“You heard some of that?” Addis asked.

Jack nodded weakly.

Wish I didn’t have to do this.

The boy faced Jordan but said nothing. Jordan’s arm was limp, the gun pointing at the floor.

“Lem, who chased us off the road?” Addis asked.

Jordan stared out the window. “Don’t know. Never saw enough of him.”

“How did you get Morrison’s son into that unit? How could you do that?”

Jordan gazed nervously about the room, as if he felt exposed and couldn’t decide in which direction to move.

“Lem,” Addis said, “I don’t know what to say. I—”

“Once we were at a funeral,” Jack interrupted. He paused and swallowed. “My great aunt or somebody. And this man comes up to me, says he’s my grandpa, and if I ever need something I should just tell Lem, and Lem would let him know. And, like, I would get it. Said he was sorry for something …”

Shit, Harris Griffith and now Lem. Chasie, that S.O.B., had it wired. Margaret had chosen Bob over him, and still her father was doing what he could for his daughter and grandson.

“Were you being paid by Chasie?” Addis asked Jordan. “To keep Chasie in the know, smooth things out? Help him look after them?”

Chasie and the Mumfries’s family had done business together. Had Lem gone to Chasie with the Morrison problem? The kid was in trouble with the Marines, so Chasie called a friend in Washington? Mumfries? And … Morrison ends up a trained assassin?

Addis recalled his ride with Mumfries the day Hanover was shot. In the back of the limousine. The two of them. On the way to the White House. “Nick, I can’t tell you how much I really helped them—both of them.” That’s what Mumfries had said.

Or had Mumfries been thinking about the time his family’s newspaper sat on the story that Bob was drinking the night of the accident?

“Did you tell Bob or Margaret about Morrison and his son, about going to Chasie for help? No, you couldn’t have. You probably didn’t even know how Chasie fixed it. And she didn’t know either, did she? She only knew about the land deal. Or suspected. Or didn’t know, but does now. What secrets to keep, Lem.”

Jordan looked at Addis and was silent.

Addis kneeled next to Jack. “Thanks for the help.”

“Was Lem going to—”

“No,” Addis said. “He’s just upset about things. That’s all.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, we’ll go to an Orioles game soon, okay?” Addis picked up the page from the White House log. He tucked it and the Morrison letter into his jacket pocket.

“Bye, Lem,” he said.

Margaret Hanover strode into the room. Behind her were O’Connor, Carey, Whalen, the head of the Children’s Aid Fund, and several Secret Service officers.