Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

back. They probably aren't anxious to talk to any media right now. It may not be so easy to get the information. What you need is a yearbook."
    Or an alumnus, like Cheryl Wallace. "Well, if anybody can do it, I know you can," David said with complete sincerity.
    He made several more calls then headed back to the Kessler Hotel in hopes that Mrs. Donner might be planning to go out to dinner.
    * * *
    Holly and Philip arrived at her apartment in Georgetown with plenty of time to spare, but Holly was too anxious to be on her way to sit and relax. Philip poured himself a club soda while she went into her bedroom to throw a few things in a bag.
    Thirty minutes later, she started to walk into the living room and froze in the doorway. Philip was seated on the couch with his back to her—and was closing the lid on her briefcase. "Philip? Were you looking for something?"
    "Yes. Or rather I was about to." He latched the case and set it back down on the floor where she had left it. Standing up and turning to her with a sheepish grin, he said, "I didn't want to admit to Evelyn that I misplaced the last report from the House Ways and Means Committee. I had the sudden thought that it had somehow gotten mixed up with your folders and ended up in your briefcase. I apologize. Without thinking, I opened it to check. I should never have done that without asking. I swear I didn't rearrange a single sheet of paper."
    He appeared to be appropriately embarrassed at having been caught, but it left Holly feeling a little uneasy. Certain he was telling the truth, however, she could see no reason to make an issue of it. "Did you find the report?"
    He laughed. "No. As soon as I opened that portable office of yours and saw how much work you have in there, I just closed it up again. If you get a chance, I'd appreciate your taking a look for it, though. Are you ready to go?"
    She nodded and let him take the bag from her. Though she hadn't planned on taking her briefcase along, his reminder of how much work she had to do changed her mind. Grabbing the case and her purse, she flicked the lights off and closed the door behind her.
    * * *
    "I'll be damned! Harry Abbott taking a trip around the world." David Wells shook his head at the balding man he considered his mentor. Harry had talked about this trip as long as they had known each other, but David had always figured the old man's plans had about as much substance as his cigar smoke. Yet here they were, sitting in an airport restaurant, drinking a toast to his adventure. On the other hand, Harry had retired as sports editor for The Washington Herald several months ago and David had never expected him to do that either.
    David had already put ten years into The Washington Herald— as a paperboy—before he got a job on the inside working as an apprentice to Harry on the sports desk. Those years, plus his family's poverty level, helped him gain the Newsboy Scholarship, which covered his tuition at George Washington University, but his part-time job for the paper paid for the rest. In truth, Harry taught him far more than four years of journalism class ever did and, because of that, David would walk barefoot across a desert for the man.
    "How long do you figure you'll be gone?" David asked.
    "As long as it takes. I'm going to play golf in Scotland, Ping-Pong in China and whatever it is they do in Tahiti, I'll do that too. I've already got a publisher interested in the book."
    "The book?" David didn't bother to hide his surprise.
    "Sure." Harry leaned forward and lowered his voice as if sharing a major secret. "You didn't think I'd take off without knowing it would all be deductible later."
    "I wondered what you were up to the last couple of months when you kept putting off getting together."
    Harry shrugged and took another swallow of his beer. "To tell you the truth, I was feeling too sorry for myself to be sociable. I just had to give myself a kick in the ass. Retirement's not for me. What else is an old ex-sportswriter going to do but write a book about sports? At any rate, I've been following your stories. Nice job on the HUD article. What are you working on now?"
    "Just finished up an article on the local homeless situation. It wasn't too hard. All I had to do was go back and hang around the neighborhood I grew up in. Something else got my nose twitching today."
    "Not going to sit on your laurels, huh?"
    "Hey, you know what you told me years ago— Lots of people are satisfied being first string,