“The Loudoun County horse circle. John adored their kids. He talked about them all the time, had pictures of them everywhere.”

“What did Senator O’Connor think of his only daughter marrying a horse trainer?”

“Royce is an intelligent guy. And more important, he’s a gentleman. The senator could appreciate those qualities in a potential son-in-law, even if he wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer or a politician. Besides, Lizbeth was wild about him. Her father was smart enough to know there’d be no point in getting in the way of that.”

“What about her? Could she have had some sort of dispute with John?”

Nick shook his head. “She was completely and utterly devoted to him. She was one of our best campaigners and fund-raisers.” He chuckled. “John called her The Force. No one could say no to her when she went out on the stump for her ‘baby brother.’ There’s no way she had anything to do with this.” More emphatically, he added, “No way.”

“Did she have a key to the Watergate apartment?”

“Most likely. Everyone in the family used the place when they were in town.”

“That place has more keys out than a no-tell motel.”

“It was just like John to give keys to everyone he knew and think nothing of it.”

“Yet he was the only other person in the world who had a key to your place. Can you see the irony in that?”

“He led a bigger life than I do.”

“Tell me about your life,” she said on an impulse.

He raised that swarthy eyebrow. “Who’s asking? The woman or the detective?”

Sam took a moment to appreciate his quick intelligence, remembering how attractive she had found that the first time she met him. “Both,” she confessed.

He glanced at her, and even though her eyes were on the road, she felt the heat of his gaze. “I work. A lot.”

“And when you’re not working?”

“I sleep.”

“No one—not even me—is that boring.”

He flashed her a funny, crooked grin that she caught out of the corner of her eye. “I try to get to the gym a couple of times a week.”

Judging from the ripped physique she had been pressed against the night before, he put those gym visits to good use. “And? No wives, girlfriends, social life?”

“No wife, no girlfriend. I play basketball with some guys on Sundays whenever I can. Sometimes we go out for beers afterward. Last summer, I played in the congressional softball league, but I missed more games than I made. Oh, and every other month or so, I have dinner with my father’s family in Baltimore. That’s about it.”

“Why haven’t you ever gotten married?”

“I don’t know. Just never happened.”

“Surely there had to have been someone you might’ve married.”

“There was this one girl…”

“What happened?”

“She never returned my calls.”