad shoulders and a solid build stood up from the waiting area.
“Is one of you Alex Lockerby?” he asked.
When Alex identified himself, Duke led them to the stairwell and up to the second floor.
“Senator Young shares an office with Senator Colins from Wisconsin,” Duke said as he unlocked the door. “So don’t touch anything. I’ve got the files you wanted set out on a work table.”
The door opened on a rather plain room with two desks, one on either side. Two doors led out of the room, one behind each desk. The desk on the right had a placard that read Duke Harris, so Alex assumed Senator Young’s office was through the door behind it. In the center of the room, a foldaway table had been set up with three chairs around it. On top of the table were a half-dozen stacks of paperwork, each well over six inches high.
“This is it?” Alex asked incredulously. “All this?”
“No,” Duke said. “That’s just the stuff for this week and next. Tiff…uh, Mrs. Young said that’s what you wanted to see.”
“How do Senators keep all that stuff straight?” Detective Norton asked.
Duke just shrugged at that.
“Who says they do? Now I have to get out of here in case someone finds you with this stuff.” Duke opened the door and stepped out into the hall. “Remember to lock the door when you’re through.”
With that, he closed the door, and Alex could hear his footsteps receding rapidly down the hall.
“He seems nervous,” Sorsha observed.
“I imagine he could get in trouble for letting us in here,” Norton said. “He must have liked his boss a lot.”
Alex didn’t explain that Tiffany Young had basically blackmailed the young man into helping. Given what he knew of the late Senator’s wife, Alex could guess what kind of leverage she had over the young, good-looking clerk.
“Well, gentlemen,” Sorsha said, staring at the mountain of paper. “I suggest we each take a stack and get reading.”
Alex took one of the chairs and sat down, picking up the nearest stack of bound paper. It was at least an inch thick, and Alex wondered how a simple law could occupy so much paper.
“Report of the budget committee on the request for naval vessel maintenance budget increases,” Alex read. He’d barely finished the sentence before a wave of fatigue washed over him.
This was going to be a long night.
18
The Road
For the third time in as many minutes, Alex glanced down at his bag. In the old days, he’d kept a small bottle in amongst his inks that contained cheap Scotch. Now, however, he kept good Scotch in his vault, which was usually just a chalk outline away. But he was sitting in Senator Young’s outer office with a D.C. detective he barely knew, so Alex wasn’t keen on revealing his vault.
After two hours of reading legislation intended for the Senate, however, he definitely needed a drink.
“Let’s break for a minute and compare notes,” Sorsha said, picking up on Alex’s mood. She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes while Detective Norton tossed a fat pack of paper onto the table.
“I could use a belt,” he echoed Alex’s thoughts.
“An excellent idea, Detective,” Sorsha said. She reached out and pulled her hand back, holding a dark bottle of liquor. Setting it down, she added three shot glasses, also pulled from thin air.
Alex picked up the bottle and removed the cork. He’d expected Scotch or brandy, but the aroma was unmistakable.
“Rum?” he asked as he began to pour out.
“Don’t judge,” she said with an enigmatic grin. “It’s not the sort of grog you used to swill in the old days. This has class.”
Alex and Norton exchanged an amused glance, then picked up their glasses.
“Sláinte,” Norton said, holding his up for the others to toast.
The others repeated the Gaelic salute and drank. Sorsha had been right — the rum was complex and smooth. It wouldn’t supplant single-malt at the top of Alex’s preferred drink list any time soon, but it definitely made the list.
“Again,” Sorsha said, setting her glass down.
Alex poured and they drank again.
“Now,” Sorsha said. “What have you found?”
Detective Norton chuckled at that, picking up the stack of paper he’d been going through.
“What do you want?” he asked, exasperation in his voice. “I’ve got a request by the Army to consolidate their research facilities to some new base in the Nevada desert.” He dropped a bound stack of paper on the table. “Here’s one from the Navy wanting to build a base on the island of Midway, which is somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. The Army Air Corps wants to build a training facility in Colorado. Here’s three requests for budget adjustments, and last, but not least,” he tossed a loose folder on top of his pile, “a proposal to take Ben Franklin’s face off the hundred-dollar bill because he wasn’t a President. What have you two got?”
