HOT? KIDD?

Lucas had never thought of Kidd as hot, or even particularly good-looking. He certainly didn't know anything about fashion-Lucas had never seen him in anything but jeans and tennis shoes and T-shirts or sweatshirts, sometimes with the sleeves cut off. Weather gave money to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, quite a lot of money, and they'd once gone to a function that specified business casual dress, and Kidd was there ... in jeans, running shoes, and a sweatshirt, but with the sleeves intact. He said it was casual, for his business.

Still, in regard to his hotness ... Weather seemed to enjoy Kidd's company. A lot. Sort of like she enjoyed the company of Virgil Flowers, another predator, in Lucas's opinion. And Kidd had a wife who was herself so hot, in Lucas's view, that she was either far too good for the likes of Kidd, or ...

Kidd had something that Lucas didn't recognize. Not that there was anything wrong with that, Lucas thought.

LUCAS DUG KIDD'S PHONE number out of his desk and called him. Kidd picked up: "Hey, Davenport," he said. "Wasn't there, didn't do it."

"How's Lauren?" Lucas asked.

"Who wants to know? And why?"

"Just making small talk," Lucas said. "I need to talk to you ... about computers. A friend told me that you understand databases."

"What friend?"

"Ingrid Caroline Eccols." There followed a silence so long that Lucas finally asked, "You still there?"

"Thinking about ICE," Kidd said. "So, what's the situation?"

"I'd rather explain it in person," Lucas said. "But time is short. Would you be around tomorrow, early afternoon?"

"Yeah, but ICE isn't invited."

"She's a problem?"

"I couldn't even begin to explain the many ways in which she could be a problem," Kidd said.

"Okay. She's not invited," Lucas said.

"Can Lauren sit in?"

Lucas hesitated, then said, "It's a very confidential matter."

"She's a very confidential woman," Kidd said. "And if it's that confidential, I'd rather she hear about it. You know, in case I need a witness at some later date."

"Then fine, she's invited, if she wants to be there."

"Oh, she'll be there," Kidd said. "She thinks you're totally hot."

TOTALLY HOT.

Everybody was hot, everybody was rich. Better than chasing chicken thieves in Black Duck, Lucas thought, as he settled at his desk with the file from Whidden.

The file looked pretty good, until he opened it. Once opened, half of it turned out to be printouts of 911 conversations, repetitive reports on the seizing of the computer from the campaign offices, and reports of conversations and interviews with office personnel, most of whom knew nothing whatever, and an interview with Brittany Hunt, the volunteer who found the pictures.

Hunt was twenty and had been working as a volunteer since June, and would return to college-Sarah Lawrence-the following winter, having spent half a year working on the campaign.

She knew only slightly more than the completely ignorant office employees. She'd had a report on the ten-year cost of proposed bridge repairs, for which Smalls had gotten appropriations from the feds. She'd walked into his office a little after ten o'clock in the morning, and since Smalls himself had ordered the report, she'd placed it where he'd be sure to see it, and know that she'd fulfilled his request: she dropped it on his keyboard.

Instantly, she said, a picture flashed up, and she'd reflexively looked at it: at first it seemed like a jumble of dead people, and then she realized that it was a group sex photo, and that two of the people in the photo were children.

She called Dad, and Dad dialed 911. The rest was history. Lucas learned almost nothing from the report that he hadn't gotten from Smalls, except that Sarah Lawrence women freely used sexual references that Lucas heretofore thought confined to pornographic films.

He finished the file, and went into the kitchen in search of orange juice. Weather and Letty were leaning on the kitchen breakfast bar, programming something into Weather's cell phone. Weather looked up and asked, "Well? What was in the file? Did he do it?"

Lucas got a bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator and twisted its cap off. "File was useless. One good thing: I'm not far behind the St. Paul cops."

"I'm shocked that you're behind at all," Weather said.

"Me too," said Letty. "Shame."

"Thank you for your support," Lucas said. "You'll find me in the garage, sharpening my lawn mower blade."

Letty looked at Weather and asked, "Is that a euphemism?"

"I hope not."

Lucas ignored them, finished the orange juice, put the bottle in the recyclables, and went off to the garage.

They could taunt him all they wished; but Kidd's scorchingly good-looking wife, Lauren, thought he was totally hot.

CHAPTER 4

Taryn Grant came back from a campaign loop through Rochester, Wabasha, and Red Wing, and found Doug Dannon, her security coordinator, waiting inside the door from the garage. Her two German shepherds, Hansel and Gretel, whimpered with joy when she walked in, and she knelt and gave them a good scratch and got a kiss from each of them, and then Dannon said, "I've got some news. Where's Green?"

Alice Green was a former Secret Service agent. She was not in the loop on the shadow campaign. Taryn said, "Alice is with the car... . What happened?"

"The word around the Smalls campaign is that there's a new state investigator looking into the porn scandal," Dannon said. "I don't know if they've taken it away from St. Paul, but Smalls is pretty happy about it. He thinks something's gonna get done. There are rumors that Smalls talked to the governor, but nobody knows what was said."

"The governor? He's supposed to be on our side." Taryn bent sideways and gave Gretel another scratch on the head.

"Don't know-don't know what's happening. Maybe Connie can get something."

Connie Schiffer was Taryn's campaign manager.

"What about the investigator, the new guy?" Taryn asked.