Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

computers, lost in the world of information, no doubt attempting to spin it to put their boss in the best possible light.
    The cubicle nearest to the archway that separated the communications office from the Oval Office’s foyer, the one that Danny’s plan centered around, was still vacant. They ducked into it, and Sydney sat down behind the desk. From her viewpoint, she had an unencumbered view of the foyer. The chair behind Vanessa Dempsey’s desk was empty. So were the two leather chairs against the opposite wall. On the far wall stood the doorway to the Oval Office. Danny checked his watch. It was supposed to be unoccupied at the present moment, and from the outside, that looked to be the case.
    “Point of no return, Sydney. You still want to go through with this?” Danny whispered.
    Her eyes blazed as she whispered, “Absolument.”
    “Okay. Wish me luck.”
    “Good luck, Danny.”
    Danny walked as confidently as someone could who was about to break and enter the Oval Office. He strode through the archway and into the Oval Office foyer. A short, empty hallway led off to his right and down to Simon Shilling’s office.
    Before he could stop himself, Danny darted toward the Oval’s door. His vision collapsed on the doorknob less than two feet from him now. He put his hand on it and expected it not to turn. But it did. He opened the door and slid inside.
    For a second, he thought he was dreaming. He looked around: JFK’s rocker, the enormous oval rug embossed with the presidential seal, sunlight pouring through the windows, illuminating the seat that he himself had sat in only days ago when he had held this office and this president in the highest regard. Danny had really done it. He had just performed a B and E on the Oval fucking Office.
    Danny started the timer on his watch and sprang across the room. He ducked behind the president’s desk. He checked the credenza drawer to his right, the one he saw Butcher open during their private meeting, the one that contained both the lawsuit and the eighth article documents. He pulled on the handle, and this time he wasn’t lucky. It was locked, but the flimsy cabinet lock wouldn’t take more than a few seconds. As he dug out a set of pick tools from his pocket and went to work, he thought about Sydney asking him who had taught him to steal cars. They were the same police training officers who taught him how to pick locks. Sometimes you have to act like a criminal to catch one.
    The credenza door was open in less than a minute. Danny rifled through the file folders lying on the shelf. None were the lawsuit documents. But would the president keep incriminating evidence behind only a cheesy cabinet lock? Especially after he put them in there with Danny watching in the first place? Danny whirled around and dove into the president’s desk drawers. Every one of them was open. He only glanced at the contents. File folders hung in the bottom two drawers. The two others above them contained more folders lying in piles. Danny looked at his watch. He had already been in here for almost two minutes. He couldn’t burn the time to check all these files. Plus, Butcher would have the documents under lock and key. Would they be in the residence? Perhaps in his bedroom? No, if nothing else, a president controls the Oval Office. It is his command post and his sanctuary. It had to be in here.
    Danny’s new cell phone buzzed. He took it out and read the text message on the screen.
    VD bck.
    Vanessa Dempsey had returned to her post in the foyer. He and Sydney had planned for that. When he was ready to leave, he would text Sydney, and she would create a diversion to make Vanessa leave her post so Danny could make a clean getaway.
    Danny looked at the paintings on the wall. Could there be a safe behind one of them? No. Danny remembered the way Vanessa Dempsey would barge into the room almost unannounced. Standing at a wall safe would leave Butcher too exposed. It had to be back here.
    Danny remembered what Butcher had told him when he was sitting back here.
    “I’m sure that you’re no politician. You’re too honest a man for that line of work.”
    His eyes shifted back to the credenza. He had yet to check the cabinet on its left side.
    This time, Danny had the door open in under thirty seconds. He gazed inside at the built-in horizontal safe that featured an electronic lock. Danny’s odd calmness at seeing this new challenge quickly evaporated as soon as his cell phone