The Lincoln Myth (Cotton Malone 9)

Twenty feet.

Ten.

He pressed the barrel of his pistol into the nape of the man’s neck. “Nice and still, or I’ll shoot you.”

The man froze.

“Is Salazar waiting to hear that you have me?”

No answer.

He cocked the hammer. “You mean nothing to me. Nothing at all. You understand?”

“He’s waiting on my call.”

“Nice and slow, find your phone and tell him you have me.”

THIRTY-FIVE

ORANGE, VIRGINIA

4:15 P.M.

LUKE ARRIVED AT MONTPELIER JUST IN TIME FOR THE LAST tour of the day. The group was small, led by an attractive young lady identified by a badge as Katie and wearing some impressive tight-fitting jeans. He’d driven straight from Washington in his Mustang, a wonderfully restored 1967 first-generation model that he’d bought as a gift to himself while in the army. Silver with black stripes—not a scratch on it—it was stored in a garage adjacent to his apartment building. He didn’t own a lot of things, but his car was special.

Stephanie’s sullenness had troubled him. All she seemed interested in knowing was what, if anything, awaited at James Madison’s home. He was no student of history. God knows he’d barely made it out of high school. But he knew the value of information.

So he’d managed some quick browsing.

Madison was born and raised in Orange County. His grandfather first settled the land where Montpelier stood in 1723. The house itself was built by Madison’s father in 1760 but, after inheriting the estate, Madison made many changes. He was an ardent Federalist, a believer in a strong central government, and had been instrumental in drafting the Constitution. He served in the first Congress, fought to have the Bill of Rights adopted, helped form the Democratic party, was secretary of state for eight years, then a two-term president.

“Mr. Madison retired here in 1817, when his last term as president ended,” Katie told the group. “He and his wife, Dolley, lived in this house until he died in 1836. After that, Dolley sold the estate and nearly all of their belongings. The estate was reacquired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1984.”

The house was nestled on 2,700 acres of farmland and old-growth forest in the green foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A $25 million project had restored the house to the size and shape it had boasted when Madison had lived here, its columned portico, brick walls, and green shutters now reminiscent of colonial times.

He was following Katie from room to room, more watching her jeans than the décor, but definitely absorbing the geography, his gaze occasionally drifting out the windows to the grounds.

“There were once tobacco fields, farms, slave quarters, a blacksmith’s shop, and barns out there.”

He turned and saw that Katie had noticed his interest outside. He threw her a smile and said, “Everything a 19th-century country gentleman needed.”

She was cute and wore no wedding ring. He never touched the married ones, at least not if he knew they were hitched. There’d been a few who’d lied, which he wasn’t responsible for, but a couple of their husbands had not seen it that way. One broke his nose. Another tried, but had come to regret the challenge and spent a few days in the hospital.

Women.

Nothing but trouble.

“Tell me, darlin’, what’s that thing out in the field? It looks like a Greek temple.”

She stepped to the window and gestured for the others to join her. He caught a whiff of her perfume. Not much. Just a tad, the way he liked it. She stood close, inside his space, and seemed not to mind.

Neither did he.

“That was built by Madison. Below is a thirty-foot-deep pit where he kept ice year-round. We’d call it a gazebo today, albeit an elaborate one. He intended it to become his summer study, where he could work and think in peace, with the cool from the ice below refreshing him, but it never happened.”

“Anybody ever been into the pit?” he asked.

“Not since I’ve been around. It’s sealed up.”

She moved away from the window and led the group through the dining room and into Madison’s library. The escorted tour only extended to the ground floor, the upper floor self-guided. He checked his watch. Maybe another three hours of daylight left. But he’d have to wait until much later to return. He decided to bypass the rest of the house and left out the front door, following a graveled path to the garden entrance. He passed through a portal in a long brick wall, guarded by hydrangeas, and walked toward a low knoll among the trees in the north yard.

Eight white columns held up the temple’s domed roof. No walls, the fifteen-foot circle open to the elements. Katie had been right. Just a fancy gazebo. He stepped onto the concrete floor and tested one of the columns. Solid. He stared down at the flooring and stamped his foot. Rock-hard. The concrete was gray-aged but at its center lay a separate square-shaped piece, outlined by a one-inch grout line. Surely a way to get below, if need be.

He glanced back out at the grounds.

Black walnut, cedar, fir, redwood, and evergreens dominated, all old growth. A few appeared as if they could have even been around when Madison himself lived. He noticed little to no security, though the house interior was equipped with motion sensors. No problem. He wasn’t going anywhere near there. No fence encased the property. But with 2,700 acres he could understand why not. He’d already checked Google Earth and learned that a road cut close to the temple, through the woods to his left. Maybe three hundred yards, he estimated. An easy way in and out. He’d brought some rope and a flashlight.

But what the hell was he looking for?

Like he’d told Stephanie, during the last two hundred years, that pit had surely been picked through.

But she’d also been right.

Not a single image of the inside existed anywhere online. Before entering the house, after buying his ticket, he’d thumbed through every book in the visitor center. Not a photo there, either.

So what was down there?

Probably not a damn thing. But he had his orders.

“You enjoying the view?”

He turned to see Katie standing beyond the columns.

“You need a bell on or somethin’,” he said. “You can creep up on a guy.”

“I saw you leave.”

“I wanted to check this out,” he said. “It’s a beautiful spot. Real peaceful.”

She stepped beneath the dome. “You don’t look like a history buf

f.”

“Really? What do I look like?”

She apprized him with a soft glare, through eyes that were a lovely shade of blue. A crop of short strawberry-blond hair hung in sexy, layered bangs that flattered her freckled face.

“I think you’re military. Home on leave.”

He rubbed his jaw, which like his neck was dusted with a two-day stubble. “Guilty. Just back from two tours overseas. Had some time, so I thought I’d visit a few presidents’ houses and see what I was fighting for.”

“You got a name?”

“Luke.”

“As in the evangelist?”

He chuckled. “That was the idea.”

Confidence fueled her forwardness and he liked it. He’d never cared for the Melanie Wilkeses of the world. Give him the Scarlett O’Haras. The tougher the better. Nothing excited him more than a challenge. Besides, he needed to learn about this place, and what better way than from an employee.

“Tell me, Katie, where do you get somethin’ good to eat around here?”

She smiled. “Depends. You eat alone?”

“Wasn’t plannin’ on it.”

“I’m off in twenty minutes. I’ll show you.”

THIRTY-SIX

SALZBURG

CASSIOPEIA NEVER ENTERED THE GOLDENER HIRSCH. INSTEAD she’d waited until Josepe had turned a corner fifty meters away, then rushed after him, following, hoping not to be noticed. Thankfully, she’d worn low-heeled shoes to the auction, which helped on the street’s uneven stones. Dusk had deepened to night. Josepe remained fifty meters ahead, darkness providing plenty of cover.

He stopped.

So did she, retreating into a doorway, glimpsing a neat list of names posted to one side that signaled apartments overhead.

The angle of his shadowed right arm confirmed that he was talking on the phone. A short call. Just a few seconds. He then replaced the unit inside his jacket and kept walking. He was headed down a street identified as Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse. They were a block or so over from the cathedral and the Residenzplaz, heading toward the rock face that rose north of the city and supported the castle. Shadows from the streetlights near him danced a strange jig on the pavement. If caught, she could use the excuse that she’d risen to his defense at the auction and had not wanted to sit idly by while he might need her. Sounded good. She was still angry with Cotton, and wondered why he was so involved. Buying that book for a million euros had made a loud statement. She needed to speak with him.