Seizure (6 page)

“Good grief!” Daniel snapped, as he squatted down to retrieve the papers that had wafted out of the folder. A bellman lent a hand. The papers were professionally rendered schematics of HTSR. He'd brought them to the hearing in case it had been appropriate to hand them out to be sure people understood the procedure. Unfortunately, the opportunity hadn't presented itself.

By the time Daniel had righted himself, Stephanie had returned to his side from the concierge's desk.

“You could have let me know you were stopping,” Daniel complained.

“Who is Carol Manning?” Stephanie questioned.

“I haven't the foggiest idea. Why do you ask?”

“You got an urgent message from her.” Stephanie handed over the piece of paper.

Daniel read it rapidly. “I'm supposed to call her. It says it's an emergency. How can it be an emergency if I don't even know who it is?”

“What's the area code?” Stephanie questioned, as she looked over Daniel's shoulder.

“Two-oh-two!” Daniel said. “Where's that, do you know?”

“Of course I do! It's right here in D.C.”

“Washington!” Daniel exclaimed. “Well, that settles it.” He crumpled the note, stepped over to the concierge's desk, and asked one of them to file it in the circular file.

Stephanie was rooted to the spot where she'd handed Daniel the note. Her mind was churning as she watched Daniel start toward the elevators. Making a sudden decision, she dashed to the desk, took the note from the concierge who still had it clutched in his fist while speaking to another guest, and ran after Daniel.

“I think you should call,” Stephanie said, slightly out of breath as she reached Daniel.

“Oh, really?” Daniel questioned superciliously. “I don't think so.”

The elevator arrived, and Daniel boarded. Stephanie followed.

“No, I think you should call. I mean, what do you have to lose?”

“A little more of my self-esteem,” Daniel said.

The elevator rose. Daniel's eyes were glued to the floor indicator. Stephanie's were glued to Daniel's. The doors opened. They started down the hall.

“I think I recognized the number's prefix from having called Senator Ashley Butler's office last week. I think the prefix was two-two-four, and if it was, then it is a Senate Office Building exchange.”

“All the more reason not to call,” Daniel said. He keyed open the door to their room and entered. Stephanie was right behind him.

While Daniel was removing his coat, Stephanie ducked into the sitting room. At the desk, she smoothed out the note. “It is two-two-four,” she called out to Daniel. “The
emergency
is underlined. Maybe the old codger changed his mind!”

“That's about as likely as the moon dropping out of orbit,”
Daniel said, joining Stephanie. He looked down at the message. “It is weird. What the hell kind of emergency could it be? Originally I thought it was from the media, but not if it's a Senate Office Building exchange. You know, I don't care. Being cooperative with anyone who has anything to do with the U.S. Senate is not high on my priority list at the moment.”

“Call! You might be cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you don't, I'll do it. I'll pretend I'm your secretary.”

“You, a secretary? How entertaining! All right, for God's sake, call!”

“I'll use the speakerphone so you can hear.”

“Wonderful,” Daniel said sarcastically. He sprawled out on the sofa with his head on one of the furniture's arms and his feet on the other.

Stephanie dialed. There was the sound of only one electronic ring before the connection went through. A decidedly female voice snapped a hello as if the person had been eagerly waiting on the other end.

“I'm calling for Dr. Daniel Lowell,” Stephanie said. She locked eyes with Daniel. “Is this Carol Manning?”

“It is. Thank you for calling back. It is extremely important that I talk with the doctor before he checks out of the hotel. Is he available?”

“Can I ask what this is in relation to?”

“I'm Senator Ashley Butler's chief of staff,” Carol began. “You might have seen me this morning. I was seated behind the senator.”

Daniel quickly ran his index finger across his throat to get Stephanie to hang up. Stephanie ignored him.

“I need to talk with the doctor,” Carol continued. “As I said, it is extremely important.”

With the addition of an angry grimace, Daniel again gestured with his finger as if he were cutting his throat. He did it again when Stephanie hesitated.

She motioned to him to stop his antics. It was clear to her that he was not about to talk with Carol Manning, but she was not about to hang up.

