“With that land deal? Doubt it. After that first campaign, the blood was so bad. Those stories were true. Didn’t have to make it up for that TV movie. Boy, did Chasie hate me. He and my daddy did business together. I was a traitor to the regime. My daddy once told me that he had seen Chasie at the Jefferson Club in Baton Rouge. This must’ve been when Bob was still AG, but right after Jackie was born. ‘Don’t it break you up you can’t see him?’ my daddy asked. ‘Yeah, sure,’ Chasie said. ‘But he’s still my flesh and blood. And they can’t ever take that away.’ You know, I don’t know if Chasie ever got to see the boy. That is, in person.”

Whalen removed the straw from his wife’s mouth and placed the glass on a table.

“What’s the deal with Margaret and Mumfries?” Addis asked. “I still can’t figure that out.”

“Don’t see how it’s related to this. But Mumfries’s family owned a bunch of businesses here. Some freight companies. Natural gas. Construction. Bunch of local papers. Had to be some crossover with Chasie. Sam, though, never went into all that. Cut out on his own. Got far, far away. All the way to … the state next door. They never liked each other. But, you know, funny thing is that if it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t be President today.”

Addis’s expression asked why.

“Was on her advice,” Whalen said, “that Bob took on Sam.”

“I never saw her push for Mumfries. In all those meetings, she only asked questions about whoever was being discussed.”

“I was there, too. But I was also here, in this room. Night before he made up his mind. She asked if I wouldn’t mind leaving them be for a minute or so. I did and went to the kitchen. But I could still hear them. She said he had to pick Sam. For the obvious reasons. He balanced out the ticket in politics, and he could give them Texas. ‘Thought you hated him,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘Only one thing matters.’ I got to feeling guilty—listening in like that—and went out to the veranda.”

He paused. “First time I think I ever told anyone that. Right, Amelia?”

She nodded.

“Except for Amelia.”

She smiled again.

“And the thing of it is, we would’ve won without Texas. But who knew that then?”

“You think Margaret has reason to worry about this deal?” Addis asked.

Whalen rearranged the books on the coffee table in front of Amelia.

“Not that I know, but she’s a thorough woman. Always has been.”

Amelia rolled her eyes. Her husband did not notice. For my benefit? Addis wondered. Or an involuntary sign of discomfort?

“Guess I should be going,” Addis said.