Maybe it was true. And maybe that time was now. Because they had the same talent, because they’d been thrown together on this case—because they both needed someone.
Was he enamored with the light in her eyes, her faint flush...or the way she’d stood straight up and defied—politely, mind you—a United States congressman?
“Let’s eat,” he said huskily.
They did, Killer at their feet. Meg fed him scraps of egg, which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
They talked about the case, reviewing the facts and theories. Later, they went to clean up, and somehow, she splashed soapy water on him. That demanded a turnabout—in the interests of fair play. Before either of them knew it, they were in a full-fledged water fight and then they were racing upstairs and it was a while before they slept.
This had been a long day—and a satisfying night—but he had a feeling the longest days were still before them.
* * *
Matt was already up and out of the room when Meg woke. She showered quickly, relieved that her things—her clothes and toiletries—were in the house.
Downstairs, a cup of coffee was waiting for her. Matt was on the phone, as he often was, and she assumed he was speaking to a member of the Krewe, but she sipped her coffee until he’d finished his call.
“Good morning.” He grinned as he put down his cell. “The day’s starting early. We’ve got a meeting at Congressman Walker’s office on Rayburn,” he told her. “Jackson will be there, along with other members of the Krewe, not all of whom you’ve met. Capitol police will be there, too, as well as people from other security forces. We’ll drive to Gettysburg right after.”
“Can we stop by the house first?” she asked.
“We can, but why?”
“I don’t think we should take Killer to the meeting.”
“Good point. Sure.”
Long as she had known Lara, Meg had never really familiarized herself with a congressman’s routine. She’d had no idea until she arrived just how big the man’s staff was.
The office was frantically busy. She met a number of tech staff, more advisers, although she didn’t entirely understand what all of them did. Approximately half the twenty people would go on to Gettysburg, but only Walker’s personal retinue and security would be at the house he’d rented; the others would be nearby. During the meeting, they discussed the open-air speech, determined where various people would be stationed during that speech and who would be responsible for the safety of whom. She was specifically assigned to Kendra Walker and to Congressman Hubbard’s widow. She’d be onstage with them during the speech—basically ready to throw herself on Kendra Walker should any trouble arise.
Once the meeting broke up, most of the protective officers left and the staff returned to their jobs.
The Krewe retired to Ellery Manheim’s office. There, the group—which included Jackson, Angela, Will, Kat, Malachi, Logan Raintree and the artist Jane Everett—agreed that Logan and Jane would back up Meg.
“Personally, I think he should cancel the speech,” Ellery Manheim said.
“That’s crazy,” Joe Brighton argued. “You have to think about the ramifications. Right now, his appearance before the public is more important than ever.”
“And I’ll never let anything happen to Walker,” Nathan Oliver said, nodding toward the Krewe members. “We have the elite among us, not to mention scores of other security people.”
Ellery Manheim shook his head and absently opened one of his desk drawers.
Meg happened to be standing almost behind the desk, which gave her a perfect view into the drawer. She saw something there that made her gasp.
At first, she didn’t even know what it was. A lump of some kind, a red lump that resembled a badly cut piece of meat at the butcher’s. Chills shot through her. The object was just lying there between a calculator and a box of paper clips.
“Mr. Manheim!” she said, shocked by the hard note of authority in her voice. “What is that in your desk drawer?”
Her question quickly brought others in the room around.
Manheim stared down at it, first with bewilderment and then with shock. “I—I don’t know! I have no idea, it wasn’t there earlier! I swear, I... It can’t be!”
Matt moved forward. “I think this meeting is over. Kat, will you get Dr. Wong and a photographer brought in, please? We’re going to need everything documented before this is removed. Mr. Manheim, we’ll need to speak with you at our offices.”
“What?” Manheim said. “Oh, no. No, this was planted. I didn’t put that there. I’ve never seen it before... Good God, I’m a neat freak and practically a germophobe! I didn’t... I’d never... I’d...” His voice trailed off. Shoulders slumped, he said, “I’m happy to speak with you wherever you like.”
Less than an hour later, Meg stood outside an interrogation room with Adam, Jackson and Kat, plus Carl Hunter of the DC police, as well as members of the Capitol force. Matt Bosworth was questioning Ellery Manheim.
A search warrant had immediately been requested and signed; other members of the Krewe and police were at the Walker residence, searching Manheim’s rooms in the house. Manheim also kept an apartment in Arlington. That, too, was being searched.
Meg wondered, watching the man, if Manheim was telling the truth. He kept running his fingers through his wavy dark hair and shaking his head.
“Congressman Walker finds a tongue on his doorstep and we’re all rushing around to make sure that he’s not upset and that poor Kendra is sedated!” he said. “I’m attacked in the same way—and I’m under arrest!”
“You’re not under arrest,” Matt said calmly. “You’re in here so we can talk to you privately.” He paused, letting his words sink in, then asked, “Who had access to your desk?”
“The entire staff! And Congressman Walker takes appointments. Someone could’ve wandered around the place. I just know I didn’t do it!”