“Is the doctor there?” Carol questioned.

“He's here, but momentarily indisposed.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.

“May I ask with whom I am speaking?” Carol questioned.

Stephanie hesitated again while she thought of what to say, considering she'd told Daniel she would pretend to be his secretary. Thinking that was ridiculous now that she was on the phone, she finally just gave her name.

“Oh, good!” Carol responded. “From Dr. Lowell's testimony, I understand you are a collaborator. Might I ask if your collaboration is close and perhaps even personal?”

A wry smile spread across Stephanie's face. She stared at the phone for a second as if it could tell her why Carol Manning would be willing to flaunt normal etiquette and ask such a question. Under more normal circumstances, it would have angered Stephanie. Now it merely magnified her intrigue.

“I don't mean to be inappropriate,” Carol added, as if she sensed Stephanie's response. “This is a rather awkward situation, but I was told you were registered in the same suite. I hope you understand that my goal is not to invade your privacy but rather to be as discreet as possible. You see, the senator would like to arrange a secret meeting with Dr. Lowell, and in this town that is not easy, considering the senator's prominence and notoriety.”

Stephanie's mouth had slowly dropped open as she'd listened to this surprising request. Even Daniel had brought his feet down from the arm of the sofa and had sat up.

“It had been my hope,” Carol continued, “that I could have communicated this message directly to Dr. Lowell so that only the senator, the doctor, and myself would have known about the meeting. Obviously, that is no longer possible. I hope we can count on your discretion, Dr. D'Agostino.”

“Dr. Lowell and I work very closely,” Stephanie said. “You can most assuredly count on my discretion.” She gestured frantically to see if Daniel wished to participate in the conversation now that it had taken such an unexpected twist. Daniel shook his head but motioned for her to continue.

“We are hoping the meeting could be arranged for this evening,” Carol said.

“What can I tell Dr. Lowell this meeting is about?”

“I cannot tell you.”

“Not telling me is going to cause a problem,” Stephanie said. “I happen to know that Dr. Lowell was not pleased with
what happened at this morning's hearing. I'm not sure he will be open to meeting with the senator unless he has some idea it would be to his advantage to do so.” Stephanie looked at Daniel. He gestured he approved how she was handling the call by giving her a thumbs-up sign.

“This is also rather awkward,” Carol said. “Although I am the senator's chief of staff and I normally know everything that is going on in this office, I have absolutely no idea why the senator wants to meet with the doctor. The gist of what the senator said was that although Dr. Lowell might be irritated at today's events, he should hold off on coming to any conclusions about S.1103 until they meet.”

“That's rather vague,” Stephanie said.

“That's the best I can do with the information I have. Nonetheless, I strongly urge the doctor to meet with the senator. My sense is that it will indeed be to his advantage. I cannot imagine any other reason for this meeting. It is most out of the ordinary, and I should know. I have been working with the senator for sixteen years.”

“Where would the meeting take place?”

“The safest place would be in a moving car.”

“This is sounding overly melodramatic.”

“The senator insisted on absolute secrecy, and as I said, that is not easy in this town.”

“Who would be driving this car?”

“Myself.”

“If the meeting were to take place, I'd have to insist on being present as well.”

Daniel again rolled his eyes.

“Since I've already apprised you of the meeting, I will assume that would be acceptable, but to be one hundred percent certain, I'd have to run it by the senator.”

“Can I assume you would come to the hotel and pick us up?”

“I'm afraid that would be inadvisable. The safest plan would be for you and Dr. Lowell to take a taxi to the Union Station. At exactly nine o'clock, I will come by in a black Chevrolet Suburban with tinted windows and District plates: GDF471. I will pull up to the curb directly in front of the station. In case there is any problem, I will give you my cell phone number.”

Stephanie wrote the number down as Carol relayed it.

“Can the senator count on Dr. Lowell being there?”

“I'll convey this information to Dr. Lowell exactly as you have presented it to me.”

“That's all I can ask,” Carol said. “However, I'd like to reemphasize how extremely important this is for both the senator and for Dr. Lowell. The senator used those exact words.”

