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Back Below the Belt Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. BOOKS BY STUART WOODS
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
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  40. 36
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  55. 51
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  62. 58
  63. 59
  64. 60
  65. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  66. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  67. What’s next onyour reading list?

ED RAWLS WATCHED through his binoculars as a second sheriff’s car pulled up, and two people were stuffed into the rear seat. He would sleep better, now.

36

ERIK MACHER ARRIVED at his office in Washington, D.C., at nine sharp. His secretary, Ilsa, was already at her desk in the small office building where Christian St. Clair housed his lobbyists and other D.C. personnel.

“You’d better sit down,” she said, pouring him a cup of the strong coffee he liked.

Macher sat down. “Okay, I’m sitting, what is it?”

“Drake and Solberg got themselves arrested in Virginia last night.”

“What?”

“Breaking and entering. Apparently they weren’t exactly renting the house they were using to surveil the Rawls place. They’re being held in a sheriff’s substation in a wide-place-in-the-road village in Fairfax County.”

“First, find them a lawyer.”

“There’s one on the way. I told him we’re good for bail money.”

“Good, now find out who owns that house and get them on the phone for me.”

“A couple named Mark and Debby Denton. He’s an attorney on the legislative staff of the American Bar Association. She does something not too big at State. Before I call them, Solberg told me their story to the deputy was that the Dentons were on vacation in the Bahamas, and they offered them the house while they were gone.”

“Do we know anybody who knows the Dentons?”

“My sister works at State. Want me to call her?”

“Yes, please.”

“I already did. Debby Denton has offered to call the sheriff down there and tell them that she and her husband just got back from a vacation in the Bahamas and loaned the house to the couple for a tryst.”

“Why did she agree to say that?”

“My sister is her boss.”

“Tell her to make the call,” Macher said, “and tell Solberg I want her and Drake in this office by ten-thirty.”

“Right.”

Macher looked up from his coffee. “You’re a gem, you know.”

She grinned. “I know.”

—

AT TEN-THIRTY SOLBERG and Drake were in Macher’s outer office. “Send them in,” he said to Ilsa.

The two didn’t look very fresh. Solberg’s hair needed doing, and Drake needed a shirt and a shave. Macher didn’t ask them to sit down. “You broke into that house? Why?”

Drake shrugged. “Because it was there, exactly where we needed it, and we didn’t have time to find the owners and rent it.”

“You know how long it took Ilsa to find the owners and get them to back your story?”

Neither spoke.

“Ten minutes.” Macher wasn’t sure if it happened that fast, but it sounded good.

“We’re sorry,” Solberg said.

“Were you two screwing when the deputy arrived?”

“We were not,” Solberg said. “He caught us out when I said we’d been watching TV. There wasn’t a TV in the house, and the deputy knew that.”