Search and Destroy by James Cody

Author:James Cody [Cody, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brash Books
Published: 2024-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

* * *

Before I left the Senate Office Building that day I paid a short visit to Senator Arthur Tollman’s office, the man who had succeeded Clarke as chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization.

I didn’t know if I would find him in his office or if he would consent to see me—or even what I was attempting to accomplish—but I thought I might be able to annoy him a bit and see what reaction I got. His secretary, a hawk-faced old dame with pince-nez, told me coolly that the senator was in conference but if I wanted to wait she would see if he could see me later. I decided to give it a few minutes, but when nothing happened after almost ten minutes, I rose from the chair on which I had been sitting and got ready to leave. But just at that moment the door to the senator’s office swung open, and I waited. However, the man who came out was not Tollman, but another senator: Homer Jenkins, a second-termer from a Midwestern industrial state, a short, stout man with a gleaming bald head. He glanced at me, and then looked quickly away. I don’t think Homer Jenkins knew who I was, but then maybe he did—for the last little while people in this town have been looking at me and quickly glancing away. I think I unnerve them.

Tollman’s secretary was talking softly into her phone, and when she hung up she told me that the senator could see me, but only for a minute or so. Senator Arthur Tollman was standing in the middle of the room when I entered his office, a manila folder in his hand. He was a tall, erect Southerner in his early sixties, and he had been on the Hill for over thirty years, first as a representative and now as a senator. I had met him a few times around town over the years, but I would hardly say we were the best of friends.

“Yes, Petersen?” he said to me in his slow drawl. He didn’t offer me a seat.

“I just wanted to stop by and apologize for getting Mr. Lacey in trouble for giving me Senator Clarke’s log. It was my fault, I pressured him for it.”

“He shouldn’t have given you that log. He knows better than that.”

“Why? Are you afraid I might find something there, Senator?”

“Now, what’s that supposed to mean. I just don’t like the idea of someone poking around in a late senator’s papers. Especially, someone with a reputation like yours, Petersen.”

“Maybe it takes someone like me to find out what is really going on.”

He looked at me strangely, studying me through his rimless glasses, shaking his head wonderingly. The buzzer on his intercom went off, and he leaned over to listen for a moment. “I’m sorry, I have to go,” he said to me. “There’s a vote on the floor I don’t want to miss.”

“Thanks for your time, Senator.” There was a note of irony in my voice.

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