“You can read the whole thing,” Holly said, rising. “I’m going back to the office.”
“Why don’t you brief the director,” Stone said. “I’m not ready to face her again.”
“What can I tell her?”
“Tell her we’ve hit a brick wall. Tell her all our possible witnesses are dead.”
“I’ll do that,” Holly said, then took her leave.
“There’s one still alive,” Dino said when she had gone. “The March Hare.”
“Well,” Stone said, “if you’d like to introduce me tntroduceo her, I’ll be glad to ask her all the right questions.”
“I think you already know her,” Dino said.
“Yeah?”
“Sure, she’s somebody at the White House, and you know who you know there.”
“Fair Sutherlin?”
“Who else?”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Who else you got?”
Stone shrugged. “We can’t nail her for all this just because we don’t have another suspect.”
“Stone, do you remember ever having been a cop?” Dino asked.
“Vaguely.”
“What does a cop do when he’s eliminated all the suspects but one, but he doesn’t have any evidence?”
“You want us to interrogate Fair?”
“Why not? I’d beat her with a telephone book if I could get away with it.”
“I don’t think my heart would be in it,” Stone said.
“I think you’re referring to another part of your anatomy,” Dino said.
“You think that just because I slept with her, I’d give her a pass?”
“I can’t think of any other reason for you to give her a pass,” Dino said. “Tell me one.”
“I just don’t think she’s capable of all this. Under the political hard shell, she’s a decent person.”
“That’s not an assumption I’m willing to make,” Dino said. “Call her.”
43
FAIR SUTHERLIN’S NEW SECRETARY SHOWED THEM INTO HER office. “Hey, fellas,” she said, waving them to the sofa. “What’s up?”
“You already have a new secretary?” Dino asked.
“They’re lined up, wanting to get into the West Wing,” Fair replied. “It only took a phone call. I hear you went out to Charlotte Kirby’s house, just in time to discover the body.”