Stephanie thanked the woman, said she'd call back in fifteen minutes, and disconnected. She stared at Daniel. “This has to be one of the more bizarre episodes I've ever been involved in,” she said, breaking a short silence. “What's your take?”

“What the devil could this old geezer have in mind?”

“I'm afraid there's only one way to find out.”

“Do you really think I should go?”

“Let's put it this way,” Stephanie said. “I think you'd be a fool not to go. Since the meeting is secret, you don't even have to worry about losing any more self-esteem, unless you care what Ashley Butler thinks of you, and knowing what you think of him, I can't imagine that's the case.”

“Did you buy this Carol Manning saying she didn't know what the meeting was about?”

“Yes, I did. I detected some hurt feelings when she said it. My sense is that the senator has something far from mainstream up his sleeve that he wasn't even willing to share with his chief aide.”

“All right,” Daniel said with a tinge of reluctance. “Call her back and say I'll be at the Union Station at nine.”

“That's
we
will be at the Union Station,” Stephanie said. “I meant what I said to Ms. Manning. I insist on going.”

“Why not,” Daniel said. “We might as well make it a party.”

8:15
P
.
M
., Thursday, February 21, 2002

 

It appeared to
Carol that every light was blazing in the senator's modest Arlington, Virginia, home as she turned into the driveway and came to a stop. She glanced at her watch. With the vagaries of Washington traffic, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to manage to arrive at Union Station at exactly nine o'clock. She hoped she'd timed it right, although things were not starting out auspiciously. It had taken ten minutes longer than she'd planned to get from her apartment in Foggy Bottom out to Ashley's house. Luckily, with her grand plan, she'd given herself an extra quarter-hour leeway.

Leaving the engine running and setting the emergency brake, Carol prepared to get out of her vehicle. But it turned out that exposing herself to the cold drizzle wasn't necessary. Ashley's front door opened, and the senator appeared. Behind him stood his portly wife of forty years, looking like the epitome of solid domesticity, dressed in a white, lace-fringed apron over a paisley housedress. Under the protection of the porch and following her apparent orders, he struggled to open his umbrella. What had started out that day as snow flurries had changed to steady rain.

With his face hidden beneath the inverted bowl of the black umbrella, Ashley began descending his front steps. He moved slowly and deliberately, giving Carol a moment to study the blocky, slightly stooped, heavyset man who in another life could have been a farmer or even a steelworker. For Carol, it wasn't a particularly cheerful sight watching her boss approach. There was something distinctly depressing and pathetic about the scene. The misty air and the sepia coloring contributed, as did the monotonous
click-clack
of the windshield wipers as they implacably traced their repeated arcs across the wet windshield. But for Carol, it was more what she knew than what she saw. Here was a man she had respected almost to the point of reverence, for whom she'd made countless sacrifices for more than a decade, but who was now unpredictable and occasionally even mean. Despite her best efforts with the senator during the day, she still had no idea why he insisted on the upcoming clandestine and politically risky meeting with Dr. Lowell, and due to his insistence on absolute secrecy, she'd not been able to ask anyone else. To make matters worse, she couldn't escape the feeling that Ashley had kept the reason for the meeting from her out of spite, purely because he instinctually knew how desperately she wanted to know. During the last year, thanks to a number of undeserved sarcastic comments, she sensed he envied her relative youth and good health.

Carol watched Ashley stop at the foot of the steps to make an adjustment on the flat ground. For a moment, he seemed frozen in place, a metaphor of his bullish stubbornness, a quality Carol had once admired when it involved his populist political beliefs but which now irritated her. In the past, he had fought for power to push his conservative agenda, but now it seemed he fought for power for power's sake as though he was addicted to it. She'd always thought of him as a great man who'd know when to step aside, but now she was no longer so confident.

Ashley began walking slowly, and with his black coat, rounded shoulders, and short shuffling steps, he reminded Carol of a large penguin. He gained speed as he moved. Carol expected him to come around to the passenger side, but instead he opened the back door directly behind her. She could
feel the car shake gently as he climbed in. The door slammed shut. She heard the umbrella fall to the floor.

