ELECTION DAY.

In the dawn's early light, he rolled out of bed when he felt Weather moving, and she said, "You had a bad night."

"Push coming to shove," Lucas said.

"When are you going to push?" she asked.

"Today, I think. There's no time left."

"Take your gun with you," she said. And, "God, I hate it when I think things like that. Take your gun with you, because somebody might try to kill you and you might have to kill them."

"Yeah. Well." He had nothing to say; and he would take his gun. He always did.

"How're you going to start?"

"By trusting somebody I have no really good reason to trust," he said.

WHILE WEATHER WENT IN the bathroom, Lucas walked downstairs to his study and called Alice Green. She came up on the second ring, sounding a little sleepy:

"Yes?"

"Lucas Davenport, the much-loved cop."

"I think Taryn talked to the governor about you," Green said. "Tried to get you fired."

"Yeah? What'd he say?"

"Not to be vulgar, but the phrase 'Go shit in your hat' comes to mind."

"With a person of the governor's refinement, I'm sure that phrase never occurred to him," Lucas said.

"This is probably not the time to discuss it, but I wouldn't mind being on his security detail," Green said. "I understand he doesn't have female security at the moment."

"I could ask him, Alice, but I don't think it's extremely likely," Lucas said.

"He's got something against women?"

"No, but his wife does," Lucas said. "You're far too good-looking to pass the test."

"Nothing to be done about that, I guess, unless you want to come over and punch me in the face," Green said.

"What I'd like to do," Lucas said, "is meet you somewhere to talk, before you go on the job today."

"Will this get me fired?" she asked.

"Maybe. I'd try to keep you out of it, but if it's a murder ..."

"The thing is, disloyalty in one job might keep me from getting any other job."

"I'm trying to tell you the truth," Lucas said. "I can't absolutely guarantee that it wouldn't get out."

After a moment, she said, "There's a Caribou Coffee halfway between my place and Taryn's. I could meet you there at seven-fifteen. I'm on the job at eight."

"I'll see you then," Lucas said.

ALICE GREEN WAS DRESSED in green when Lucas arrived: a green blouse the color of her eyes, a much darker green jacket in a kind of knobby fabric, and black slacks that appeared to be form-fitting until you looked closely. She was paying for a cup of coffee, and Lucas looked closely, and realized that everything she wore was functional, nice-looking but tough, rather than luxurious, and well suited to a fight; the jacket was long enough and loose enough to conceal a pistol.

She paid, walked toward a far corner; saw him, nodded, but kept going. Lucas got a Diet Coke and checked the other customers before he walked over to her table, where she was blowing on a paper cup full of dark coffee. She said, "If anybody I know comes in, I'll have to shoot you."

Lucas sat down: "I need to talk to Carver, alone, I think. I've found a lever that might convince him to talk with me. I'll call him unless you think it would be a terrible idea."

She considered for a moment and then said, "Well, it would be a terrible idea, but talking to either one of them, Dannon or Carver, would be a terrible idea. I assume you've got your back against the wall."

"It's my last shot," Lucas said. "I'm almost certain that Dannon was involved in placing the porn on Smalls's computer. If Tubbs and Roman were killed to cover that up, then it's at least possible that he was acting alone and Carver could give me some insight into how to get him. Or, it's possible that Carver cooperated, but would take a plea. Also, I've got something on Carver that might convince him to cooperate. So, I'm looking at Carver."

"I doubt that he'll crack," Green said. "He'll stonewall. So will Dannon, for that matter. There's not much choice there."

Stonewall. She picked the same word as Elle had. "If you had to make a choice ... which one would you choose?" Lucas asked.

She thought for a moment, sipping at the coffee, and finally said, "If I had to choose, I guess I'd have to agree with you: I'd go with Carver, if you've got some leverage. He's not as smart as Dannon. It's barely possible that you might confuse him enough to get something. I don't think that would be the case with Dannon. Also, Dannon's got another reason to stonewall: Taryn has started sleeping with him. If you take him down, she'd go down, too. At least, he'll see it that way. So he'll stonewall."

"It'll be tough either way," Lucas agreed.

"I'd say you've got no chance with Dannon, no matter how involved he is, and you've got a five percent chance with Carver. Or two percent."

"Off the top of your head ... what are the chances that Grant knows what they did? That she's involved, that she directed it or approved it?"

Green shook her head: "She's a smart woman. I'd be surprised if she was involved. But ... and I say but ... she's obviously a sociopath. It wouldn't bother her that people died to get her into the Senate. It would bother her that she could go to prison for it. She's made that calculation, too. That's why she gets so angry when she sees you."

Lucas nodded, and said, "Okay," then leaned forward, his forearms on the table. "If I drive a wedge between Dannon and Carver, what would happen?"

"I don't know. They're colleagues, but not exactly friends," Green said. "Dannon is somewhat ... disparaging ... when it comes to Carver, because Carver was a sergeant, an enlisted man, and Dannon was an officer. He treats me more as an equal because I was with the Secret Service. Carver feels it. It pisses him off."

"What's Carver's relationship with Grant?"

"He's become ... overly familiar. I don't know what happened, but yesterday I heard him call her 'honey,' when he thought they were alone. I pretended not to hear."

"She's not sleeping with him, too?"

"Oh, no. She's definitely the officer type. In fact, I'm a little surprised by the thing with Dannon. When I say 'officer type,' I'm talking generals, not captains. But, maybe it's just sex."

"All right," Lucas said. "Do you have a phone number for Carver?"

"Yes. He's already at the house, by the way. He'll be with Taryn until three o'clock, when he gets a couple hours off, to get ready for tonight. If you need to meet with him privately, you could call him while she's speaking. She has four brief appearances today, mostly for the television cameras, and for a couple of blogs. Then they'll head back and watch the results come in."