"I don't think so-but he knows you were asked by the governor to look at the case," Rose Marie said. "There's nothing to do but be upfront about it."

"The problem is, I used a couple of personal friends as information sources and computer support," Lucas said, referring to Kidd and ICE. "If I have to name them, they could be pretty goddamn unhappy."

"That will probably come up, but as technical people, they shouldn't have too much of a problem," Rose Marie said. "If they're called, they just tell the truth, and go on their way. They were asked to help out in a law enforcement investigation, and they did."

"Aw, shit," Lucas said.

ICE would not be much of a problem; she'd worked with law enforcement, and had testified in court hearings about her work. But he dreaded calling Kidd, who'd always seemed to Lucas to be a reclusive sort, an artist, a fringe guy who, as it turned out, also knew something about computers. He shouldn't have used him, Lucas thought: Kidd looked and talked tough, but might actually be too brittle for a rough-and-tumble political fight.

He called Kidd, and was surprised by the reaction: "Don't worry about it," Kidd said. "I'm a guy you knew from back when, who's worked in the computer industry, so you got me to take a look. I don't mind showing up to tell him that, as long as I don't have to wear a suit."

"You got a suit?"

"Yeah, but I only wear it when I marry somebody," Kidd said. "Listen, I'm pretty friendly with Jed Cothran and Maury Berkowitz. If you think this guy could cause you some real trouble, I could give them a ring. If they lean on him a little, with the governor, I don't think he'll be inclined to a show trial, or anything. If that's what's worrying you."

Lucas was surprised a second time: Cothran and Berkowitz had been Minnesota U.S. senators, one from each party. "How do you know those guys?"

"Ah, back in the day, I used to sell do-it-yourself political polling kits. This was back before everything was run on polls, and everybody hired a pro. They were customers, young guys on their way up. They sorta became friends."

"I had no idea," Lucas said. "I don't think you need to call them-I was just worried you'd think I sold you out or something. Lockes won't be interested in you. He'll figure you for a technician. He's more interested in the ... political interplay. You might not even be called. In fact, the governor might be able to head the whole thing off."

LUCAS WENT HOME. Ate dinner, messed around with the kids, told Weather what had happened that day, including the possibility of a subpoena. "Why does everybody seem to think that Lockes is a horse's ass?" she asked.

"Because he's a horse's ass," Lucas said.

A little after nine o'clock, as Lucas was browsing his financial websites, Horse's Ass's minions arrived with a subpoena. There were two of them, one of each gender, and he knew the woman. Sarah Sorensen was a mid-level assistant attorney general, a bland, brown-haired woman who was wearing an animal-rights baseball cap. She gave Lucas the paper and introduced the male half of the delegation, Mark Dunn, who looked around and said, "This is a nice property."

There was a tone about the comment that suggested that a cop shouldn't be living quite so well, and Sorensen picked it up and said curtly, "Lucas founded Davenport Simulations. You may have heard of it."

Dunn said, "Of course," and shut up.

Sorensen said to Lucas, "The subpoena is for tomorrow, but we'd like to have a little pre-interview here, if you have the time. We'd like to get this over with as quickly as possible-tomorrow, if possible. We need to know if we've contacted everybody necessary to get a complete picture."

Sorensen already had the names of all the people in the meeting at the St. Paul Police Department, plus the governor, and Neil Mitford, the governor's weasel, and ICE. Lucas added Kidd's name to the list, feeling guilty about it, even though Kidd hadn't seemed bothered by the prospect.

Sorensen said, "This Ingrid Eccols-ICE, you call her-and Mr. Kidd are essentially computer technicians?"

"That's correct," Lucas said. "We contacted them because we had rather pressing time limitations, with the pornography allegations pushed up against the approaching elections. We got a copy of the hard drive the way we did, through Senator Smalls's attorney, because it was convenient and fast. You understand that we didn't change anything, that we were operating only from a copy of the computer hard drive, that the original was preserved."

"We understand that," Sorensen said.

"We were trying to cover as much ground as quickly as we could, so I called in a couple of personal favors from people I knew to be knowledgeable about computers. And, what popped out, popped out."

