Lethal Attraction: Against the Rules\Fatal Affair Read online

  “Even in the midst of everything else that’s going on, even as I plan my best friend’s funeral, even as I deal with a traumatized staff and John’s parents, I want you. I think about you, and I want you.”

  “I can’t, Nick. My job is on the line. My whole career is riding on this investigation. I can’t let you do this to me right now.”

  “What about later? After it’s over?”

  “Maybe. We’ll have to see.”

  “Then that’ll have to do.” He gestured for her to lead the way out of his office. “For now.”

  CHAPTER 10

  “What’s the plan for the funeral?” Sam asked Nick as they sat in heavy traffic on Constitution Avenue.

  “He’ll lie in state at the capitol in Richmond for forty-eight hours, beginning on Friday. The funeral will be held at the National Cathedral on Monday with burial at Arlington a week or two later. It takes a while to get that arranged.”

  “I didn’t realize he was a veteran.”

  “Four years in the Navy after college.”

  “If possible, I’d like to attend the funeral with you in case I need you to identify anyone for me.”

  “Sure. I’ll do what I can.”

  “Thank you.” She wanted to say more but found her tongue to be uncharacteristically tied in knots. After a long, awkward pause, she glanced over at him. “I, um, I appreciate the help you’re giving me with background and insight into the senator’s relationships.”

  “Have you spoken to Natalie yet?”

  Sam’s brain raced through the various lists of friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances. “I haven’t heard of a Natalie. Who is she?”

  “Natalie Jordan. She was John’s girlfriend for a couple of years.”

  “When?”

  Nick thought about that. “I’d say for about two years before he ran for the Senate and maybe a year after he was sworn in.”

  “Did it end badly?”

  “It ended. I was never sure why. He wouldn’t talk about it.”

  “Yet you saw fit to toss her name into a homicide investigation.”

  He shrugged. “You were mad I didn’t tell you Chris was in love with him. Natalie was important to him for a long time. In fact, she was the only woman I ever knew of who was truly important to him. I just thought you should know about her.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “Married to the number-two guy at Justice. I think they live in Alexandria.”

  “Did he ever see her?”

  “Sometimes they’d run into each other at Democratic Party events in Virginia.”

  “Would she still have a key to his apartment?”

  “Possibly. They lived together there for the last year or so that they were together.”

  “Did you like her?”

  Nick rested his head against the back of the seat. “She wasn’t my type, but he seemed happy with her.”

  “But did you like her?”

  “Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “She always struck me as a social climber. We rubbed each other the wrong way—probably because I couldn’t do anything to advance her agenda so she didn’t have much use for me.”

  “Knowing he dated someone like that seems contrary to the picture you and others have painted of him. To me, he wouldn’t have had the patience for it.”

  “He was dazzled by her. She’s quite…well, if you talk to her, you’ll see what I mean.”

  “What do you think of his sister and brother-in-law?”

  Nick appeared startled by the question. “Salt of the earth. Both of them.”

  “What’s his story? Royce Hamilton?”

  “He’s a horse trainer. One of the best there is from what I’ve heard. Lizbeth has been crazy about horses all her life. John always said she and Royce were a match made in heaven.”

  “Any financial problems?”

  “None that I ever heard of—not that I heard much about them. I saw them at holidays, occasional dinners in Leesburg, fundraisers here and there, but we don’t travel in the same circles.”

  “What circle do they travel in?”

  “The Loudoun County horse circle. John adored their kids. He talked about them all the time, had pictures of them everywhere.”

  “What did Senator O’Connor think of his only daughter marrying a horse trainer?”

  “Royce is an intelligent guy. And more important, he’s a gentleman. The senator could appreciate those qualities in a potential son-in-law, even if he wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer or a politician. Besides, Lizbeth was wild about him. Her father was smart enough to know there’d be no point in getting in the way of that.”

  “What about her? Could she have had some sort of dispute with John?”

  Nick shook his head. “She was completely and utterly devoted to him. She was one of our best campaigners and fundraisers.” He chuckled. “John called her The Force. No one could say no to her when she went out on the stump for her ‘baby brother.’ There’s no way she had anything to do with this.” More emphatically, he added, “No way.”

  “Did she have a key to the Watergate apartment?”

  “Most likely. Everyone in the family used the place when they were in town.”

  “That place has more keys out than a no-tell motel.”

  “It was just like John to give keys to everyone he knew and think nothing of it.”

  “Yet he was the only other person in the world who had a key to your place. Can you see the irony in that?”

  “He led a bigger life than I do.”

  “Tell me about your life,” she said on an impulse.

  He raised that swarthy eyebrow. “Who’s asking? The woman or the detective?”

  Sam took a moment to appreciate his quick intelligence, remembering how attractive she had found that the first time she met him. “Both,” she confessed.

  He glanced at her, and even though her eyes were on the road, she felt the heat of his gaze. “I work. A lot.”

  “And when you’re not working?”

  “I sleep.”

  “No one—not even me—is that boring.”

  He flashed her a funny, crooked grin that she caught out of the corner of her eye. “I try to get to the gym a couple of times a week.”

  Judging from the ripped physique she had been pressed against the night before, he put those gym visits to good use. “And? No wives, girlfriends, social life?”

  “No wife, no girlfriend. I play basketball with some guys on Sundays whenever I can. Sometimes we go out for beers afterward. Last summer, I played in the congressional softball league, but I missed more games than I made. Oh, and every other month or so, I have dinner with my father’s family in Baltimore. That’s about it.”

  “Why haven’t you ever gotten married?”

  “I don’t know. Just never happened.”

  “Surely there had to have been someone you might’ve married.”

  “There was this one girl…”

  “What happened?”

  “She never returned my calls.”

  Shocked and speechless, Sam stared at him.

  “You asked.”

  Tearing her eyes off him, she accelerated through the last intersection before the turn for the public safety parking lot. “Don’t say that to me,” she snapped. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  She pulled into a space and slammed the car into park.

  He grabbed her arm to stop her from getting out. “Calm down, Sam.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” She tugged her arm free of his grasp. “And save your cheesy lines for someone who’s buying. I don’t believe you anyway.”

  “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so pissed right now.”

  “Do you want to know what happened to your friend?”

  With one blink, his hazel eyes shifted from amused to furious. “Of course I do.”

  “Then you have to stop doing this to me, Nick. You’re winding me up in k