“Three bills adjusting President Roosevelt’s various job agencies,” Sorsha said, “a proposal for the TVA to build three new dams, and, if you can believe the nerve of it, a congressional pay raise.”
Sorsha finished a
nd both she and Norton turned to Alex.
“Mine’s not any better,” he said, indicating his stack of legislation. “An adjustment to the Anti-Trust act, this year’s budget for a federal highway project, two requests to rename post offices, and a resolution condemning Germany’s military build-up.”
Alex sighed as he dropped the last bound bundle onto the table. All of the documents he looked at had dozens, if not hundreds of fiddly details, just the kind of things a savvy politician could use to horse trade. That said, none of them seemed to be something worth killing over.
“I’m thinking this is hopeless,” Detective Norton said. “I just assumed something would jump out at me as I read through this stuff.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You know, something that could be taken obvious advantage of, but this…this is all just so…”
“Arcane,” Sorsha added, helpfully.
Norton blew out an exasperated breath and nodded.
“I still think the answer is in here, somewhere,” Alex said.
“What we need is a way to narrow it down,” Detective Norton said, though his expression said he had no clue how to do that.
Sorsha looked pensive, then she poured out another round of the rum.
“The Illinois Governor already appointed Senator Young’s replacement, correct?” she asked, looking at Alex.
“Yeah,” Alex said, sipping the rum this time. “A guy named William Unger.”
“That seems like an awful hurry,” Norton observed.
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Sorsha said. “Clearly whoever wanted Senator Young out of the way, no matter what their reason, they wanted this Unger fellow here, voting in his stead, immediately.”
Alex nodded along. He’d wondered why the hurry to get Unger in Washington, but if Young had really been murdered over legislation, it made sense. Whoever killed Young needed to have Unger in place before whatever vote they were trying to influence happened.
“So all we need to do,” he concluded out loud, “is to find out what’s being voted on in the next two to three days.”
“And why would you need to know that?” a new voice interrupted.
Alex turned and found the door to the hallway open and a man in an expensive suit standing in the frame. He appeared to be in his forties, with an athletic build that had started to slide toward flab. His face was handsome with a square jaw, thick dark hair, and piercing blue eyes.
“Who are you?” Detective Norton asked.
“Since you’re in my office, I’d say that’s my question to ask,” the man said. “I know you’re not supposed to be in here, so who are you?”
When Duke had let them in, he’d explained that there were two Senators who used this office. Since William Unger wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow, this could only be Senator Aaron Colins of Wisconsin.
“Apologies, Senator,” Alex said, rising. “We’re looking into the death of your colleague, Senator Young. We’re with the police.”
“Like hell you are,” Colins snapped. “I was briefed just this afternoon on Paul’s death. The police say he was killed by his secretary in a fit of jealousy.”
Detective Norton stood up and fished out his badge, holding it up for the Senator to see.
“I’m Detective Norton,” he said. “This is Miss Kincaid from New York, she’s a consultant for the FBI, and this is Mr. Lockerby who’s consulting for the D.C.P.D. I understand that the official story is being told as if the case is closed, but a few of us are still investigating other possibilities.”
Colins looked around at the three of them. His eyes went wide when he got to Alex, but they quickly darted back to the woman in the middle.
“Kincaid?” he said, as if just registering the name. “As in Sorsha Kincaid, the sorceress?”
Sorsha gave the man a radiant smile and nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “I apologize for being in your office at this hour, but my colleagues and I are attempting to determine if anyone had a motive to replace Senator Young with the incoming Senator Unger.” She went on to explain about the timing of Unger’s appointment and his eminent arrival.
Senator Colins listened but his expression didn’t soften noticeably.
“I’m sure if you call the main office number in the morning they can tell you the schedule,” he said. “Off the top of my head, there’s hearings tomorrow, then Friday we have sub-committee meetings in the morning followed by votes on the TVA bill, the Highway bill, the pay increase, and the Anti-Trust adjustment. Now if you don’t mind, kindly get out of my office.”
Sorsha’s eyes narrowed, and it was clear she wanted to argue, but Alex stood up quickly and put on his hat.
“Of course, Senator,” he said, pasting a smile on his face. “Thank you for your help.”