Carol twisted around. Ashley settled back into the seat. In the dim, brownish-gray light of the car's interior, his face appeared pallid, almost ghostlike, and his coarse features retreated back into his flesh as if dimpled into a loaf of unbaked bread. His thinning gray hair that typically knew its place was frazzled like a clump of steel wool. The lenses of his thick-framed glasses eerily reflected back the lights of his house.

“You're late,” Ashley complained, without a trace of his Southern accent.

“I'm sorry,” Carol responded by reflex. She was always apologizing. “But I think we'll be fine. Should we talk before we head back into town?”

“Drive!” Ashley commanded.

Carol felt a wave of anger wash over her. But she held her tongue, knowing full well what the consequences might be if she voiced her feelings. Ashley had the memory of an elephant for any perceived slights, and the maliciousness of his revenge was legendary. Carol put the hulking Suburban in gear and backed out of the driveway.

The route was simple with limited access roads most of the way. Carol worked her way over to the 395 highway with reassuring ease by catching all the traffic lights green. On the main artery, she was pleased to find less traffic than there had been fifteen minutes earlier, and she accelerated unimpeded to highway speed. Sensing her timing was going to be fine, she relaxed a degree, but as they neared the Potomac River, a commercial jetliner leaving Reagan National Airport thundered overhead. It sounded to Carol as if it were a mere fifty feet above them. As tense as she was, the sudden, reverberating noise startled her enough to cause the car to momentarily swerve.

“If I did not know better,” Ashley said, reverting back to his signature Southern drawl and speaking up for the first time since his rude command, “I would have sworn on my mother's memory that jetliner's turbulence extended all the way down here to this highway. Are you fully in command of this vehicle, my dear?”

“Everything is fine,” Carol said curtly. At the moment, she
even found Ashley's theatrical accent aggravating, with the knowledge of how easily he could turn it on and off.

“I've been perusing the dossier you and the rest of the staff put together on the good doctor,” Ashley said after a short pause. “In fact, I've darn near committed it to memory. I have to commend you and the others. You all did a fine job. I believe I know more about that boy than he does himself.”

Carol nodded but didn't reply. Silence returned until they entered the tunnel running beneath the grassy expanse of the Washington Mall.

“I know you are displeased and cross with me,” Ashley said suddenly. “And I know why.”

Carol glanced back at the senator in her rearview mirror. Flashes of light from the tunnel's ceramic tiles reflected off his face in a flickering manner, making him appear more ghostlike than earlier.

“You're cross with me because I have not divulged my reasons for this imminent meeting.”

Carol glanced at him again. She was taken aback. Such an admission was totally out of character. Never had he suggested he knew or cared what Carol was feeling. As such, it was more evidence of his current unpredictability, and she didn't quite know what to say.

“It reminds me of one time my mama was cross with me,” Ashley said, now adding his anecdotal manner of speaking to his accent. Carol groaned inwardly. It was a mannerism she found equally trying. “This was back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I was in a mind to go fishing by myself in a river more than a mile from our home where there were reputed to be catfish the size of armadillos. I left before dawn, before anyone else had stirred, and I caused my mama a good deal of concern. When I returned home, she was fit to be tied and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and demanded to know why I had not asked her permission to go on such a foolhardy journey at my tender age. I told her I did not ask her because I knew she would say no. Well, Carol, dear, that's the same situation with this impending meeting with the doctor. I know you well enough to know that you would be of a mind to try to change mine, and I am committed.”

“I would only try to change your mind if it were in your best interest,” Carol responded.

“There are times when your emulousness is transparently flagrant, my dear. Most people might not believe your true motivations, considering your apparent selfless devotion, but I know you better.”

Carol swallowed out of nervousness. She did not know precisely what to make of Ashley's pompous comment, but she knew she did not want to go in the direction it implied, meaning he sensed her unspoken ambitions. Instead she asked, “Did you at least discuss the meeting with Phil to be certain of its potential political ramifications?”

“Heavens, no! I have not discussed the meeting with anyone, not even my wife, bless her soul. You, the doctors, and myself are the only people who even know it is about to take place.”