“Mr. Manheim, you have access to the black sedans at Congressman Walker’s house.”
“Oh, no, you’re not going to get me on that! Half this city has access to a black sedan! God, it doesn’t matter. I’m ruined. But I didn’t do this!”
“You have to understand, Mr. Manheim. A young woman is missing, four women have been brutally murdered and a tongue was left at a home where you frequently spend time. And now...one’s been found in your desk drawer.”
“Yes! And like I said, it was obviously planted there! This could be a conspiracy. Someone wants to bring the congressman down. And they’re trying to make it look like he’s involved—or his staff is—in these awful murders.”
“They’re doing a good job,” Matt pointed out.
“This is ridiculous! I never killed anyone. I love Congressman Walker and I loved Congressman Hubbard and...and I sure as hell have no interest in killing women or cutting them up. I love women—in the right way! And you have nothing on me—well, except a tongue in my desk drawer. But I didn’t put it there! Oh, and you’ve got a fingerprint on the box the tongue came in, but hey! I took the box from Kendra when she started to scream!”
“Mr. Manheim, where is Lara Mayhew?”
“I don’t know! We were at a meeting and she left angry. She quit! She quit—and she walked out. Oh, God! I don’t believe this!”
Meg turned when the door opened and Logan Raintree entered the room, motioning to Jackson, who went out and through the door to the interrogation room.
He leaned over the table and said, “Two more tongues have been discovered at your personal residence, Mr. Manheim.”
Manheim stared at Jackson in what looked like total disbelief. “No! No! I didn’t commit these murders. I’m being framed for all this!”
“In your desk, Mr. Manheim, and in the drawer of a bedside table at your private residence. How did the tongues
get there? Don’t you lock your doors, Mr. Manheim? If so, how did someone else do this?”
Manheim was suddenly angry. “Why ask me? You’re the FBI. You know how to break in anywhere!”
Jackson stood back. “Mr. Manheim, you’re under arrest.”
* * *
They had their man, or so it appeared, but Matt didn’t believe they did. While Manheim was being processed, he and Meg went to speak with Congressman Walker. Kendra was with her husband at his office, and while Walker seemed to be devastated, Kendra’s demeanor was one of relief.
“We finally know. We know the truth,” she said grimly. “I’m horrified that this came so close to us and that such a terrible man had our trust. Oh, God! We slept in that house with him there. My grandchildren were around him. But now...now we have to move on. This is going to hurt Ian badly, but...but at least we know the truth. We don’t have to be afraid anymore. It’s going to be all right.”
“It will never be all right, Kendra,” Walker said. “I’m going to resign.”
“You’re not going to resign. You can rise to become the greatest president this nation has seen since Lincoln. If you resign, you’re giving in! The other day you said you refused to do that. I know I’ve wanted you out of public service at times, but I also know it’s where you should be. You can’t resign. You’d be handing the opposition exactly what they want. Manheim wasn’t working alone, and we may never find out what really happened, but...he was a...a spy in your office, secretly working for one of your enemies,” she said wildly. “Someone on the far right or the far left. You can’t let them win!” Kendra told him. She nodded at the two agents. “We’re having a press conference in ten minutes. You’re welcome to be there. We can thank you publicly for your good work.”
“We prefer staying behind the scenes, Mrs. Walker,” Matt said. He found it interesting that Walker and his wife had apparently reversed their positions; now he was talking about resigning, and she was urging him not to. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland said.
He saw that Meg was trying hard to contain herself—and then, apparently, she couldn’t. She moved forward slightly, looking taller, almost regal in her dignity.
“Congressman Walker, there’s still a missing woman out there. And she disappeared after being in your office. What happened that night? Why did Lara Mayhew leave? Why did she quit?”
Walker looked like a beaten man. He shook his head. “I loved Garth Hubbard,” he said quietly. “But we disagreed on a few fundamental issues. He was the one with the power—the chance. So I went along with him. It was that simple. When he died, I changed the platform. Lara Mayhew couldn’t accept the changes I wanted to make. She said I’d made certain bills so convoluted that no one knew what they were anymore and wouldn’t vote for them. She begged me to keep my promise. I told her I was keeping my promise—to myself. That was it.”
“Then where’s Lara? Why would she be in hiding?” Meg demanded.
“I don’t know,” Walker said. “I just don’t...”
“You should speak with Manheim, that monster!” Kendra broke in. “Oh, Lord, and to think I turned to him when I found the...the tongue on our doorstep!”
One of Walker’s office staff walked in to say that the press had assembled for his conference.
Walker stood and took a deep breath. Kendra straightened his jacket.
When he was gone, she turned to Matt and Meg, tears in her eyes. “You’ll stay with us? I need him to get through that speech in Gettysburg. We have to rally around him. He’s a good man. Maybe even a great one. Please, help me. Help him. He’s devastated by all this, devastated for the poor women who’ve been killed. He has to make that speech in Gettysburg and I’m afraid of his enemies, afraid of what they might do. They hope he’ll resign. As I said to my husband, don’t let them win.”
“We’re public servants, Mrs. Walker,” Matt said. “We go where our special agent in charge tells us to go.”
