Sex, Lies & Black Tie Read online

  Turning on the light in the master bedroom, her perfume still permeated the old walls. I could smell her here—always could. Immediately, I went to her closet to look for the light blue Oleg Cassini dress she’d requested. Turning on the light inside, I took a deep breath. So many of Mimi’s ball gowns were simply too beautiful to keep under dustcovers hiding in an empty home. I stared at the bags of dresses and thought if they could talk, the stories they could tell about my grandmother.

  It didn’t take me long to find the dress, as Mimi had always kept her clothes in coordinating sets. All the white dresses were grouped together, through the color spectrum, ending with black. The important ones were labeled.

  Pulling the dress marked, Oleg Cassini 1981 from in between several others, I carried it out of the closet and to the bed. Unzipping the dress bag, I stared at the masterpiece covered in crystals and pearls. Made specifically for her, it was an original and one of her favorites because my grandfather had once told her she looked like an angel while wearing it to Ronald Reagan’s inaugural ball. Thirty-plus years later, she could still wear the dress and look as exquisite as my late grandfather knew her to be.

  I sat on the bed next to the dress and dropped my head into my hands. Everything felt out of control. I didn’t know where Mac was or if he was safe. I couldn’t even rely on the man he’d told me to trust in his absence—Agent Jackman was nowhere to be found.

  I dried my tears and pulled my phone from my pocket, willing Mac to contact me.

  With a heavy sigh, I walked to shut the closet, and had a thought. What if I wore one of Mimi’s dresses?

  Running my hands along the dress bags, I searched the labels for something that might pique my interest. I stopped in the pinks, gravitating to one marked Christian Dior 1952.

  Pulling the bag from the closet, I was surprised by the weight of it as I lay it across the bed next to Mimi’s blue masterpiece.

  Slowly, I unzipped the bag, revealing a strapless pale pink, embroidered satin gown. Completely beaded, it sported a full bustle in the back. It was more than just a dress, it was a piece of art.

  I checked the label, knowing Mimi was about my size at my age and saw that it was a perfect fit. “Oh Mimi,” I sighed, pulling it from the bag completely to hold it in front of me. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

  It wasn’t as if finding the pink dress turned my whole day around, but it somehow gave me strength knowing I could wear not only my grandmother’s dress, but also cloak myself in her courage.

  I bagged the dresses up, packing both of them over my back and down the staircase. It would be a quick trip to Autumn Valley to deliver Mimi’s dress where I could ask for her blessing to wear the pink one. I already knew the answer, but still I wanted to ask for her permission.

  The trip to the nursing home was quick. It was almost dinner time and if I didn’t get to Mimi soon, she’d be in bed watching her shows.

  Dragging both bags down the hallway, I knocked on the door to her room, letting myself in.

  “Mimi.” I sang out her name, turning with bags in hand after shutting the door behind me.

  “What do you have there, child?” she asked looking up from her dinner.

  “I have your dress. You know, the one you asked for. For the gala tomorrow night.”

  “Oh honey, I don’t know.”

  “But,” I said draping the dresses across her sofa. “You said you wanted to come. Remember, you had some things you wanted to discuss with the president?”

  “I remember,” she said taking a sip of tea. “What do you take me for? An old woman?”

  “Nope. Never.”

  Craning her neck to look past me, she saw the bags and brought her gaze immediately back. “Did you find something you liked?” she asked, picking up her fork to eat a couple of green beans from her plate.

  “Do you mind?”

  “Depends.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Depends on what?”

  “The dress.”

  “Oh,” I said walking back with the dress bags. “Well, why don’t I just hang yours in your closet and I’ll take the other one back to your house.”

  “You mean your house,”

  “No,” I said dragging out the word. “I mean your house. I can put it right back where I found it.”

  “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, Samantha. What’s got you so riled up? I’m worried this party plannin’ is too much for you.”

  I sat, my obvious frustration spilling over into a punctuated sigh. “I’m fine. Really. And I don’t mind to take the dress back to your place. I already have a dress.”

  “My old place is your place. And I don’t want the damn dress back, Samantha. Dresses like these are meant to be worn.”

  “You think so?”

  “Which one did you choose?”

  Standing, I hung her blue dress in her closet and shut the door. “It’s a pink Christian Dior from 1952. Strapless?” I said the word as if it were a question when in reality, I still wanted to know if it was truly okay that I borrowed it.

  She let out a little gasp and then motioned for me to bring it to her as she pushed herself from the table and grabbed a cane to walk to me. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”

  “Since when are you using a cane and not your walker?” I asked.

  “Since whenever I feel like it. C’mon, don’t be worrying about me. Now let’s take a look at her. I know, she’s a beaut. I remember wearing her. It was when I was a size four.”

  I unzipped the bag and the train spilled out onto the floor.

  “There she is.”

  “The dress is beautiful Mimi. Where did you wear it?”

  She took a pause and looked to the ceiling, letting out a sigh. “January twentieth, nineteen fifty-three.”

  “You remember the exact date? I was waiting for you to say, ‘I wore it in fifty-two.’ See? Read the label.”

