the Shot (2000) by Kerr Philip

Author:Kerr, Philip [Kerr, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-03-15T00:17:09.046000+00:00

Chapter 14

Edith Quadros

Ever since he was a boy, Tom Jefferson had been fascinated by American presidents. When Tom was in New York he used the name Frank Pierce, after Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President of the United States. If he was moving among the buxom, blithe, and barely bedecked cocktail waitress set - somewhere like Chez Joie, on Broadway - then he called himself Marty Van Buren, after the eighth President. But mostly he stayed at home in the apartment, especially when Edith turned up pretending, for the benefit of the doorman in Tom's building and his nosey neighbours, to be his half-sister.

Edith Quadros was Nicaraguan, estranged - since she was also a communist - from a very rich family who were close friends of Luis Somoza Debayle, the Nicaraguan President. Working alongside Tom was to be her last assignment for the Cuban Intelligence Service before returning to Managua and helping Carlos Fonseca to found a Nicaraguan revolutionary movement. She believed in the Soviet Union - which she had visited - in the Cuban revolution - which she had assisted - and in Fidel Castro - whom she had bedded - as much as she believed in the evil of Standard Fruit, the CIA, and the Somoza regime. And she believed in the expedience of what Tom and Ameijeiras were planning.

Tom liked Edith immediately, not least because she was as intelligent as she was beautiful, and they were quickly lovers, for theirs was the kind of secret work that promotes an easy intimacy. She knew something of the plan already from Colonel Ameijeiras, and although Tom described it again in greater detail, he could see that it made her nervous. He would have been surprised if it had not. So he tried not to discuss it too much with her, which was easy since there was little to do until the week before Christmas, except rent an apartment and buy a car in Boston.

And in the week up to Thanksgiving, he concentrated on showing her a good time in New York. He took her bowling at Pinewood Lanes on West 125th, and to dinner at Le Vouvray on East 55th. He even took her clothes shopping at Korvette's and Ohrbach's. Gradually, as he got to know her better, Tom realised that he had mistaken nerves for impatience to get on with the job, since Edith was quite resolved to go through with her part in the plan which, in its way, was almost as difficult as his own. And it became clear to him that she disliked Kennedy in the same way Tom did.

He's a playboy,' she said dismissively. I've known the type all my life. I can't stand playboys. Being the President is just like having another expensive toy his father has bought for him, and an opportunity to sleep with more women. I don't understand why America would elect such a man.'

The reason's simple,' said Tom. Richard Nixon. Nobody wanted a bum like him for President. He was the one candidate worse than Jack Kennedy.

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