Flashback by Justine Davis (classic reads .txt) 📕

He nodded. “I’ll hang back, then. Give me a sign if you feel like it’s not going to work, and I’ll come rattle the cage.”

Rankin was indeed surprised to see her, and glanced rather nervously at the rest of his foursome, three men Alex didn’t recognize, but she didn’t give him time to think about it.

“I thought that was you, Senator,” she said breezily. “How good to see you again!”

“Why, yes, of course,” he stammered out. But he recovered quickly and poured on the charm. “It’s good to see you again, too. How are you, Ms. Forsythe?”

“Oh, fine.” The other men had moved away, clearly to give the senator some room. “I’m glad to be home.”

“Ah, yes, how was your trip? Arizona, I believe your mother said?”

So he was going to play dumb, she thought. “Yes. Oh, by the way, thank you for telling Clarice Pennington where I was. I might have missed her otherwise.”

Rankin frowned. “I don’t recall telling her. Or her asking.”

“Odd. She said it was you. Perhaps she heard it from someone else who heard it from you.”

“No,” he said, looking both thoughtful and worried in equal amounts. “I didn’t say anything about your trip to anyone else.”

Anyone else?

She was tired of waiting, tired of all this gentle probing. Tired of so many things in this town, where men like Rankin held the power because of who their friends were.

“You only told the one person it was important to, then?” she asked, taking care to keep her tone light and casual.

It worked, to a point. He began to nod. Then he stopped himself short.

When he looked at her, there was actual fear in his eyes. Whoever he’d told, it was someone who had the capability to scare this man. And now he knew that she also knew there was someone with a great interest in her whereabouts and activities.

She knew immediately that he’d clammed up tight. He said nothing more and briskly suggested he should get on his way so he didn’t hold up his foursome any longer. But she knew he was rattled and thought she’d better take a chance, since it was unlikely she’d catch him off guard again.

The instant Rankin looked away, she lifted one arm and held up a finger. Justin headed toward her quickly. Rankin heard him coming and frowned anew.

“Good morning, Senator,” Justin said cheerfully. “I’m Special Agent Justin Cohen.”

He flipped open his ID and badge holder and let the man see it. Rankin’s eyes widened, and he glanced over his shoulder as if to see if his companions were close enough to see or hear. Alex held her breath; she hadn’t expected him to come on like this, they didn’t have any official backing on this, after all.

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, especially with such a beautiful lady,” Justin said, “but I’m afraid I need to ask you a couple of questions.”

“She’s an old family friend,” Rankin said.

What an odd answer, Alex thought. Then she caught Justin’s wink and realized the man was denying an intimate relationship with her. Alex bit back an astonished chuckle. You truly do learn to act like the company you keep, she thought.

“Questions about what?” Rankin asked belatedly.

“The murder of Marion Gracelyn.”

That look of fear darted across his face again. “The FBI is opening that case again?”

Alex waited to see how Justin was going to get around that one.

“The possibility exists, depending on what I find out,” he said smoothly.

Nicely dodged, Alex thought, and again stifled a grin.

“But why ask me? It happened years ago, and in Arizona.” Then, as if he’d only just made the connection, he turned back to Alex. “I already told you everything I knew, which was nothing. Are you behind this? You and that book you’re doing?”

“Ms. Forsythe,” Justin said, “and her…book, aside, I want to know what you told one particular person in D.C.”

“Nothing! I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You want to go down with him, Senator?”

Oddly, that statement seemed to calm the man down. He was cool and appeared relaxed as he replied, “Really, Agent Cohen, you’re misguided. I know nothing about Former Senator Gracelyn’s death. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve left my friends waiting too long already.”

“My,” Alex said as she watched him rejoin the rest of his group, “that was quite an abrupt change.”

“Yes,” Justin said sourly. “So much for that great idea. Sorry.”

“No,” Alex said, “we got something. Three somethings, in fact.”

“What?”

“First, he inadvertently admitted he’d told at least one person about my trip to Arizona.”

“But not who?”

“No. He caught himself before he let that slip.”

“What else, then?”

“Why do you suppose he went so calm and cool at the end there?”

Justin shrugged. “I don’t know. You have a theory?”

“I do,” she said. “I think it was what you said.”

“At the risk of sounding stupid…huh?”

“I think,” she said slowly, still working it out in her mind, “when you said that about going down with him, whoever he is, it put Rankin back in control.”

“Okay, now you’ve got me totally lost.”

“I think it put him back in control because he’s convinced that whoever it is will never go down.”

Justin blinked. Then, softly, he said, “And the third thing?”

“He grabbed his cell phone and made a call the minute we walked away.”

“So who would he be calling?” Justin asked as they walked along the outskirts of the country club grounds, along the Potomac River. “Who’s he afraid of, and thinks everybody else should be afraid of, too? Except maybe your grandfather, of course.”

Alex’s mouth quirked. “I’m glad you realize that.”

“I knew that the first time I met him.”

Points for that, she thought.

“That’s a short list,” she said in answer to his question. “Especially in a town that builds careers out of tearing other people down.”

“If you can’t beat ’em, destroy ’em?”

“Pretty much,” she said, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

He stopped, looking out at the bridge over the river, the bridge that led into the city.

“When I was growing up, I was always struggling