Dead Watch

I’m at the Bowes’, it’ll take a while.”
    His secretary said, “You’re meeting Price and Walton at six o’clock at the Hay-Adams. You’re still going?”
    “I’ll be there. And call Colonel Lake and tell him what’s happening, that I can’t get out of this. I’ll call him first thing tomorrow.”
    He clicked off, sighed. He’d dreaded this. He got out of the car, went up the walk, said hello to a couple of people on the porch, got a biceps squeeze from one of them, then pushed into the scrum of people standing in Madison Bowe’s living room. Madison was talking to an old friend from Lincoln Bowe’s golf club, but broke away and came to Barber and hugged him. “Thanks for coming, Howard.”
    “Jesus, Maddy . . .”
    “We need to talk.” People were watching them from around the room, the late senator’s wife hugging a strikingly tall, handsome black man who was wearing what appeared to be a five-thousand-dollar suit. You could almost hear the hmmm. Madison said, “Let’s go, ah, God, not in the kitchen, there are a hundred people in there, let’s go somewhere.”
    He followed her past the stairs to the study. The door was closed, and she opened it and poked her head in, saw that it was empty. “In here.”
    They stepped inside and she pulled the door closed: “Linc . . . Was it Goodman?”
    “I assume so,” Barber said.
    “Did they torture him? I don’t think he could have taken any pain . . .”
    “Maddy, I just don’t know,” Barber said. “Most of my contacts are at the Pentagon, not with the FBI. I called some staff people over on the Hill, but they haven’t been able to find out much. I assumed . . . What did the FBI tell you?”
    “They don’t know anything,” she said. “This Winter, the guy I told you about—he was apparently there. I tried to call him at home, but he’s not answering. I left messages.”
    “You said he was with Danzig’s office.”
    “That’s right. I assume he went down there with the FBI. He said he was going to kick some FBI bureaucrats, get them going. I pointed him at Goodman.”
    “I doubt that Goodman himself is involved—probably some Watchmen, maybe Darrell Goodman,” Barber said. “But Arlo Goodman is too smart . . . Actually, I don’t know what I think.” He shrugged, and glanced away.
    And Madison thought, He’s lying about something. She said, “I’ll try to talk to Winter. I’ll try him every fifteen minutes until I get him. He’s like you, he was in Afghanistan.”
    “I know about him,” Barber said. “He wrote a book about the Pentagon.”
    She nodded. “Johnnie Black told me. Winter’s Guide to the Inside.”
    “I think I ought to talk to him,” Barber said. “At some point, we might want to . . . influence the investigation. It’d be better if I did it, than you.”
    “Okay. When I get him, I’ll tell him to call you.”
    “It’d be better if he called me,” Barber said. “And I think it’d be a good idea if you told him about Linc and me. You know, the whole thing. That’d bring him in for sure . . .”
    “Oh, Howard . . .” She was appalled.
    “Look, it’s gonna come out. Better to come out that way.”
    Barber turned away from her for a moment, staring at the window that was covered with blinds, as though he could see through it. “God bless me.” He rubbed his face and then turned back and asked, “How are you holding up?”
    “I’m sad, I’m tired, I’m really angry.”
    “And you’re really, really rich.”
    “Howard . . .” Hands on her hips.
    He shook his head, held a hand up, a peace gesture: “Hey, Maddy. Linc once told me that of all the women he’d ever met, you were the only one who’d never thought about his money. I think that’s why he went after you.”
    She teared up, turned away, wiped the tears with the heels of her hands. “God, I hope he wasn’t alive. I hope he was dead before they burned him.”
    “I’m sure he was,” Barber said. “I’m sure he was. You gotta believe that, Maddy.” After a second, he added, “Talk to Winter.”

    Jake was on the highway, coming up to Amelia Court House, when Goodman called back and asked, “Where are you?”
    “Passing Amelia Court House, heading into Richmond.”
    “I talked to Bill Danzig. Now I need to talk to you,” Goodman said.
    “Are you at the office?”
    “I’m at the mansion. When you came into the office, did you come in from the capitol side of the building? Down a