Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

ring.
    "I'd like to make reservations for three for midnight tonight."
    "Holly? What's the matter? Why are you calling in the middle of the week?"
    Holly laughed lightly. "Nothing's the matter, Mom. I swear. There's just something I wanted to talk to you and Pop about, and I figured the best time was after you close up on a slow night. Correction, slower night. Everyone knows Kaufman Haus doesn't have slow nights."
    The old line made her mother laugh, but she quickly became serious again. "If it's really important, we could take the night off—"
    "No, no. It'll be late by the time I get to the house anyway."
    "Will you be staying?" Vivian asked hopefully.
    "Only tonight. I have to be back here first thing in the morning."
    "Oh, I see. At least give me a hint so that I know whether to worry or be excited."
    "Neither one. I just need to explain something, that's all. I'll see you tonight."
    It took several more reassurances before Holly could hang up and get Evelyn working on reservations. She figured it was a good omen when she was able to book a flight out of Dulles at nine, which left her plenty of time to pick up a change of clothes at her apartment and have dinner. Evelyn confirmed that a rental car was reserved for her at the Pittsburgh airport. Even with the one-hour drive to Butler added to the hour-long flight, she would still be home before her parents.
    When Philip heard what she was up to, he offered to accompany her. "I haven't seen Bernie and Viv in months."
    "I know, and I'm sure they'd be happy to see you too, but this time I need to see them alone." His hurt expression prompted her to add, "But I could use a lift to the airport later, if you wouldn't mind. I'd rather not leave my car there overnight." Guilt made her continue. "In fact, why don't you follow me to my apartment while I pick up an overnight bag and then we can go to dinner." Her extra effort earned her a grateful smile.
    * * *
    David's network of informants was not limited to hotel employees. In a transient city of power like Washington, there was an abundance of people in seemingly unimportant positions who were privy to interesting tidbits, and David had spent years cultivating friendships with a great number of those people. The fact that most of them were women was just as intentional.
    Once he was back at his desk in the paper's newsroom, he needed to make only one call to the dispatcher at the cab company to learn that the driver of the taxi he'd observed in front of the hotel dropped the mouse off at the Internal Revenue Service building. He had no idea why employees of two branches of government would be meeting with Erica Donner, but he bet his next paycheck there was some sort of story behind it. Again, his nose told him it could have something to do with Tim Ziegler's call. What he needed were some names to attach to the faces.
    He didn't have a contact inside the FBI but he had a companionable relationship with a city police detective. It seemed reasonable that the man would know at least one agent that might be able to identify Red. If memory served, the detective was a major football fan. An invitation to an upcoming game would probably net him a name and maybe a bit more.
    Identifying the other three women was going to be more of a challenge, but he determined to describe them to everyone he knew until he got some answers.
    Before he began that, however, he needed to ask Valerie for another favor—a roster of the students enrolled in the freshman class at Dominion the year Cheryl Wallace and Erica Donner were there.
    "Is that it?" Valerie asked with a laugh. "You sure you don't want the upperclassmen as well? I've already been asked to come up with the names of all of Senator Ziegler's fraternity brothers. Don't you want a copy of that too?"
    "That would be terrific," David replied. "If it's not too much trouble." He wasn't surprised that another reporter was working on that angle. Cheryl Wallace's list of alleged attackers had caused a lot of speculation all over the country.
    "Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told the other reporter. I've got a stack of rush requests that could get me fired if I don't do them first. But I already did a quick check of their website and came up with nothing. That was a long time ago, before everything was computerized, and although the university should have retained the records, they've probably been buried in some storage vault. I also placed a call to the school but so far no call