“Jesus Christ!” he said softly. “Does my aunt know?”
“Chesly was at a ball game in New York, with Colonel Donovan, when they got the word about Pearl Harbor,” Canidy said. “Then he came to Washington with Donovan. Donovan went to the White House. Chesly went to the house on Q Street. To Cynthia’s apartment. He suffered a stroke. Just dropped dead.”
“In the saddle?” Whittaker asked lightly.
Canidy, embarrassed, did not reply.
“Jesus,” Whittaker said. “That’s only supposed to happen in a dirty joke.”
“Cynthia called Donovan at the White House. He couldn’t leave, so he sent Captain Douglass and the chief. They took care of things, so there was no scandal. I don’t think your aunt knows.”
“How did they ‘take care of things’?” Whittaker asked.
“We fixed it so the body was found in his shower,” Chief Ellis said.
“You carried his body from her apartment to his room?” Whittaker asked.
“Yes, Sir,” Ellis said.
“Thank you,” Whittaker said. And then, a moment later, he asked, “How tight a secret is this?”
“It’s known only to the people in this car, plus, of course, Colonel Donovan and Miss Chenowith,” Captain Douglass said.
“How did you find out?” Whittaker asked Canidy.
“I was afraid you’d ask that,” Canidy said.
“How did you?”
“I’ve had several run-ins with Cynthia,” Canidy said. “It came out during one of them.”
“What kind of run-ins?” Whittaker asked.
“Does it matter?” Canidy asked.
“You put the make on her?” Whittaker asked. “You sonofabitch!”
“No,” Canidy said. “I didn’t put the make on her.”
“Then what?” Whittaker asked angrily.
“Your beloved, Jimmy, almost got me killed,” Canidy said.
“How?”
“Stop right there, Canidy!” Douglass said.
“I want to know what the hell he’s talking about!” Whittaker said.
“I’m sorry, that’s out of the question.”
“I was somewhere,” Canidy said. “Doing something. And the end of the game was when they sent a submarine to pick us up.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“When we reached the submarine, the skipper said he was sorry as hell, but he had orders to keep us from coming aboard. ‘By force of arms if necessary’ is the way he put it.”
“Who are ‘we’ and ‘us’?” Whittaker asked.
“No, Canidy!” Douglass said. “Don’t even start into that.”
Canidy raised his hand in a gesture meant to assure Captain Douglass that he wasn’t going to violate security, and then went on:
“At the time, I thought somebody else was responsible for giving that order,” Canidy said. “I was going to feed him his balls the next time I saw him. So Captain Douglass decided he had better tell me who had really made the decision. It wasn’t who I thought it was, it was Cynthia.”
“Cynthia? She’s involved in whatever it is you’re doing?”
“Donovan was so impressed with the way she handled herself—when Chesly died, I mean—that he gave her a job,” Canidy said.
“Doing what?” Whittaker asked.
“No, Canidy,” Captain Douglass said again. “Be very careful.”
“I was so goddamned mad, Jimmy, that I told Captain Douglass that Cynthia wasn’t the sweet maiden he apparently thought she was.”
“That was a pretty shitty thing to do, Dick,” Whittaker said.
“Under the circumstances, Captain, I think Dick’s reaction was understandable,” Douglass said.
“What circumstances?” Whittaker asked. “Is she now fucking somebody else? Donovan, maybe?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Douglass said.
“Is she, or isn’t she?”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think so,” Canidy said. “Certainly not Donovan, and I don’t think anybody else. She’s too busy playing spymaster.”
“That’s enough of that, Canidy!” Douglass snapped. In a moment, he went on: “Under the circumstances, Captain Whittaker, I thought it necessary to fill Canidy in on the circumstances surrounding your uncle’s death.”
“Jesus Christ!” Whittaker said. And then he laughed.
“Well,” he said. “At least Chesly went out happy. All’s well that ends well, they say.”
Canidy looked at him curiously. That was not the reaction he had expected.
“Tell me this, before the joyous reunion,” he said. “Will Cynthia know that I know she was fucking my uncle?”
“No,” Canidy said. “And she doesn’t know that I know, either.”
“Then let’s keep it that way,” Whittaker said. “Okay?”
“So far as I’m concerned,” Douglass said, “there is no reason to bring up this subject ever again.”
3
When the Buick reached the house on Q Street, the drive-way gate was open and Ellis drove right in, stopping the car on the cobblestone drive in front of the garages.
“Who’s the guy on the gate?” Whittaker asked. “He looks like a cop.”
“There’s a security arrangement here,” Douglass said.
“I feel like I’m in a Humphrey Bogart movie,” Whittaker said.