Dunn said, "Excuse me, but I don't understand exactly what popped out."

"A kind of booby trap which would reveal the porn to anyone who touched Senator Smalls's keyboard ... and would allow it to be hidden quickly, should Senator Smalls return before the trap was triggered," Lucas said. "During that investigation, Robert Tubbs's name came up, and further investigation-"

"We have that file," Sorensen said.

"Then you know what I know," Lucas said. "The only thing not in the file is what I was doing today, which was interviewing staff members with Senator Smalls's campaign committee to try to determine whether Tubbs had an accomplice. I interviewed ten members of the campaign, and all of them denied any connection to Tubbs."

Sorensen asked, "And you believe all of them?"

"I don't really believe any of them," Lucas said. "I can't afford to-but I think all but one are telling the truth. I just don't know who that one is."

Sorensen said, "Okay. If you can give me the phone number for Mr. Kidd, I think that's all we'll need before tomorrow. Ten a.m., if that's good with you."

AT TEN O'CLOCK the next morning, Lucas showed up at the attorney general's office, wound up waiting until after noon, as Rose Marie Roux, Henry Sands, Neil Mitford, Rick Card, and Roger Morris were called in, one by one, and questioned. The interviews were being done in a conference room with a long table, a dozen chairs, five lawyers including Lockes, the attorney general, Sorensen, and Dunn. A court reporter sat at the far end of the table with a steno machine and a tape recorder.

Lucas was sworn, and told the same story he'd told Sorensen the night before, but in more detail. Lockes, a narrow, dark-haired man who looked like he ran marathons, probed for the reason Lucas had taken the assignment directly from the governor.

"The governor told me that he knew Senator Smalls personally, a lifelong ... relationship, if not exactly a friendship," Lucas said. "He said that Senator Smalls swore to him that he was innocent, and had been set up, probably by somebody on the campaign committee staff-possibly a spy working for the Democratic Party. The governor was inclined to believe him, judging from his knowledge of Smalls's character. The governor was then concerned on two fronts: First, one of simple fairness, if Senator Smalls was telling the truth. Second, he worried that if it was, in fact, a dirty trick, it could come back to haunt his party during the elections."

"But why did he come to you, specifically, rather than speak to Rose Marie Roux or Henry Sands?" Lockes asked.

"Because speed was required. Urgently required. The governor was familiar with my work, and once he decided to move, he informed Rose Marie, who informed Henry, and he talked to me, all within a very short period of time. I'm not sure of the exact sequence there."

Dunn asked, "Do you routinely take political assignments directly from the governor?"

"No. And I object to that characterization," Lucas snapped. "The governor realized that a crime had been committed and that an important election could be affected by it."

"He didn't know that a crime had been committed," Dunn said.

"Of course he did," Lucas said. "If Senator Smalls was knowingly in possession of child pornography, then he'd committed a crime. If somebody planted the pornography on Senator Smalls, then a different crime had been committed. It had to be one or the other, so the crime was there. As a senior agent of the BCA, he asked me to find out the truth of the matter, and as rapidly as possible, with the least amount of bureaucratic involvement, in an effort to resolve this before the election. I'd emphasize that he was looking for the truth, not just to clear Senator Smalls. It'd be far better for the governor's party if Smalls was guilty: it would give them an extra Senate seat in a very tight political situation."

Lockes said tentatively, "There's been some mention of possible involvement by the Minneapolis Police Department."

Lucas shook his head. "That's purely conjecture at this point." He explained about what appeared to be an evidentiary photograph among the rest of the pornography.

"And this could tie in to the disappearance of Mr. Tubbs," Lockes said.

"Again, conjecture at this point," Lucas said.

"But if there's anything to all of this, if Tubbs doesn't show up somewhere ... then we're talking about a murder."

Lucas nodded: "Yes. I'm treating it as a murder investigation."

Dunn started to jump in. "If the governor asked-"

Lockes held up a hand to stop him, then said to Lucas: "You're a busy man, with a murder out there. You better get back to it."

Lucas stood and said, "Thanks. I do need to do that."

And was gone.