  She ran her wrinkled and arthritic hands over the satin and smiled. “Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration. It was a beautiful night. Your grandfather was the most handsome man in the room,” she said looking to me. “It was a fun evening—well, except for that one little incident.”

  “What little incident?”

  Slowly she zipped the bag up and gave it a pat. “One of my old beaus was at the party too,” she said, looking past me as if she was reliving the night in the room. “He was happily married as was I, but your grandfather didn’t like him smiling at me.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s a long story, I’ll tell it to you some time. The point is, even though there was nothing between us, your grandfather was as jealous as a cock pigeon over his hen.”

  “A cock what?” I asked with a giggle. “And why would he ever be jealous? I saw you two together my whole life. No two people have ever loved each other more.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s all water under the bridge now. But the dress—”

  “I won’t wear it if you don’t want me to.”

  “That’s what you took away from that story? Lord a mercy, child. You need to listen better. I want you to wear the dress.”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket and I smiled at Mimi as I pulled it out. “Hello?”

  “Samantha, I need you to listen to me carefully.”

  “Mac?”

  “Whatever you’re doing at the house with the party, I need you to walk away from it. I don’t want you at Lone Oak until I can be there with you. Tell whomever is in charge of the planning that your grandmother isn’t doing well and you have to go.”

  “Mac, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

  “Senator Storm is dead.”

  I took a seat next to Mimi and picked up her hand. Holding on to her made me feel calmer. “I know.”

  “He was tied up in the sex ring. I met with him this morning. He was going to confess. Sam, this is way bigger than I expected. We’ve uncovered some emails that are unbelievable, and because of that, I think we should all stick together. I’m coming home and I’m
bringing some people with me.”

  I didn’t say a word. I didn’t know what to say.

  “Sam, honey. I want you to stay away from Boone.”

  “He’s gone. So is your buddy, Agent Jackman.”

  Mac didn’t say anything, but I could hear him breathing. That was never a good sign.

  “Pack up whatever you need and leave Lone Oak now,” he said.

  “Where do you want me to go? All the hotels are booked.”

  “Go to your other house,” Mimi suggested as she listened into my side of the conversation. “Go there.”

  She was right. Only the locals knew about Mimi’s house.

  “I’ll go to Mimi’s.”

  “While you’re at it, take Mimi, and Sam?”

  “Yes?”

  “Take a gun with you too.”

  “Too late. I’m already packing.”

  “Hell, yeah!” Mimi said. “If you’re packing heat, so am I.”

  24

  MAC

  I hung up and looked around the hotel room. Everyone was staring at me. “Pack up your things. All of you are getting on the plane with me.”

  “What?” Rory said in protest. “Why?”

  “Because none of you are safe. Micah,” I said pointing in her general direction as I thought out loud. “Call Dan at the office. Let him know you’re taking a few days off—tell him you’re taking a vacation with Fuller.”

  “What?” Fuller said looking at me with wide-eyed shock.

  “You’re taking vacation too, Hoss.”

  “But Mac—”

  “No buts. Everyone follows orders. Senator Storm was ready to confess everything, but he planned on taking some people down with him. Now, between this group and Brady Kurtz, there’s enough information to cause the biggest scandal that’s ever hit Washington.”

  “They killed Storm,” Elias sighed. “Now they’re gonna want to silence us too.”

  I nodded. “You know what we have is huge. We could destroy a lot of lives. We have to play this right, or we’re all going to end up dead.”

  Suddenly everything I was saying was legitimate to all of them. “Make your calls from your own cell phones and then you’re going to need to put them in the Faraday bag. I don’t want anyone to know you’re with me.”

  “What about Brady Kurtz?” Fuller asked.

  “I’m going to get him right now—he and Chops both. I refuse to leave them exposed like sitting ducks—especially Brady. We can’t prosecute a dead man for tossing him out of the car, but we can sure as hell prosecute the other people on the list.”

  Fuller nodded at me.

  “Get to it, people. I’m calling the airport. We’re wheels up as soon as we can herd everyone safely together and get on the plane. And Fuller?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m counting on you to get them all out of here without anyone seeing. Use the back alley. Go through the kitchen—whatever you have to do to keep from being seen.”

  Mentally I counted heads and realized we had just enough room for everyone on the plane. “Y’all keep everyone moving in the right direction,” I said, pointing to Fuller and Micah. “The young people are easily distracted by their toys.”

  “You got it,” they said in unison before looking at each other.

  “Jesus, you two are made for each other.”

  I opened the door only to have Rory stop me. “Mac, wait. I need to give you something.”

  He placed a tiny monkey in my hand. “What the hell?”

  “It’s a jump drive. It’s everything we have on them, Mac. Everything. I have a copy,” he said, nodding behind him to the computers Elias was now packing up. “And you have a copy.”

  “Thank you,” I said, giving his hand a firm shake. “Be careful.”

  Down the elevator and out the front door of the hotel, I inconspicuously scanned the lobby for anyone that looked like an agent plant before hailing a cab out the front door.

