The Innocent

“ATF guys found the source of the detonation.”

“Where?” Robie asked sharply.

“Wheel well of the bus, left side. Had a motion sensor. Bus starts going, engages the timer. A few minutes later, boom.”

Robie stared at her, his mind racing.

The guy after Julie certainly wouldn’t have gotten on a bus he had just rigged to explode.

That left only one explanation.

I was the target.

CHAPTER 50

Robie spent an hour with Vance going over the ATF findings and then he slipped away and made a call to Blue Man.

“Her name is Diane Jordison.” Robie described her. “She’ll be hanging around the area where the bus detonated. She was very helpful and I think she might be more helpful down the road. But she needs to get off the streets. Too risky otherwise.”

Blue Man said he would take care of it and Robie had to trust that he would. At least for now. He planned to check on that later. At the end of the day Robie could not trust anyone.

“I also want you to run down whatever you can find on a Leo Broome. Works somewhere on Capitol Hill.”

“How does he figure into this?” asked Blue Man.

“I don’t know if he does. But I have to cover that angle.”

“That briefing, Robie. I want it soon.”

Blue Man clicked off.

I want a lot of things, thought Robie. I want a way out of this nightmare.

An hour later he was back at his apartment. He took a shower and changed his clothes. He put his gun in a belt holster centered on his back and climbed in the Volvo, then texted Julie and received a response a few seconds later confirming that she was okay. He sent her another text saying he would be by to see her later and would probably stay at the apartment with her tonight.

He drove across town and pulled into a parking garage around the corner from the Old Ebbitt Grill, a Washington landmark that sat facing the east side of the Treasury building, which was located next to the White House. He snagged a space near the entrance.

Robie was here to keep his eight o’clock drink date with Annie Lambert. He entered the W Hotel and rode the elevator up to the rooftop outdoor bar, which was actually covered. Up here one could enjoy views from the White House all the way up to Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.

It was a weeknight so the tables weren’t full, but there were about twenty people cradling drinks, munching snacks, and ordering off the bar menu. Robie glanced around but did not see Lambert. He checked his watch. He was about two minutes early.

He took a seat at a table next to the railings and gazed out over the cityscape. The buildings here were impressive. Anyone would think so. Well, probably not the people who were doing their best to blow them up. The waiter came over and Robie ordered a ginger ale. He sipped on it and constantly checked the door into the bar. On his fifth rotation he glanced at his watch. Fifteen after. Lambert might turn out to be a no-show. She might have wanted to call him, but he hadn’t given her his number and he didn’t have hers. Maybe late duties at the White House had interrupted her plans.

He was about to get up when she walked in, spotted him, and rushed over.

“I am so sorry,” she said. She draped her coat over the back of the chair and sat down, setting her bag next to her. She had kept on her heels, he noted. Her sneakers were probably in the bag. Her hair was down around her shoulders and proved to be an attractive backdrop for her long neck.

“You fast walked over?”

“How’d you know?” she gasped.

“You wouldn’t ride your bike with heels on, and you’re pretty breathless for a short walk followed by an elevator ride.”

She laughed. “Good deductions. Yeah, I left my bike at work and ran over. I got caught up in something right at five to eight. Had to get it done. And I did.”

“Then that deserves a reward.”

Robie waved the waiter over and Lambert ordered a vodka tonic. The waiter brought it back, along with a bowl of nuts and pretzels, and set it down between them.

Robie bit into a nut and took a swallow of his drink. Lambert sipped her cocktail and snagged a handful of the snack mix and gobbled it down.

“Hungry?”

“No time for lunch today,” she explained. “Or breakfast either, actually.”

“You want to order off the menu?”

She ordered a cheeseburger and fries while he went with some spring rolls.

“My diet is not the healthiest in the world,” she said. “Sort of an occupational hazard.”

Robie settled farther back in his chair and prepared himself to engage in small talk. He had wanted to have a drink with Lambert. But now that he was here with her, it seemed crazy given all that he was confronting right now.

I can’t be normal, no matter how much I want to be.

“I can understand that. You do much traveling in your job?” he said, trying to sound excited to hear her answer.

“No. I’m not officially high enough in the pecking order to ever be considered for a ride on Air Force One or even in any of the secondary planes. But I’m working hard and making a name for myself, and maybe one day, who knows, right?”

“Right. So you enjoy politics?”