“He said the field had been narrowed to three candidates and all of them were making credible showings, so the chances of one of them winning on the first ballot were slim.”

“He didn’t think at that point that Marty Stanton would make it?”

“He thought Marty could, but he also thought there was a very good chance that he’d get caught with his pants down and implode. Well, he got caught, but the implosion isn’t complete yet, so he could still win.”

“What does Sam Meriwether think the count is?”

“Marty needs a hundred and thirty-five delegates out of two seventy to win on the first ballot and he has about a hundred and thirty-two. Willingham has about eighty-one and Otero has maybe fifty.”

“And how many do you have, Kate?”

“We’re figuring none.”

“But surely—”

“Most of the people who would vote for me on the first ballot are from primary states and are committed to the man who won their states, and by the time I got in, the others were pretty much committed. Sam thinks it’s better if we work on a worst-case basis, and that’s no delegates for me. I’ve no chance unless Marty fails to get a hundred and thirty-five. Then we’ll see.”

“I have to admit,” Stone said, “it seems impossible.”

“That’s what we want everybody to think,” Ann said, “until tomorrow night.”

“Well, yes.”

“Pete Otero hasn’t called you,” Ann said. “I find that odd that he wouldn’t want your support.”

“Pete knows he isn’t going to win the nomination, so he doesn’t need my support,” Kate said. “I’m sure that both Marty and Willingham have already met with him and I expect they’ve both offered him the vice president’s slot on the ticket. He’s smart not to commit. If he made the wrong move, then he’d miss eight years of being vice president, then a really good shot at the presidency. And if whoever gets the nomination loses in the general, Pete is first in line for the nomination four years from now. Remember Jack Kennedy at the 1956 election? He thought he’d get the vice president slot on the ticket, but Adlai Stevenson threw him a curve ball when he threw the vice presidential nomination open to the convention and Estes Kefauver won. But by that time Jack was as well known to the electorate as almost anybody in the party, and when Adlai lost, the nomination was wide open to him in 1960. Pete has patience and it may work well for him.”

They ate their lunch talking mostly about everything but the convention. Stone saw Kate relaxing and he thought the change of subject probably did her good.

—

THEY WERE DONE with lunch and on coffee when the telephone buzzed and Stone answered.

“Telephone for Mrs. Lee,” Manolo said.

“Who’s calling?”

“They wouldn’t say.”