"Can you be more specific?"

"No, I can't ... but thinking back on it, I may have read too much into what he was saying. Also, I didn't want to be alone for the weekend."

"Why didn't you volunteer to come with me?"

"John, just drop it. I'm sorry I lied to you and sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Apology accepted, if you tell me what is the Custer Hill Club."

"I'm not sure. But Tom said it was a social and recreational club composed of rich and powerful men."

"I might have had a good time."

"You were supposed to take photographs of-"

"I know all that. What I don't know is why these men need watching."

"I really don't know. He wasn't going to share that information with me." She added, "You can assume they're politically conservative, and maybe radically so."

"That's not a crime."

"That's all I know."

I was on the Long Island Expressway now, heading west into the sinking sun. The Jeep smelled like a Korean produce market, and the wine was rattling around on the floor behind me.

I thought about what Kate had said, but I didn't have enough facts to draw any conclusions. A few things stuck out, however, such as the political orientation of the Custer Hill Club and the upscale membership. The crazies on the right who actually engage in criminal activities are almost always of the lower-class variety. Their clubhouse, if they have one, is a gas station or a shack in the woods. This group was apparently something quite different.

And that's about all I had at the moment, and if I was smart, that's all I needed to know, and if I wanted to know more, I could ask Harry in the morning.

Kate said, "I think you're annoyed at me for not mentioning that Tom and I discussed sending you on the assignment."

"Not at all. I'm happy that my career is in such good hands. In fact, it's sort of touching to think of you and Walsh discussing if little Johnny should go away for the weekend."

"John-"

"Maybe you should have said it was okay with you, but he should check first with his wife to see if it was okay with her."

"Stop being an idiot."

"I'm just getting warmed up."

"Just drop it. It's totally unimportant. Go tell Walsh that I told you, and that you're not happy with his management style."

"That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Don't be confrontational. Try being diplomatic."

"I'll be very diplomatic." I asked, "Can I put him in a headlock?"

We drove in silence awhile. I realized I should speak to Harry before I confronted Walsh in the morning. I dialed Harry's cell number on my hands-free phone.

Kate asked, "Who are you calling?"

"My emotional-stress counselor."

After six rings, Harry's voice came on the line. "This is Detective Harry Muller. At the tone, leave me a message and a phone number where I can reach you." Beep.

I said, "Harry, it's Corey. Kate wants to make hunter's stew. I got potatoes, vegetables, and red wine. One of us has to run over a deer for the rest of the recipe. Call me ASAP."

I hung up and said to Kate, "That surveillance could have been a career builder, if I didn't get eaten by a bear."

"Maybe that's why Tom wanted you to go."

"To help my career, or get me eaten by a bear?"

"Do you have to ask?"

I smiled. We held hands, and she turned on the radio to an easy-listening station. We made small talk on the way back to the city.

As we approached the Midtown Tunnel, the lit skyline of Manhattan came into view. Neither Kate nor I commented on the missing Twin Towers, but we both knew what we were thinking.

I remember that one of my first coherent thoughts after the towers were hit was that a man who pulls a knife on you doesn't have a gun, and I recall saying to a cop next to me, "Thank God. This means they don't have a nuclear bomb."

The cop replied, "Not yet."

PART VIII

Monday

NEW YORK CITY

In America there are factions,

but no conspiracies.

-Alexis De Tocqueville

Democracy in America (1835)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It was Columbus Day, a special day to celebrate a dead white male stumbling onto a continent on his way to someplace else. I've had similar experiences coming out of Dresner's bar.