“You’re not going to believe this.” It was Matt, skipping the hello. “LXX is the Lystras.”

“What?”

“Twelve years ago the Lystras bought the president’s company, Sallee LLC. They hold it through LXX. I guess you could say they bought the president. And apparently own that oil field.”

“Holy shit.”

“With this info we can get you your job back,” Matt said.

“What? No. I don’t think so,” she said reflexively. “I mean, the Chief won’t let us report something that happened last week, let alone twelve years ago. There’s no NOWness.”

“Good point. Meet me at your place. We need to figure this out,” he said, hanging up.

Whenever a big story started coming together, Natalie found that if she let instinct lead her, she could almost intuit where she’d find the next puzzle piece. She began pacing James’s living room. Was it possible the president had been bought and paid for? That he was threatening war in the region as a make-good to an old investor?

Thinking about the Lystras, the oil, the president, and Karima’s tip about Sallee LLC, Natalie flashed back to her lunch with Karima at the Bombay Club. What did she want me to know?

The thought was a taunt, shaming her for her current predicament. There had to be another piece of information, something obvious. The challenge grew in her head and turned until she saw it again from another perspective. And the awareness burst on her like a compression grenade blowing the door off her prison.

The words Anne Harding had used earlier came back to her. She’d said that whenever Karima had hosted the First Lady, she had to get rid of all the liquor. Everything, even the wine.

Now Natalie remembered. At the Bombay Club, Karima had said the exact same thing when the delivery man had called. No deliveries, not even wine. I thought we explained. At the time Natalie had assumed Karima was emptying her house of liquor to entertain Muslim guests. But now she understood. Karima wasn’t hosting visitors from the Middle East. She was hosting a guest from the White House.

Heart thudding, she reached for her cell phone and punched in Karima’s number.

“Hi, Karima, it’s Natalie Savage,” she said as soon as voice mail picked up. “I’d like to talk to you about your houseguest. The sober one, staying at the Colorado house? Please call me back.”

Electrified, she hung up. This time, she knew she was right. She had the story.

“All good?”

Natalie nearly jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t seen James come in.

“Everything okay with your mom?” He flashed her that dimpled smile. “Or you just trying to sit out the tempeh spread?”