The First Councel

“Is there anyone else who had access to your computer?” Lamb asks.

I think back to that first night with Nora. She told me she took the money as evidence. To protect her dad. But now… all that money… the cost of drugs… if she’s looking for a scapegoat…

“I asked you a question, Michael,” Lamb reiterates. “Did Pam or Julian have access to your computer?”

I keep my stare on Nora. “It could’ve been done without the computer,” I explain. “There’re other ways to clear someone into the building. You can call the request in by an internal phone, or even do it by fax.”

“So you’re saying it could’ve been anyone?”

“I guess,” I say. Nora finally looks up at me. “But it’s got to be Simon.”

“Even if it is, how’d he get this Vaughn guy in?” Nora interrupts. “I thought the Service does security checks on all visitors.”

“They only stop foreign nationals and people convicted of felonies. Both of Vaughn’s drug hits were reduced to misdemeanors, and he was acquitted of the murder. Whoever cleared him in, they knew the system.”

“Do you know when the request was sent?” I ask.

“Right after our staff meeting. And according to Adenauer’s timeline, it could’ve easily been you.”

“It wasn’t,” Nora jumps in.

“Just relax,” Lamb says.

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t,” she insists.

“I heard you!” he says, his voice booming. Catching himself, Lamb falls awkwardly silent. It’s getting too personal. “I don’t know what you want from me,” he says to Nora.

“You told me you’d help him.”

“I said I’d talk to him.” Weighing the facts, Lamb throws me one last look. Like the best of the bigshots, he doesn’t give a hint of what he’s thinking. He just sits there, his steel features unmoving. Eventually, he says, “Nora, do you mind excusing us for a second?”

“No way,” she shoots back. “I’m the one who brought him h-”

“Nora… ”

“There’s no way I’m leaving without a-”

“Nora!”

Like a scolded dog, she shrinks down in her seat. I’ve never heard Lamb raise his voice. And I’ve never seen Nora so shaken. That’s why he looked after her all those summers-Lamb’s one of the few people who can tell her no. Understanding the stakes, Nora rises and heads for the door. As it’s about to close behind her, she calls out, “He’s going to tell me everything anyway.” The door slams shut.

Alone in the office, there’s an awkward pause hanging in the air. My eyes jump over Lamb’s shoulder as I try to lose myself in office decor. Studying the colonial landscape oil painting behind him, I realize for the first time that he doesn’t have an ego wall. He doesn’t need one. He’s just there to protect his friend.

“Do you care about her?” he asks.

“What?”

“Nora. Do you care about her?”

“Of course I care about her. I’ve always cared about her.”

Rapping his knuckle lightly against his desk, Lamb looks off in the distance, gathering his thoughts. “Do you even know her?” he eventually asks.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not a trick question-do you know her? Do you really know who she is?”

“I-I think so,” I stammer. “I’m trying to.”

He nods, as if that’s an answer. Eventually, his strong voice creaks forward. “When she was younger-seventh, eighth grade-she started playing field hockey. Fast. Heavy contact. They signed her up so she would have some real girlfriends, and she used to play for hours-on the carpets, outside our farm-anywhere she could lug her stick. She used to make Chris play against her. But for Nora, the best part wasn’t just the physical side; she loved being on the team. Leaning on each other, having someone to celebrate with-that’s what made it worth it. But when her father finally got elected Governor… well, security concerns meant that team sports were out. Instead, she got an image consultant who did her clothes shopping for her and her mom. It seems silly now, but that’s how they saw it.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“If you care about her, you should know that.”

“If I didn’t care about her, I wouldn’t have lied about the money.”

The way his shoulders slack, I can tell that’s what he needed to hear. In some ways, I’m not surprised. Now that the FBI knows we’re dating, we’re all stuck at the epicenter. Nora, Simon, myself… one wrong move and we all go down. To be honest, I don’t think Lamb would care if I was the one who was sucked in. But from the steely look on his face, and the coldly pragmatic way he asked if I cared about her, he’s not letting me take his goddaughter-or the President-along for the ride.

He picks up the FBI folder on his desk and hands it to me. “I assume she told you about the other files in Caroline’s office. There were fifteen altogether-some on her desk; others in her drawers. The FBI’s treating them as a preliminary suspect list.”

“One of the files was mine.”

He nods to himself, almost as if it were a test. “In the back of Vaughn’s FBI file is the list of everyone they’ve cleared so far.” I flip to the list and see three more judicial nominees. The other two are the names Nora showed me. Five down, ten to go. The suspect list is shrinking. And they still haven’t gotten to me.