“I could tell at the party at Camp David that she was still concerned about it,” admitted Jane.
Tuck looked at Sean. “And when I suddenly showed up at the house that night, she did look sort of freaked out.”
Sean nodded. “She might have even wanted to call me to cancel, but she only had my office number, not my cell. And we were already on our way when Tuck showed up.”
“So now you know all,” said Jane.
“No, not all.”
They all turned to see Agent Aaron Betack standing there.
“What?” asked Sean.
Betack advanced into the room.
“I don’t recall asking you to come here, Agent Betack,” said a surprised Jane.
“You didn’t, ma’am. I… I took it upon myself.” The veteran agent looked very pale.
“I’m not sure I understand how you can do that,” she said bluntly.
Betack gazed around uneasily at the others. “There was a letter delivered to one of the women who works in the kitchen here. Shirley Meyers.”
Jane rose. “You will leave right now, Agent Betack. This instant.”
Sean rose too. “What the hell is going on?”
“You will leave now!” snapped Jane.
“Aaron, what letter?” asked Michelle.
Before Betack could answer, Jane snatched up the phone. “One call, Betack. Either you leave now or your career is over.”
“Maybe it already is,” said Betack. “But what’s a career compared to a little girl’s life? Have you even thought about that?”
“How dare you speak to me that way!”
Tuck stood. “I dare. If it’s got something to do with whether my daughter lives or dies, I sure as hell do dare.”
Jane looked at him, and then at the others, one by one. Her confidence seemed to fall away under their gazes. She looked to Sean like a cornered animal desperately seeking a way out.
Sean said, “Jane, if you received a letter that has something to do with Willa, we need to know. The FBI needs to know.”
“That is impossible.”
Tuck grabbed her arm. “The hell it is.”
Betack instinctively rushed forward to protect the First Lady. But Michelle had already snagged Tuck’s arm and forcibly removed his grip. She pushed him down on the couch.
“Just chill, Tuck. You’re not helping matters. She’s still the First Lady.”
“I don’t give a shit what she is. She could be the president and I wouldn’t give a damn. If she knows something that’ll help get Willa back, I need to know what the hell it is.”
Jane was looking steadily at Betack. “How do you know anything about this?”
“Nothing happens in this building without the Secret Service knowing, Mrs. Cox.”
“Was the letter from the kidnappers?” asked Sean.