Angie said, “Bye, Jim.”

We walked away from the table.

If we made it to the door, I’d be on welfare come autumn. If we made it to the door, the picture meant nothing more than guilt by association and they had nothing to hide. I’d have to move to Montana or Kansas or Iowa or one of those places where I imagine it’s so boring no one would want to wield political influence. If we made it to the door, we were done in this city.

“Pat, lad.”

We were eight or nine feet from the door; my faith in human nature was restored.

Angie squeezed my hand and we turned around like we had better things to do.

Jim said, “Please, come back and sit down.”

We approached the table.

Mulkern held out his hand. “I’m a tad peckish this early in the day. People seem to misunderstand my sense of humor.”

I took the hand. “Ain’t that always the way.”

He held it out to Angie. “Ms. Gennaro, please accept the apologies of an ornery old man.”

“It’s already forgotten, Senator.”

“Please,” he said, “call me Sterling.” He smiled warmly and patted her hand. Everything about him screamed sincerity.

If I hadn’t upchucked the night before, I think we all would have been in danger.

Jim tapped the photocopy and looked at me. “Where did you get this?”

“Jenna Angeline.”

“It’s a copy,” he said.

“Yes, it is, Jim.”

“The original?” Mulkern said.

“I have it.”

“Pat,” Mulkern said, his smile keeping his voice in check, “we hired you for the purpose of retrieving documents, not their photocopies.”

“I keep the original of this one until I find the rest of them.”

“Why?” Jim asked.

I pointed at the front page of the newspaper. “Things have gotten messy. I don’t like messy. Ange, do you like messy?”

Angie said, “I don’t like messy.”

I looked at Vurnan and Mulkern. “We don’t like messy. Keeping the original is our way of stepping around the mess until we’re sure what it is.”

“Can we help you, Pat, lad?”

“Sure. Tell me about Paulson and Socia.”

“A foolish indiscretion on Brian’s part,” Mulkern said.

“How foolish?” Angie asked.

“For the average man,” Mulkern said, “not very. But for one in the public eye, extremely foolish.” He nodded at Jim.

Jim folded his hands together on the table. “Senator Paulson engaged in a night of... illicit pleasure with one of Mr. Socia’s prostitutes six years ago. I can hardly make light of it under the circumstances, but in the grand scheme of things, it amounts to little more than an evening of wine and women.”

“None of these women being Mrs. Paulson,” Angie said.

Mulkern shook his head. “That’s irrelevant. She’s a politician’s wife; she understands what’s expected of her at a time like this. No, the problem would arise if any documentation of this affair ever surfaced in the public eye. Brian is presently a very strong, silent voice advocating the street terrorism bill. Any association with people of...Mr. Socia’s type could be very damaging.”