Sorsha drained her tumbler of rum, then the glasses and the bottle vanished back where they had come from. Detective Norton put on his hat as Alex offered Sorsha his arm and the three of them left the office.
“I could have bullied him a bit more, you know,” Sorsha said under her breath as they walked down the stairs to the street.
“If he makes a case of it, we could all get in trouble,” Alex whispered back.
“He’s right,” Norton confirmed. “Capitol Hill has their own cops, and my badge wouldn’t have helped us.”
“At least the Senator gave us some useful information before he threw us out,” Alex observed.
Sorsha sighed and squeezed Alex’s arm affectionately.
“He did narrow our search a bit,” she admitted. “All we have to do is dig into the three bills he gave us.”
“Four,” Norton corrected.
“I doubt the pay increase has anything to do with this,” Sorsha said. “I’ll take the TVA dam projects.”
“I’ll do the highway bill,” Alex said.
“That just leaves me with the anti-trust changes,” Norton said. “I’ll get on this first thing in the morning. We should have lunch at noon and coordinate.”
Everyone agreed and Norton headed off to where his car was parked. It was still early, so Alex and Sorsha walked a block to where they could get a cab.
“You seemed eager to take that highway bill,” Sorsha said as they went.
“And you find that suspicious?” Alex grinned at her.
“Coming from you,” she said, giving him a penetrating look. “Excessively.”
Alex laughed and patted her hand where she held his arm.
“Did you notice where the highway is being built?”
“You know I didn’t see that bill,” she said, irritation in her voice. “It was in your stack.”
“Part of that highway, where the government is going to pour millions of federal dollars, goes through southern Illinois,” Alex said. “Whoever controls that bill holds sway over a lot of money.”
Sorsha’s face split into a wide grin.
“That sounds like motive,” she said. “No doubt some construction company would like all that lovely government money to come to them.”
“And Young didn’t agree,” Alex said.
Sorsha pulled him close, pressing her head against his shoulder.
“I like working with you,” she purred. “You’re very handsome when you’re figuring things out.”
Alex looked down, only to find her pale blue eyes shining up at him and a devious grin on the sorceress’ lips.
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
“What say you take me back to my hotel and we have dinner in?”
Alex couldn’t help but grin at her. After months of putting off being together, she was upping the ante. He wasn’t sure if it was the rum or Sorsha’s risqué suggestion, but Alex was starting to feel a little tipsy.
“Your hotel is crawling with Feds,” he pointed out. “Feds that can’t see us together.”
She stepped in front of him, pressing up against his chest.
“Your hotel, then.”
Alex felt an actual pain in his side as he looked down into the sorcere
ss’ smoldering eyes.
“I’ll have to take a rain check,” he said, hating the words as he said them.
Sorsha pushed back from him with an incredulous look.
“I need to do a few things on this highway bill tonight,” he said, the excuse sounding both hollow and insulting as the words left his mouth. “It’s more important to get Director Blake and the FBI off your back,” he added. “Show them you’re worth keeping.”
A war of emotions played across Sorsha’s face as she looked up at him. Finally she smiled shyly and stepped back in close.
“Thank you, Alex,” she said, quietly.
A few moments later, Alex managed to grab a cab and Alex gave the driver the name of the Fairfax Hotel so he could drop Sorsha off. To his surprise and delight, the sorceress pulled him down and kissed him for the entirety of the trip.
Half an hour later Alex opened the door to his suite in the Hay-Adams hotel. He stopped in the washroom to check that he’d managed to get all of Sorsha’s lipstick off his face, then opened the door to his vault. He had a feeling that the key to solving Paul Young’s murder was in the details of the highway bill, but he’d need help to find it.
Picking up the phone next to his writing desk, he dialed Sherry’s number.
“Boss?” her tired voice came across the line a few moments later.
“How’d you know it was me?” Alex chuckled.
“You’re pretty much the only person who has my number,” she admitted. “What do you need?”
“Do you have a suitcase?” he asked, remembering the conversation he’d had with Andrew Barton on the airship.
“Yeah,” she said, somewhat hesitantly. “Why?”
“Get packed for a couple days, then get over to the office,” Alex said. “I’ll have train tickets for a pullman car delivered by the time you get there and a car to take you to Grand Central Terminal.”
“And where am I going?” she asked, not bothering to argue.
