The President's Henchman by Joseph Flynn Page B

that if I do, I’m not good for anything. And that night I wanted to be very, very good.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Welborn said as dispassionately as he could. “At any other time during your relationship with Captain Cowan, did he inform you, or did you hear from anyone else, that he was married?”
    “No.” Carina Linberg started to say something else but she stopped.
    “Ma’am?”
    The colonel began to strangle her napkin. “During the time we were … sexually involved, I noticed some male officers glancing at me, snickering in an adolescent way. They tried not to be obvious about it, and they always looked away when I looked at them. I thought maybe my body language and Dex’s had given us away, even though we tried to be very proper while at work.”
    “You never thought Captain Cowan might have —”
    “Boasted of his conquest? Not then. But now I wonder if they not only knew about us but also knew that Dex was still married.”
    “Can you give me these officers’ names, ma’am?”
    Colonel Linberg provided them without hesitation.
    “And when did you finally learn that the captain was married?”
    “The day I was assigned to my new office and duties.” She finished her coffee. “Thank you for the reprieve, Lieutenant, but unless you have more questions, I probably should be getting back.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” There was a time to push and a time to back off, he’d been taught.
    Welborn drove Colonel Linberg back to the Pentagon. He opened the car door for her, and they exchanged salutes. He watched her walk toward the building with her back straight and her head held high. But by the time she entered the massive building she looked very small. That was when he first thought she was a woman in need of rescue.
    And he would be what … her hero?
    That wasn’t what they’d taught him at Glynco. General Altman had been right. The case called for a more seasoned investigator. But there he was and —
    The president knocked on his door and stepped into his office. In a heartbeat, Welborn was standing at attention.
    “At ease, Lieutenant. Please.”
    Welborn assumed the at-ease position, but still found it hard to relax around the president, especially when she had someone with her. In this case a beautiful young woman with red hair. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place her.
    “Lieutenant Yates,” the president said, “please meet Kira Fahey. Ms. Fahey is a summa cum laude graduate of Ohio State University and Vice President Wyman’s niece.”
    Now Welborn remembered. He’d seen the girl sitting on the stage when the president and vice president had been inaugurated. Vice President Wyman was a widower and childless, and he’d been accompanied by his sister and his niece.
    “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Fahey,” Welborn said.
    “Likewise, Lieutenant,” Kira said, a look of mischief in her eyes.
    “The lieutenant has lovely manners,” the president assured the young woman. “I think the two of you should get along nicely.”
    “Ma’am?” Welborn asked the president.
    “Ms. Fahey is also newly employed at the White House, Lieutenant. As of now, she is your liaison to me. If you need to see me, bring your request to her.”
    Welborn snapped back to attention and saluted.
     
    “That tuxedo makes you look like a movie star,” the president told McGill.
    They were in the presidential limo on their way to the Kennedy Center. The occasion was a night of comedy: 232 Years of Laughing at the President. Historians, actors, and stand-up comics would recount the history of how Americans loved to laugh at the men, and now the woman, who governed them. Tonight was the show’s premiere. Patti and the rest of the world would get their first look at the material that was targeted specifically at her.
    McGill had promised to shoot anybody who went too far.
    “Which movie star?” he asked his wife.
    “George Raft,” she said. Delivered the line with a straight face and innocent eyes. The