She seemed to accept that. She smiled. “Thank you. My husband believes in you both. And so do I.”
Meg didn’t waste any time. As soon as they were out of the office, she said to Matt, “We have to talk to Ellery Manheim again. Everyone seems to think this is over—that Manheim is like a Ted Bundy, the charming fellow next door, political campaigner by day, mad monster by night. They think the killing’s stopped. But you’re the one who convinced me Lara could be alive. I’m new to all this. Do what you need to so I can get in to see Manheim.”
He didn’t care that it was daylight. He placed his arm around her shoulders and met her eyes. “The Krewe is a team, Meg. You know the magic we have. Yours is the same as mine.”
“And what’s the magic?”
“We speak with Adam Harrison.”
* * *
It was Meg’s turn to sit across the table from Ellery Manheim. They were alone; he was waiting on the attorney he’d hired but had agreed to speak with her as long as anything he said was off the record. She was grateful that he was willing to see her at all. She had, after all, been the first to see the tongue in his desk.
Of course, he started the interview with “I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill any women!”
“Mr. Manheim, what I’m hoping you’ll help me with is a living woman—or, at least, one I pray is still alive. I’ve spoken with Congressman Walker. He says Lara Mayhew left because he wasn’t going to adhere to amendments to a bill he was working on with Congressman Hubbard. Is that true?”
“Yes, it’s true. Lara thought he was changing course and compromising in totally the wrong direction. That he wasn’t willing to stand up for his principles. She was upset and angry. She said he’d do anything to have his way.” Manheim hesitated. “I have a feeling that she suspected he was glad Congressman Hubbard was dead—and that Ian might even have argued with him or something, tried to provoke him to instigate the heart attack.”
“Did he?”
He shrugged, a rueful smile lifting his weary features. “You should know. You dug him up.”
“I didn’t personally dig him up, Mr. Manheim. And I’m asking you, what do you think?”
“I wish I could say I thought Walker did do something. I wish I could say he’s a murderer. But to the best of my knowledge, Walker argued with Hubbard but in the mildest, most civil terms. And to the best of my knowledge, he’s done nothing evil in his life.”
“What about your closest associates? Joe Brighton and Nathan Oliver?”
“You think a man as big as Oliver could’ve snuck into Congressman Walker’s house without being seen? I doubt it.”
“Do you suppose he could have hurt someone? Could Oliver have done something to Lara Mayhew or to these other women?”
“No, he’s a gentle giant,” Manheim said. “He really is.”
“What about Joe Brighton?”
“Joe’s a good guy, too.”
“So, on the night Lara disappeared, did you all split up when she left?”
“I think we talked for another little while. Joe was afraid she’d start bad publicity, a campaign to say that Walker was a liar and a traitor to his ideals.” He brightened suddenly. “I had nothing to do with your friend’s disappearance and I can prove it! I’m the one who drove Walker home that night.”
“So you can vouch for him?”
“Absolutely. First Joe Brighton left. He said he’d spoken his mind and was washing his hands of the whole thing. Then Walker said it was late and he was tired and that it’s a free country, so Lara had the right to speak out if she wanted. Nathan Oliver kept pacing, saying he had to get going with the communications he’d need to issue if she did make some kind of statement. Walker said that was it for the night, we all needed to sleep.”
“Thank you for trying to help me,” she said.
As she sat there, the door opened. Matt came in wi
th a small, slim man carrying a briefcase. “This is over,” the other man said. “Ellery, we’re getting you processed out. You’re free to go.”
Ellery Manheim looked almost as stunned as he had when he’d first seen the tongue in his drawer.
Meg glanced at Matt, who nodded.
The attorney came forward and dropped a stack of papers on the table between Manheim and Meg.
“Affidavits,” the attorney said. “Sworn statements from eye witnesses showing that Ellery Manheim couldn’t possibly have committed the murders. He has positive and proven alibis for the nights Genie Gonzales and Karen Grant disappeared. Ellery, you’ve been framed. And we don’t even have to go to court to prove your innocence. All charges are being dropped.”
* * *
The rest of the afternoon was crammed with press conferences.
Matt was required to take part in one; he and other officers spoke with the DC mayor, telling the press that yes, the tongues had been sliced from the mouths of the dead women and all of them had now been found. Yes, Ellery Manheim had been arrested—and then cleared. What had originally appeared to be the case of a deranged serial killer might actually be a campaign to oust Congressman Walker. Police and federal agencies had withheld the information about the tongues to prevent that knowledge from compromising the investigation. It continued to be an active case that was being pursued by every law officer on the northeastern coast.
Matt was satisfied with the conference; he believed in honesty with the public, only holding back when it mattered. But once information got out—as it did after the arrest and release of Ellery Manheim—it was best to make sure that it was fact and not rumor.
He and Meg watched as Walker held a press conference himself that day. He proclaimed that he’d still be speaking in Gettysburg. He was all the more determined, he said, to see that his platform, so similar to the moderate platform put forward by the late Congressman Hubbard, was heard and understood by the American people.