"They won't have time to, and it'll look really down-home and honest," Schiffer was replying ...

... When Booth came back and said, "Oh my God, the Pioneer Press is on the street with a front-page story that says this dead woman, the woman that got murdered, had a long affair with Smalls and that the police are investigating a possible domestic motive for her murder."

They were all struck silent for a moment, then Taryn said, "Davenport said they had a personal conflict. He didn't say they had an affair."

Schiffer said, "Whatever, this could do it for us. It'll play right through Election Day. I still think the horse thing will work for us. Maybe we're a little more sympathetic about Smalls's problems."

Taryn finished the second drink and said, "While still hinting that he's nuts ... let's do it. This is all so ludicrous that we shouldn't let anything go."

Schiffer raised her voice and said, "All right, everybody, let's clear out. Mary, you get the guys and get going on the ad. You can sleep tomorrow night. Everybody else ... Taryn, I'll call you at nine o'clock. I'll cancel the Channel Three thing, that was the only morning show ..."

AS SCHIFFER WAS PUSHING everybody out, Taryn tipped her head at Dannon, saying, "Follow me," and drifted back to the bar. Dannon followed and she said, quietly, "Who's got the overnight?"

"Barry."

"Send him home. You and I need to talk. Carver's going to be a problem."

Dannon sighed, pulled a bottle of lemon water out of the refrigerator and poured his second drink over a couple of ice cubes. "Did he say something to you?"

"Yeah. When people clear out ..."

"Okay," Dannon said.

He started back toward the group in the hallway, and she caught his sleeve and said, "One other thing. I'm so ... angry, confused, cranked up ..."

"It's been unreal ..." Dannon began.

"And I really need something that David doesn't have, to mellow me out... . I'd like to see you back in the bedroom. You know. Send Barry home."

DANNON HAD UNUSUAL SKILLS in the area of death and dismemberment, but he was like anyone else when it came to sex. He'd slept with twenty women in the past twenty years, but had never really desired one. He'd wanted the sex, but hadn't been particularly interested in the package that it came in.

Taryn was an entirely different thing. He'd wanted her from the first week he'd known her. He'd seen her naked or semi-naked two hundred times, out in the pool, so that was no big thing, but seeing her naked when he was finally going to consummate that years-long desire was an entirely different thing.

As soon as the words "bedroom" came out of her mouth, he began to sweat: you know, would everything work? He kicked Barry out, made himself do all the checks, and had another beer, thinking that the alcohol might lubricate the equipment.

He needn't have worried: he walked back to the bedroom with the fourth drink in his hand, and as he walked in, she was coming out of the bathroom, naked except for her underpants, which were no more than a negligible gossamer swatch the size of a folded hankie, and she said, almost shyly, "I've been waiting ..."

And then he was on her, like a mountain lion, and the equipment was no problem at all. He couldn't remember getting out of his clothes, didn't remember anything until she screamed, or moaned, or made some kind of sound that seemed ripped out of her, and she began patting his back and saying, "Okay/okay/okay/okay."

And it was okay for about ten minutes of stroking her pelvis, stomach, breasts, rolling her over, stroking her back and butt, and rolling her again and then they were going once more and he blacked out until he heard once more that scream/moan and "Okay/okay/okay ..."

He collapsed on top of her, lying there sweaty and hot, until she said, "Whew," and "We should have done this years ago."

THEY TALKED FOR A WHILE, this and that, the campaign and Schiffer and Carver and Alice Green ... Dannon told her for the first time why he and Carver were so casual about the DNA check: there was no DNA from Tubbs, because the cops didn't know where to look for it, and there was none with Helen Roman, either, because great care had been taken. "Besides, our DNA profiles are already in the army and FBI files. When there's a chance that some suicide bomber is going to blow you into hamburger, the army wants to be able to identify the scrap meat. We've all got DNA profiles."

Taryn said, "Ah: so it didn't make any difference."

Taryn rolled out of bed and went to a side bar, pulled open the top drawer, and took out a bottle of vodka, two or three drinks down from full. She asked, "You want more water?"

He said, "Sure."

She got some ice from the bar's refrigerator and poured the water over it, and made another lemon drop for herself, with enough lemon to bite, brought the drinks back to the bed and put his cold glass on his belly below his navel. He said, "Jesus, cold," and picked it up, and she laughed, almost girlishly, rolled onto the bed next to him, careful with the drink, and said, "Carver."

"What'd he say to you?" Dannon asked.

Taryn rolled toward him, one of her breasts pressing against his biceps; she wetted a finger and circled one of his nipples in a distracted way, and said, "This afternoon, before we went over to that school, he said that he hadn't signed up for all this. That's what he said, 'signed up.' I asked what that meant, and he said that he hoped I'd be more grateful than I had been so far. I said that I would be, that if he'd hold on until I was in the Senate, I could take care of him in a lot of ways: money, another army job, get his record wiped out, whatever he needed. He said, 'Money's good,' and said we could talk about the other stuff, then he asked when he'd get a down payment."

"What'd you say to that?"

"I said too much stuff was coming down right now: that I assumed he'd want a big brick of cash that he wouldn't have to pay taxes on, but even for me, it takes a while to get cash together. Almost nobody uses it anymore, except dope dealers, I guess."

Dannon said, "Got that right. I can't remember the last time I saw somebody buying groceries for cash, except me."

"He said, 'Well, better get on that. I'm gonna need a big chunk pretty soon. I got a feeling that when everything settles down ... my services might not be needed.' I said, 'You've got a job as long as you want it, and you'll get paid as much as you need.' He laughed and said, 'I kinda don't think you know how much I need.'"

Dannon said, "That's the problem with Ron. He's hungry all the time-more pussy, more dope, more money. There won't be an end to it."

"I know, but I don't know what to do about it."

Dannon said, "Ron and I ... he was enlisted, I was an officer. We're not natural friends. I'm not being arrogant here, lots of the enlisted guys are sharp as razors: but that's the way it is. He doesn't think, except tactically. How exactly to do one thing or another. He thinks three days down the road, but not three months or three years. He'll get us in trouble, sooner or later."

Taryn said nothing, waiting, watching Dannon think.

He said, finally, "There's something else."

"What?"

"I'm kinda worried that from Ron's perspective, I'm the problem," Dannon said. "He'll figure he can handle you. But you and me together ..."

"You actually think ... he might come after you?"

"I think it's inevitable," Dannon said. "It'll occur to him pretty soon. After it does, he won't wait. That's the three-days-thinking problem again. He'll think about it, then he'll move."

"Oh, dear."

"I think he has to go away," Dannon said.

"You mean ... someday?"

"No. I mean right away. I know it'll be a political problem, but ... I know this guy down in Houston. For ten thousand dollars, he'll fly Carver's passport to Kuwait. He's got a deal with one of the border people there."

"I don't understand," Taryn said, though she had an idea about it.