Brazen Virtue

walls were covered in ivory silk and the pewter-colored carpet flowed right up to the ankles. There were a couple of paintings on the walls Ben thought Tess would like. French and muted. Outside the wide, tinted windows was a classy view of the Potomac.
    “The private sector, my man.” Billings pushed a button on his desk and sent a panel sliding back to reveal a range of television monitors. “The world’s my oyster. Anytime you want to ditch public service, give me a call. Always willing to give a couple of bright boys a break.”
    As Ben had said, Billings always had been a pain in the ass. Disregarding it, Ed settled on the corner of his desk. “Nice setup.”
    The only thing Billings liked better than playing hightech “I Spy” was to brag. “This ain’t the half of it. I’ve got five offices on this floor and I’m thinking about opening another branch. Politics, friends and neighbors.” Billings gestured with his long, narrow hands. “In this town someone’s always willing to shell out to get the edge on the next guy.”
    “Dirty business, Billings.”
    He only grinned at Ben. He’d had two thousand dollars’ worth of bridgework done recently and his teeth marched as straight as a Marine band. “Yeah, ain’t it just? So what are two of the department’s finest doing here? Want me to find out who’s playing with the commissioner when his wife’s out of town?”
    “Maybe some other time,” Ed told him.
    “Professional discount for you, Jackson.”
    “I’ll keep it in mind. Meanwhile, I’d like to tell you a little story.”
    “Shoot.”
    “Say we’ve got a snooper, he’s smart but wired wrong. He likes to listen. You know about that.”

    “Sure.” Billings leaned back in his custom-made chair.
    “He likes to listen to women,” Ben continued. “He likes to listen to them talk sex, but he doesn’t talk back. He hits a gold mine when he locks into fantasy calls. Now he can just sit there and listen, pick out the voice that turns him on, and he listens for hours while she talks to other men. Can he do that, Billings, without the other guy or the woman knowing about it?”
    “If he’s got the right equipment, he can tap into any conversation he wants. I’ve got some stuff in stock that could plug you in from here to the West Coast, but it costs.” He was interested. Anything that had to do with snooping interested him. Billings would have gone into espionage if he could have found a government to trust him. “What are you guys working on?”
    “Let’s just take the story a step further.” Ben picked up a crystal pyramid from Billings’s desk and examined the facets. “If this snooper wanted to find one of the women—he doesn’t know her name or where she lives or what she looks like, but he wants a face-to-face and all he’s got is the voice and the tap—can he get to her?”
    “Does he have brains?”
    “You tell me.”
    “If he’s got brains and a good PC the world’s his cupcake. Give me your phone number, Paris.” Billings swung around to his workstation and tapped in the number Ben rattled off. The machine clicked and hummed as Billings programmed it. “Unlisted,” he muttered. “Only makes it more of a challenge.”
    Ben lit a cigarette. Before it was smoked halfway to the filter, his address came up on the screen.
    “Look familiar?” Billings asked him.
    “Can anybody do that?” Ben asked him.

    “Any decent hacker. Let me tell you something, with this baby and a little imagination, I can find out anything. Give me another minute.” Using Ben’s name and address, he began to work again. “Checking account balance is a little low, Paris. I wouldn’t write anything over fifty-five dollars.” He pushed away from the monitor again. “A really good snooper needs skill and patience as well as the right equipment. A couple of hours on this thing and I could tell you your mother’s shoe size.”
    Ben tapped out his cigarette. “If we wired you into the bait, could you get me a fix on the snooper?”
    Billings grinned. He knew he’d been smart to be expansive. “For an old buddy—and a reasonable fee—I’ll tell you what he ate for breakfast.”
    I ’M TERRIBLY SORRY TO disturb you, Senator, but Mrs. Hayden’s on the phone. She says it’s important.”
    Hayden continued to read the revised speech he would give that afternoon at the League of Women Voters’ luncheon. “What line, Susan?”
    “Three.”
    Hayden pushed the button while