The Lincoln Myth (Cotton Malone 9)

“The president should understand that you can’t hold back information and expect me to do my job,” she said. “This has become a circus. One of our own could be dead.”

He nodded. “I realize that.”

But there was something else.

True, she had two assets on the ground—Luke and her missing man. Malone had now joined the fray, at least for the night, making for three.

But there was actually a fourth.

One she hadn’t mentioned to Malone.

SIX

KALUNDBORG, DENMARK

8:50 P.M.

SALAZAR SMILED AS HE ENTERED THE RESTAURANT AND SPOTTED his dinner companion. He was late but had called and asked that his apologies be passed on, along with a glass of whatever his guest might like to enjoy.

“I am so sorry,” he said to Cassiopeia Vitt. “Some important matters detained me.”

They were childhood friends, he two years her senior, their parents lifelong companions. In their twenties they’d become close, dating five years before Cassiopeia apparently realized that the attraction between them may have been more for their parents’ benefit than her own.

Or at least that’s what she told him at the time.

But he knew better.

What really drove them apart was more fundamental.

He was born a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So was she. That meant everything to him, but not so much to her.

Eleven years had passed since they were last together. They’d kept in touch, seeing each other on occasion at social functions. He knew she moved to France and started constructing a castle, using only 13th-century materials and technology, which was slowly rising, stone by stone. He’d seen photographs of it and her country château.

Both were remarkable and picturesque.

Like the woman herself.

“It’s all right,” she said to him. “I’ve been enjoying the view.”

Kalundborg began as a Viking settlement on the west coast of Zealand and remained one of Denmark’s oldest towns. Its cobbled square was anchored by the unique Church of Our Lady, a 12th-century masterpiece comprising five octagonal towers. The café sat on one side of the square, its candlelit tables crowded with diners. Theirs, at his request, nestled against the front window where the brick church could be seen lit for the night.

“I’ve been looking forward to this dinner all day,” he said to her. “I so enjoy it here. I’m glad you could finally come for a visit.”

His mother had been an introverted Danish woman totally committed to her husband and their six children, himself the youngest. When church missionaries arrived in the late 19th century, her family had been one of the first in Denmark to become Latter-day Saints. His maternal grandfather helped organize Scandinavia’s first ward, and more followed. Those wards eventually were formed into stakes. The same thing happened in Spain, where his father’s family had lived. Eventually, both grandfathers headed large stakes. He’d inherited his mother’s Danish estate in Kalundborg and spent May to October here each year, escaping Spain’s summer heat.

Their waiter appeared, and he ordered a glass of mineral water. Cassiopeia made it two. Menus were produced, and they both scanned the house selections.

“Are you still leaving tomorrow?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, yes. I have some business that requires my attention.”

“I hate that. We were just beginning to become reacquainted.”

“And you’ve been so coy, which I’ve allowed. But it’s time you tell me. Why have you returned? Why did you come here?”

She’d first made contact about five months ago with a phone call. Several more calls and emails followed. Another call last week led to an invitation here.

Which she’d accepted.

“I’ve decided I may have been wrong about things.”

Her words intrigued him. He set the menu aside.

“As I’ve become older,” she said, “I’ve realized that the beliefs of my parents may not have been so wrong.”

He knew that, like himself, she’d been schooled from an early age in the Book of Mormon, taught the Doctrine and Covenants and encouraged to read the Pearl of Great Price. Those would have taught her all of the revelations provided to the prophets who’d led the church, along with a full understanding of its history. Every Latter-day Saint was required to study the same.

But he knew she’d rebelled.

And rejected her heritage.

Which, luckily, neither of her parents had lived to see.

“I’ve waited a long time to hear you say those words,” he said. “Your negativity about the church was the source of our estrangement.”

“I remember. And look at you. Back then you were about to lead a ward. Now you’re a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, one step away from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Maybe the first man from Spain to achieve such a great honor.”

He heard the pride in her voice.

The First Presidency rested at the top of the church leadership, consisting of the prophet and two hand-chosen counselors. Below that were the Twelve Apostles, who served for life and helped establish policy. Then came the various quorums of Seventy, each member a respected elder, charged with aiding organization and administration, holding their apostolic authority as special witnesses of Christ. Many apostles came from the Seventies, and every prophet had emerged from the apostles.

“I want to rediscover what I lost,” she told him.

The waiter returned with their water.

Salazar reached across and lightly grasped her hand. The gesture seemed not to surprise her. “I would be most happy to help you rediscover your faith. To lead you back would be my honor.”

“That’s why I contacted you.”

He smiled, his hand still atop hers. Dedicated Latter-day Saints did not believe in premarital sex, so their relationship had never been physical.

But it had been real.

So much that it had survived eleven years inside him.

“I’m hungry,” he said, his eyes focused on her. “Let’s enjoy dinner. Then I’d like to show you something. Back at the estate.”

She smiled. “That would be lovely.”

SEVEN

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

STEPHANIE WAS A CAREER LAWYER. SHE’D STARTED AT THE State Department right out of law school, then moved to Justice and worked her way up through the ranks to deputy attorney general. Eventually she might have garnered the top spot from some president, but the Magellan Billet changed everything. The idea had been to cultivate a special investigative unit, outside the FBI, the CIA, and the military, directly responsive to the executive branch, its agents schooled in both law and espionage.

Independent. Innovative. Discreet.

Those were the ideals.

And the idea had worked.

But she wasn’t oblivious to politics. She’d served presidents and attorneys general from both parties. Though elected and reelected on a pledge of bipartisan cooperation, for the past seven and a half years Danny Daniels had been locked in a fierce political war. There’d been treacherous incidents with his vice president, one attorney general, and a former deputy national security adviser. Even an assassi

nation attempt. She and the Billet had been involved with all of those crises. Now here she was again. Right in the thick of something extraordinary.

“Ever wonder what you’ll do when your time here is over?” Davis asked.

They still sat in the cafeteria, empty in the midafternoon.

“I plan to work forever.”

“We could both write tell-all books. Or maybe go on TV. CNN or CNBC or Fox. Be their resident expert, spouting zingers. Pointing out how stupid the new administration is. It’s so much easier to Monday-morning-quarterback than play the game on Sunday.”

She wondered about Davis’ fatalism, most likely a case of the last-term blues. She’d seen it before. During Daniels’ first term there’d actually been a strong push to replace her, but the effort had fizzled. Maybe because nobody wanted her job. Not much glamour in working out of a quiet Georgia office, away from the D.C. limelight. Careers were woven from much thicker thread. One thing, though, was clear—Edwin Davis was absolutely loyal to his boss. As was she. And one other thing. Usually, no one at Justice or Congress or the White House ever gave her or the Billet much thought. But now she’d materialized on the radar screen of the senior senator from Utah.

“What does Rowan want from me?”

“He’s after something that we thought was only a myth.”

She caught the tone of his voice, which signaled trouble.

“I need to tell you a story.”

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. History notes it as a momentous achievement. The reality, though, is far different. The proclamation was not law. Congress never enacted it, and no state adopted it. Lincoln issued it on his supposed authority as commander in chief of the military. But it freed no one. Its mandate applied only to slaves held in the ten states then in rebellion. It did not outlaw slavery, and granted no citizenship to those freed. In the federally held parts of the South, which included much of Tennessee and Virginia, where blacks could have actually been freed and made citizens, the proclamation had no applicability. Maryland and Kentucky were likewise exempted, as were parts of Louisiana. In short, the Emancipation Proclamation was but a political gimmick. It freed slaves only where Lincoln had no authority. William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, said it best. “We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.”