  Scooting down in the seat, I called out the address to the Mission on a Hill home and said, “There’s an extra hundred in it for you if you can get me there fast without being pulled over or being followed.”

  “Are you fuckin’ serious, man?” he asked.

  “As serious as a heart attack.”

  When he peeled out of his spot on the street and cut across three lanes of traffic to turn left before the light changed from yellow to red, I knew he was up for the challenge. When the shitty black sedan made the same move, I knew I was being followed.

  “Dude, do you see the black sedan two cars back?” I asked staying low in the seat.

  He looked into his rear view mirror at me and then to the cars behind him and nodded.

  “We gotta lose ’em.”

  “Mister, a hundred dollars is a hundred dollars, but it’s not worth going to jail over.”

  Pulling my badge from my pocket, I flashed it over the seat. “FBI. I’ll make sure you don’t get into trouble, but I’m pretty sure those guys want to kill me. So unless you want to be collateral damage, I suggest you start employing some of those Jason Bourne driving techniques you’ve always wanted to try.”

  Running the next red light, a group of cars crashed in our wake, leaving the sedan stuck behind the mess and our cab speeding away. “Nicely done,” I said, praising his maneuver. “Now hurry to get me there and there’s another hundred in it for you.

  Pulling my phone from my pocket, I called Chops and was relieved to hear him answer the phone.

  “It’s Mac Callahan. This is going to sound crazy, but I need you to pack your toothbrush, then pack up Brady’s. I’m on my way to get you.”

  “We saw the news, Mac. Brady’s afraid to talk with you again.”

  “I’ll be there in five minutes and I need him to be ready to leave. We’re catching a plane out of Washington just as soon as we can get to Dulles and meet the others.”

  “Others?” Chops asked.

  “There are others. Chops, we have a moral obligation to do what we can with what we have, right?”

  “You got it, brother.”

  “I’ll see you momentarily. Be ready to roll.”

  Hanging up, I looked behind us—no cars. “Hey…ah…Paul,” I said glancing at his license displayed in the back seat. “Do you wanna make another five hundred?” I pulled five one hundred dollar bills from my pocket and waved them in the air.

  “You want me to take you to the airport.”

  “Nothing would please me more,” I replied with a smile.

  “Jesus. Sure. Why not? I mean at this point I’m in so deep, I may never recover.”

  I shook my head as we turned down the street to the church home. “The only thing you can’t recover from Paul, is death. And no one is going to die today. At least not on my watch.”

  We pulled up to the front door and I hustled inside leaving six hundred dollar bills in the back seat. I wasn’t coming back.

  I rang the bell and Chops met me at the door, hastily escorting me into the building. “Is he ready?” I asked.

  Chops shook his head, no.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “If you take me with you,” Brady said walking into the room, obviously hearing my question. “You’re gonna die. I need to get away from everyone. You can’t hang out with me. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Brady,” I said, shaking my head. “I appreciate you trying to protect me and the others, but we’re in just as far as you are.”

  He shook his head. “No. You’re not.”

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  Brady stared at Chops and then back to me. Tears glistened in his eyes and as worried as I knew him to genuinely be, we didn’t have time for tears.

  “They made me bring them secrets,” Brady said.

  “What?”

  “I know people have died because I gave them secrets.”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about, and by the look on Chops’ face, he didn’t either.

  �
�Brady, son,” Chops began placing a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know what you think you were a part of that you need to take responsibility for, but you were a prisoner following orders. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

  “Still,” he began.

  “Still nothing, man!” I shouted. “Brady, you have to come with me. Now. You and Chops both. Listen, I lost an unmarked car on the way here. I’ve got a decoy cab waiting outside that door for us, but we’re going to drive that piece of shit church van parked behind the building straight to Dulles where we’re going to catch a plane for Alabama. Now get your fucking shit together and let’s go.”

  Brady took only a beat. “Okay.”

  Getting out of the church parking lot was the easiest part of my plan. The church van making it all the way to Dulles without breaking down on the side of the road was what worried me the most.

  “Can’t you go any faster?” I asked Chops as he concentrated on the road.

  “Son, I done told you and told you, fifty-five is as fast as she’ll roll. Besides, we don’t want to get stopped by a police officer. Who knows if we’ll be able to get it started again?”

  I stared at the words, Jesus Saves on the hood of the van and prayed he’d do it today. “Just get us there, Chops.”

  “I’m doing my best.”

  I looked to Brady, who stared out the window—a thousand miles away from where we were—packed in a backfiring, rusted out van on our way to the private air field.

  “Brady?”

  “Yeah?” He acknowledged me without taking his face from the dirty window.

  “Brady, I need you to explain what you meant back there. What secrets are you talking about?”

  Taking his balled fist from his chin, he turned to look at me. This was a kid who was broken. He was broken before they got their hooks in him, and now he was shattered. I wanted him to have a life. And I knew if he’d allow Chops and even Sam and me to help him put the pieces back together again, he could have a real shot at it.

  He shook his head and bit his lip. “When I had sex with the men—you know the boys on the hill—I gave them drugs. Slipped them in their drinks, or swirled them in their mouths with my own tongue.”