Two mornings later, Jenny attached a DNA report to her email. ‘I can’t use this at present because it’s unsigned and unofficial. Cheers. Jenny.’
I took it up to the roof. I stayed there for two hours and then I emailed it to Amanda.
She called twenty minutes later. ‘You’ve sent me a bomb.’
‘I’m thinking about Wade’s Committee of Twenty-Four,’ I said.
‘Me, too.’
‘How many of them do you know well?’
She didn’t hesitate. ‘I’ll start with the two who were closest to my father. If they get on board I’ll let them decide how far we should ripple out. We won’t need all twenty-three.’
I told her, then, exactly what I wanted. ‘My concern is with speed, to get him quickly off the stage.’
‘And Jennifer Gale?’
‘She’ll report only what can be doubly confirmed as fact. That will play hell in her reporting for quite some time.’
It took Amanda the rest of the work day. By five o’clock it had been decided, by fourteen of the twenty-four. The most senior of them, an insurance magnate, would make the phone call that evening.
In Cook County, Illinois, sharks swim faster than other fish.
The biggest sharks swim fastest of all.