Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

pointed look at his wife. “If it’ll help the investigation, do it.”
    “Can you tell me, Senator, who might still have keys to the apartment at the Watergate from when you lived there?”
    Graham pondered that for a moment. “Only my family.”
    “No staffers or aides?”
    “My chief of staff had one, but I distinctly recall him giving it back to me when we left office.”
    “Any chance he might’ve had others made, given them to other people?”
    “No. He was a guard dog about my privacy. He didn’t even like having the key himself.”
    “Are you aware, either of you, that John spoke with Patricia Donaldson in Chicago several times a week for an hour or more each time?”
    Again the O’Connors exchanged glances.
    “No, but I’m not surprised,” Graham said. “They were close friends as children.”
    “Just friends?”
    “Yes,” Laine said pointedly, so pointedly in fact that it raised Sam’s hackles and her radar. There was more to this story. Of that she had no doubt. She’d be speaking to Patricia Donaldson as soon as she could arrange a trip to Chicago.
    “John is still due to be moved today to Richmond?” Laine asked Nick.
    He nodded. “The motorcade is leaving Washington at noon.”
    “We’ll be going down to Richmond this afternoon,” Graham said. “The state police are escorting us and clearing the way for us to get in and out before they open it to the public.”
    “The staff will have a private viewing in the morning,” Nick said.
    “You got the clothes they needed?” Laine asked.
    “Yes. I’m heading to the funeral home from here. Um, about the funeral… Have you decided who you want to have speak on behalf of the family?”
    “You do it,” Laine said with a weary sigh.
    “Are you sure? You wouldn’t rather have a family member?”
    “You are family to us, Nick,” Graham said. “You’ll do him proud. We know that.”
    “I’ll do my best,” he said softly. “We should let you get back to your breakfast.”
    “We’ll see you Monday, if not before,” Laine said.
    Nick leaned over to kiss her cheek. “I’ll be in touch.”
    She squeezed the hand he rested on her shoulder. “Thank you for all you’re doing. I know it can’t be easy for you.”
    “It’s an honor and a privilege.”
    Patting his hand once more, she released him.
    Nick hugged Graham and kissed Carrie on his way out of the kitchen. With his hand on the small of her back, he steered Sam to the front door. Once they were outside, he took a deep, rattling breath of cold air.
    Since there was little else she could do to comfort him, she held his hand between both of hers all the way back to Washington.

    After fighting their way through rush-hour traffic, Nick pulled up to the Watergate with fifteen minutes to spare before Sam’s appointment with Senator Stenhouse.
    “So much for going home to change first,” she grumbled. “Freddie will have a field day with this.”
    “Tell him you worked all night. Won’t be a total lie.”
    “It’ll be a good excuse to remind him that I outrank him and can order him to shut up. He likes that.”
    Nick smiled and reached for the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He withdrew a small leather case and handed her his business card. “Call me? My cell number is on there.”
    She took the card, stuffed it in her pocket and reached for the door.
    He stopped her before she could get out. “Talk to me before Monday so we can arrange to go to the funeral together if you still want me to help you ID people.”
    “I do. I’ll be in touch.”
    “Remember to eat and sleep, will you?”
    “Yeah, right,” she said on her way out the door.
    Nick waited, probably to make sure her car started because he was polite that way, and then pulled into traffic just ahead of her.
    On the way to Capitol Hill, Sam called Gonzo and asked him to oversee the sift through John O’Connor’s cabin.
    “It’s not a crime scene, so I’m not interested in fingerprints or DNA. I’m just looking for anything we don’t already know about him.”
    “Gotcha. So we got confirmation that the blood in Christina Billings’s car was her own.”
    “Well, I guess that closes that loop,” Sam said. “There’s no way she made it across town, killed him, showered, cleaned up the bathroom and got back with Chinese food in twenty-eight minutes. Not in this town with this traffic, even at midnight.”
    “No way is right,” Gonzo agreed. “I’ll get a team together and get out to