“Well,” Laurie said finally. “What a day this has been, wouldn’t you say, Lou?”

“Absolutely,” Lou agreed.

“I hope you don’t mind a little shop talk, Paul,” Laurie said. “That skinhead case I mentioned to you earlier had Lou and me tied up for most of the day.”

“Not at all,” Paul said. “I’m sure I’ll be fascinated. That old TV show about a medical examiner was one of my favorites.”

“Paul is a businessman,” Laurie explained.

Both Jack and Lou nodded in unison. Jack expected more of an explanation of what type of businessman, but Laurie changed the subject: “I learned more today about the violent far right than I wanted to know,” she said. “Particularly about right-wing militias and skinheads.”

“I didn’t know anything about the role of music in the skinhead movement,” Lou said.

“What amazes me and scares me is that this militia movement is nationwide,” Laurie said. “Special Agent Gordon Tyrrell estimates there are some forty thousand armed survivalists spread across the country waiting for God knows what.”

“I think they’re waiting for the government to implode from the weight of its huge bureaucracy,” Paul said. “Sort of like a neutron star. Then the survivalists will be in a position not only to survive but also to take over.”

“They’re not above helping it along,” Laurie said. “Agent Tyrrell said that undermining the government has become the rationale for violence now that the Soviet Union is no longer the archetypal enemy.”

“Revenge is also a rationale,” Lou said. “Consider Timothy McVeigh. He was apparently trying to get back at the government for the raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.”

“Back then I was under the delusion that Timothy McVeigh was an anomaly,” Laurie said. “But it’s not true, and that’s the terrifying part. There are forty thousand potential Timothy McVeighs out there. No one knows where one will strike next and on what pretense.”

“Or with what,” Jack said. “Remember the lecture we got from Stan Thornton and the Office of Emergency Management? It’s not inconceivable for one of those nuts to get his hands on a weapon of mass destruction.”

“God help us if that were ever to happen,” Laurie said.

“Gordon Tyrrell doesn’t think it’s a question of if,” Lou said. “His anti-terrorism department thinks the question is when. Just think of all the nuclear weapons that are not entirely accounted for in what used to be the Soviet Union.”

“Let’s order our dinners,” Laurie said with a dejected shake of her head. “If we talk about this much longer, I’m going to lose my appetite.”

The waiter came over to the table the moment he was summoned. He rattled off an impressive list of specials while divvying up the rest of the champagne. Once everyone had ordered, he disappeared into the kitchen.