"I'm a cop," Quintana said. "You got a problem with that?"

"I don't like somebody standing two inches in front of my face breathing onions on me," Dannon said. "So back off."

Quintana did. Carver nodded at Flowers and asked, "Why's there a cowboy with you?"

"Lucas might've wanted you hog-tied," Flowers said. "He thought I'd be the guy to do it."

Carver stared at Flowers for a minute, then asked, "You in the military?"

"Yeah, for a while."

"Officer?"

"Yeah."

"MP?"

"Yeah."

"I thought so," Carver said.

Quintana had stepped over to Lucas and said, in a low tone, "I can't hardly believe it, but I think it really is that second guy I talked to." He looked back over his shoulder at Dannon and Carver and said, "The smaller one. He's got that funny accent-Texas. Like George Bush."

Dannon stepped toward them and said, "We gave you those DNA samples."

Lucas nodded and squared off with Grant. "We've got two days before the election and this whole thing is coming to a boil. We're watching everybody, because we don't want anybody else to show up dead: there have been two murders so far. We don't need a third."

"We don't have anything to do with any murders," she shouted, and Lucas could see little atoms of saliva spray in the headlights of Flowers's truck.

"We can't take any chances-you could be a target," Lucas said. "We had no plans to stop you. We were making sure that everybody got home all right."

"Fuck you," she shouted.

LUCAS TOLD SHRAKE and Jenkins to go home, and back in Flowers's truck, Lucas asked Quintana, "How sure are you?"

Quintana shrugged. "Hell, Lucas-he sounded like the guy. It's not like he's some random asshole and I'm trying to pick him out of a hundred people by the tone of his voice. He's your suspect, and I can tell you he's got that accent, and that was right, and his tone was right, and the way the words came out, that's exactly right. He sounded exactly like the guy on the phone. You say you're looking for professional killers and you find two professional killers, and then I listen to one of them ... what are the chances that it's not him?"

"Slim and none, and slim is outta town," Lucas said. "I want you to go back to the office and write this down. A standard incident report and e-mail it to me. I'll talk to Marion and tell him you're working with me."

"I appreciate it," Quintana said, and he looked like he did. "In the meantime, I might move out to a motel for a couple of weeks."

"Stay in touch," Lucas said to Quintana, as Flowers pulled away from the curb. "I don't want to wonder what the hell happened to you."

Flowers asked, "We're going to Hampshire and Thirtieth?"

"Yeah, if we can find it."

Lucas called up the Google Maps app on his iPhone, and fifteen minutes later they pulled to the side of the road, houses on one side, a park on the other. Dark as tar on the park side.

Flowers got a flash and Lucas dialed the phone. They walked up and down the road, and then Virgil heard it buzzing down in the weeds. It took a minute or so and a couple of calls to find it. Flowers bagged it and handed it to Lucas.

"Have them check the battery," Flowers said. "They probably had to pull an insulating tab off. Maybe they forgot to wipe it."

"Fat chance," Lucas said. "But I'll do it anyway. I'm pulling on threads, 'cause threads are all I've got."

CHAPTER 19

Taryn fixed herself a lemon drop, with a little extra vodka, as soon as she was back in the house; Dannon helped himself to a bottle of beer, Schiffer had a Diet Pepsi, Carver poured a glass of bourbon, Green got a bottle of Evian water. Schiffer said to Taryn, "All right, enough is enough, if you want to call the governor in the morning, go ahead and do it. But right now we've got more important stuff on the table."

"He thinks we killed somebody," Taryn shouted at her. "He thinks-"

"You know you didn't, so he's got no proof. You gotta keep your eye on the ball," Schiffer shouted back, the two women face-to-face. "We've got one more day of campaigning. We can still lose it."

Taryn looked at her over the glass, then asked, "Where are we?"

The media woman, whose name was Mary Booth, stepped up: "While you were up north, we're seeing a new Smalls ad. It ran prime time, Channel Three at seven o'clock, it's been on 'CCO and KSTP. We'd bought out the KARE slots so it wasn't there."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, what is it?" Taryn asked.

"Well, all that neutrality thing is done with. He knows there's no time left, so he dropped the bomb-he says you planted the porn on him," Booth said. "He doesn't come right out and say the words, but he talks about the Democrats and opposition dirty tricks, and he gets angry. I'd say it's quite effective."

"Let's see it," Schiffer said.

They gathered around the living room TV and the media woman plugged a thumb drive into the digital port and brought the advertisement up: Smalls was dressed in a gray pin-striped suit, bankerish, but with a pale blue shirt open at the collar. He was in his Minnesota Senate office, with a hint of the American flag to his right, a couple of red and white stripes-not enough of a flag display to invite sarcasm, but it was there.

He faced the camera head-on and apparently had been whipped into a bit of a frenzy before they started rolling, because it was right there on his face: "... spent my entire life without committing an offense any worse than speeding, and now the Democrats and the opposition plant this dreadful, disgusting pornography on me, and yes, my fellow Minnesotans, they still think they're going to get away with it. They're still pretending to think that I might have collected this ... crap, even though they know the name of the man who did it, a longtime Democrat dirty trickster named Bob Tubbs. They're laughing up their sleeves at all of us! Don't let them get away with it! This is not the way we do these things in Minnesota."

When he finished, Schiffer said, "Not bad."

Taryn was on her second drink: "What do we do?"

"We bought a lot of time tomorrow afternoon and evening. We can pretty much blanket the state. Mary, Sandy, and Carl will write a new advertisement overnight in which you are warm and understanding-but also a little angry. Maybe we'll say something about how we have to be rational and careful ... hint that he's a little nuts. I'll call you in the morning about wardrobe. I'm thinking maybe something cowgirl, maybe ... what's the name of that stables you ride at?"

"Birchmont," Taryn said.

"Get you out there in jeans and a barn coat, the one you wore out to Windom, and a jean jacket, cowboy boots ... let your hair frizz out a little ... and we do something along the lines of, 'We don't know where the porn came from, and if we find out, no matter who put it out there, we will support any prosecution. In the meantime, let's turn back to the serious issues in this campaign... . '"

As she was talking, outlining a possible quick advertising shoot, Booth's phone rang and she pulled it out and looked at it, while still listening to Schiffer. She saw who was calling and declined the call, but then a second later, a message came in, and she looked at it, and interrupted Schiffer to say, "I gotta take this," and stepped away.

Taryn was saying ... "You don't think they'll mock me for the cowboy outfit?"