Chapter Fifty-Eight

Traffic had been heavy on Route 29 and it took every bit of Carl Stone’s patience to keep his speed down when he finally merged onto I-66. He knew he couldn’t afford to get pulled over. By now the kid had probably given the police his description and they would be looking for him. His only hope was that no one had tied him to Stuart Jaffe. Maybe he’d made a mistake leaving a witness. It was too late to worry about that now. He had to get back and figure out how to get the Senator out harm’s way.

When he got to the house in Great Falls he drove by the house slowly. The house was dark. The garage door was open and the Navigator wasn’t there. There didn’t appear to be anyone watching the house. He circled through the neighborhood and drove past again to be sure. He was comfortable that there was no one there. He parked his Honda a couple of streets away and walked back to the house and let himself in and turned on the light in the foyer.

He went directly to the Senator’s office. The first thing he noticed was that someone had ransacked the office. The desk had been pried open. A twisted letter opener rested on top of a stack of letters. He picked up the letters. They were all from that woman. Stone couldn’t believe the Senator had saved them. He stuffed the letters in his pocket without reading them. He would destroy them later.

Only a few people could have been in the house and only one would have had the daring to break into the Senator’s desk. Stone hurried upstairs to see in Bonnie Jaffe was still in the house. He looked in the guest room first. The bed had been slept in but there was no sign of Mrs. Jaffe. Stone sat down on the unmade bed and tried to imagine what would have motivated her to rummage around in her husband’s office. He knew he couldn’t avoid the more critical questions. Where was she now and who was she talking to?