“No, you got to get someone else to call for you,” Timmons said.

“Yeah, like his personal attorney,” Willie sneered.

“Someone who knows him already,” Timmons said.

“Who’s that?” Starrell asked.

“I know who.”

Willie snickered at her.

“’Cause I read the papers, too,” she shot back at him.

“So who?” Starrell asked.

“Tell me you love me,” she said, “and I’ll tell you who.”

45 - Second District, Metropolitan Police Station June 30

45

Second District, Metropolitan Police Station June 30

Through an inside window in the interrogation room, Addis could see Margaret Hanover on a television by the sergeant’s desk. Then there was footage from the canal; next, a live shot from outside the station. Addis sat alone in the room. He was wrapped in a blanket. His clothes were wet. He listened to the air conditioner hum. He considered asking someone to shut it off.

A detective entered the room. He said that Addis was not under arrest but that Addis still had the right to an attorney. He asked if he could pose a few questions to Addis. Unofficial. No notes. No tape recorder.

“Go ahead,” Addis told him.

“Who was the woman?”

Addis said her name.

“Does she have relatives in the area?”

Addis said he thought her family lived nearby. Hadn’t she said something about staying at her parents’? he thought to himself. He wasn’t sure.

“Where did she work?”

“The CIA.” The detective paused. “An analyst,” Addis explained.

Shit, I’ve blown her cover. It’s going to be on the front page tomorrow … .

“And what was the nature of your relationship?”

“Friends.”

“Know her long?”

“Not really.”

“And, Mr. Addis, what happened?”

After I came into the possession of information indicating the Hanovers were involved in a shady land deal, Ms. Lancette and I discovered that the CIA was tied to the murder of the President of the United States. Then a maniac working for god-knows-who tried to kill us. He had to settle for one out of two.

“I’m not really sure,” Addis said. He explained that a crazy man in a Trailblazer drove up alongside the car and started waving a gun. Addis tried to outrun him but he could not. There was a gunshot. One, maybe more. He lost control when he tried to get off the parkway.

“And the gun in the car?”

Yes, Clarence Dunne had put it in the glove compartment after the assassination. It probably was registered to Mr. Dunne. Addis had tried to use it to shoot out a window.

“It wasn’t fired.”

Yes, he had dropped it in the water.

“But the back window was shot out.”

Yes.

“By whom?”

Addis didn’t know. A blurry figure. He could not say if it was the driver of the Trailblazer.

“And your visit to the Kennedy-Warren? We were called by a resident there who saw you in the lobby with a woman. Was it Ms. Lancette?”