Silken Prey

mean, we’ve never really shared confidences.”
    “You know that possession of that child porn is a crime, and that the use of the child porn in an effort to smear Senator Smalls would be another crime, and that Tubbs, if we could find him, if he’s not dead, could be looking at years in prison? As would an accomplice?”
    “Is that a threat?” she asked.
    Lucas shook his head: “No. I’m telling this to everyone. I want everybody to understand the stakes involved. We’re naturally more interested in the possible, the likely, murder of Mr. Tubbs than we are in an accomplice who might not even have understood what he or she was getting into. We’d be interested in discussing a possible immunity, or partial immunity, with that person, if we could find him or her. We’d also want that person to know that if Tubbs was murdered, then he or she might be next in line.”
    “But that’s not me,” Johnson said. “Why are you telling me?”
    “Because if it’s not you, I’d expect you to talk to your friends about this. I want the word to get around. There almost certainly is an accomplice, and we really need to talk to that person . . . for her own protection.”
    “Well,” she said, “not me. Are we done?”
    Lucas spread his hands. “If you’ve got nothing else . . . we’re done.”
    •   •   •
    W HEN SHE WAS GONE, Lucas took out his cell phone, went online and looked up the plural of
apparatus
, and found that it was
apparatus
, or
apparatuses
, and not
apparati
. He said, “Huh,” turned the phone off and thought about Johnson.
    She was the most interesting of the staffers he’d spoken to, because of the underlying self-righteousness, anger, spite . . . whatever. She wore it like a gown. He’d seen it often enough in government work, people who felt that they were better than their job, and better than those around them; a princess kidnapped by gypsies, and raised below her station.
    He was still thinking about Johnson, looking at the blank face of his phone, when it lit up and rang at him. Rose Marie calling.
    “Yeah?”
    “We’ve got a problem,” she said. “That goddamn Lockes is about to serve subpoenas on all of us, to find out what happened that led to the press conference.”
    “Aw, man . . . Can’t you threaten him or something?” Lucas asked.
    “Elmer is going to talk with him, but . . . Elmer’s going away in two years, one way or another. Lockes wants his job.”
    “Is he going to subpoena the governor?”
    “I don’t think so—but he knows you were asked by the governor to look at the case,” Rose Marie said. “There’s nothing to do but be upfront about it.”
    “The problem is, I used a couple of personal friends as information sources and computer support,” Lucas said, referring to Kidd and ICE. “If I have to name them, they could be pretty goddamn unhappy.”
    “That will probably come up, but as technical people, they shouldn’t have too much of a problem,” Rose Marie said. “If they’re called, they just tell the truth, and go on their way. They were asked to help out in a law enforcement investigation, and they did.”
    “Aw, shit,” Lucas said.
    ICE would not be much of a problem; she’d worked with law enforcement, and had testified in court hearings about her work. But he dreaded calling Kidd, who’d always seemed to Lucas to be a reclusive sort, an artist, a fringe guy who, as it turned out, also knew something about computers. He shouldn’t have used him, Lucas thought: Kidd looked and talked tough, but might actually be too brittle for a rough-and-tumble political fight.
    He called Kidd, and was surprised by the reaction: “Don’t worry about it,” Kidd said. “I’m a guy you knew from back when, who’s worked in the computer industry, so you got me to take a look. I don’t mind showing up to tell him that, as long as I don’t have to wear a suit.”
    “You got a suit?”
    “Yeah, but I only wear it when I marry somebody,” Kidd said. “Listen, I’m pretty friendly with Jed Cothran and Maury Berkowitz. If you think this guy could cause you some real trouble, I could give them a ring. If they lean on him a little, with the governor, I don’t think he’ll be inclined to a show trial, or anything. If that’s what’s worrying you.”
    Lucas was surprised a second time: Cothran and Berkowitz had been Minnesota U.S. senators, one from each party. “How do you know those guys?”
    “Ah, back in the