Carol exited off the freeway and headed for Massachusetts Avenue. She was relieved they were closing in on Union Station to preclude the possibility of the conversation returning to the topic of her tacit goals. She looked at her watch. It was a quarter to nine.

“We are going to be a little bit early,” she said.

“Then meander a bit,” Ashley suggested. “I would prefer to be exactly on time. It will set a proper tone for the appointment.”

Carol turned right on North Capital and then left on D. It was a familiar area because of its proximity to the Senate Office Building. By the time she was heading back to the Union Station, it was three minutes before nine. When she pulled directly in front of the station, it was nine on the dot.

“There they are,” Ashley said, pointing over Carol's shoulder. Daniel and Stephanie were huddled beneath a Four Seasons umbrella. They stood out from the crowd because of their immobility. Everyone else in the area was hustling to gain shelter, either in the station or in one of the waiting taxis.

Carol flicked the high beams up and down to get the doctors' attention.

“There's no reason to cause a scene,” Ashley growled. “They've spotted us.”

Daniel could be seen checking his watch before sauntering toward the Suburban, Stephanie holding on to his left arm.

The doctors came to Carol's window. She lowered it.

“Ms. Manning?” Daniel asked offhandedly.

“I'm in the backseat, Doctor!” Ashley called out before Carol could respond. “How about you joining me back here and your exquisite collaborator joining Carol up front.”

Daniel shrugged before he and Stephanie rounded the car. He held the umbrella for Stephanie to climb in, then he did the same himself.

“Welcome!” Ashley beamed, as he stuck out one of his broad, thick-fingered hands. “Thank you for coming out to meet with me on such a dreadfully wet evening.”

Daniel eyed Ashley's hand but made no motion to take it in his own. “What's on your mind, Senator?”

“Now here's a true Northerner,” Ashley said cheerfully, as he withdrew his hand and seemingly took no offense at Daniel's rebuff. “Always ready to cut to the quick without wasting time on the refinements of life. Well, so be it. There will be time for handshaking later. Meanwhile, my intention is for you and I to get to know each other. You see, I am very much interested in your Aesculapian talents.”

“Where to, Senator?” Carol questioned, while peering at Ashley in her rearview mirror.

“Why don't we take the good doctors on a tour of our fair city,” Ashley suggested. “Head down to the Tidal Basin so they can enjoy our city's most elegant memorial!”

Carol put the car in gear and headed south on First Street. Carol and Stephanie exchanged a quick, appraising glance at each other.

“Here's the Capitol itself on the right,” Ashley said, pointing. “And on our left is the Supreme Court, which I just personally love architecturally, and the Library of Congress.”

“Senator,” Daniel said, “with all due respect, which I'm afraid isn't a lot, I'm not interested in your giving us a tour of the city, nor am I interested in getting to know you better, especially after the sham hearing you put us through this morning.”

“My dear, dear friend . . .” Ashley began after a short silence.

“How about cutting out the Southern bombast!” Daniel snapped scornfully. “And for the record, I'm not your dear friend. I'm not your friend at all.”

“Doctor, with all due respect, which I mean sincerely, you do yourself a great disservice by indulging in such effrontery. If you allow me to offer a bit of advice: You hurt your own cause when you allow your emotions to overpower your considerable intellect as you did this morning. Despite your adequately expressed animosity toward me, I wish to negotiate with you on a man-to-man and preferably gentleman-to-gentleman basis on a most important but sensitive matter. We both have something the other desires, and in order to realize those desires, we each have to do something we would rather not do.”

“You're talking in riddles,” Daniel grumbled.

“Perhaps I am,” Ashley admitted. “Do I have your interest? I shall not proceed unless I am convinced of your interest.”

Ashley heard Daniel exhale impatiently, and he imagined the doctor had rolled his eyes by his body language, but he couldn't tell for certain because of the darkness in the car. Ashley waited while Daniel briefly stared out his window at the passing Smithsonian buildings.

“Merely admitting to your interest will neither obligate you or jeopardize you in any way,” Ashley said. “No other persons than those in this vehicle know that we are chatting tonight, provided, of course, that you have not informed anyone.”