A White House aide led Stone past the head table, where President Kate Lee and First Husband and ex-President Will Lee were entertaining the French president and a host of VIPs including the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House.
Dinner was in full swing. The guests were already enjoying the first course of caviar and quail eggs.
The aide made sure Kate noticed Stone’s arrival, then led him across the dining room to his table.
Stone was clearly sitting with the lesser lights, not that he minded. The empty seat at the table was next to a stunning redhead in a low-cut blue ball gown.
Stone pulled out his chair and sat down. Waiters rushed to bring him his appetizer.
The redhead arched an eyebrow and said, “Nice of you to join us.”
“I almost didn’t make it at all. I had a wardrobe malfunction.”
She smiled. “I could have helped you with that. I’m very good with clothing.”
Stone smiled. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”
“You certainly haven’t,” she said, holding out her hand. “Margo Sappington. White House legal counsel.”
“Really?” Stone grinned, shaking her proffered hand. “I’d have thought for that position you had to be stuffy and senile.”
Margo smiled and leaned against him playfully. “Just what position did you have in mind?”
A white-haired man across the table pointed at Stone in a preemptive manner. “Excuse me. I don’t believe I caught your name.”
“Stone Barrington.”
“I’ve heard of you. I don’t recall your connection to politics.”
“I’m a lawyer,” Stone said, as if that explained it all. “And you are?”
“Congressman Marvin Drexel, North Dakota. You realize you’re very late.”
“It was unavoidable.”
“A congressional logjam is unavoidable,” Drexel said pedantically. “Lateness is merely bad judgment.”
“A congressional logjam is only unavoidable when obstructionist morons put party ahead of country.”
“God save me from men who parrot talking points!” Drexel snorted. “You weren’t supposed to be here, were you?”
Stone smiled and pointed. “I think that’s my name tag.”
“It was my understanding Congressman Jenkins would be at this table.”
“Really? Are you wrong often?”
An elderly man at the table burst out laughing. “Got you there, Marvin.” He reached out to shake Stone’s hand. “Sam Snyder, congressman, Maryland. Democrat, I might add. Which is why Congressman Drexel has been ignoring me.”
Stone laughed politely, but merely smiled and nodded, hoping to forestall the conversation. Sam Snyder had a kindly, avuncular nature, and struck Stone as the type of man who’d latch on to you at a wedding and bore you to distraction with benevolent goodwill. The last thing in the world Stone wanted was to get involved in a political squabble between two rival congressmen.
Luckily, Margo came to his rescue. She plucked Stone by the arm and said, “So you’re a lawyer, too. Maybe that’s why they put us together.”
“I’m not sure that’s the reason,” Stone said, “but whoever arranged the seating, I’d like to thank him.”
“Are you here alone?”
“Yes.”
“Me too. So much nicer to pair up with someone than be the third wheel to some married couple.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
The rest of the dinner progressed smoothly. Caviar and quail eggs gave way to a summer salad from the White House garden, followed by an entrée of dry-aged rib-eye beef.
Margo was in heaven. “This steak is to die for!”
Stone smiled. “It’s good, but I’ve had better.”
“Oh? Where?”
“Elaine’s.”
“Elaine’s?”
“In New York City. On the Upper East Side. She died, and the restaurant closed. A shame. Elaine was wonderful. I always ate there.”
“Didn’t Woody Allen used to hang out there?”
“No, I used to hang out there. But I let Woody drop in from time to time.”
Margo laughed, and dug into her rib eye.
By the end of dinner Margo was flirting with Stone in a way the congressmen doubtless found distracting. At one point she practically leaned into his lap. She came up giggling and holding a cell phone. “This was on the floor. Yours?”
“Yes, thanks.” Stone slipped it into his pocket.
Margo’s eyes twinkled. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“What?”
“Put it there so I’d lean over?”
Stone laughed.
Congressman Drexel watched their banter with growing irritation.
Dinner was followed by a command performance of a violin concerto featuring a French virtuoso. “Where’d they find one?” Stone whispered.
Margo put her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling.
Finally the last note ended. Before Stone could suggest they retire elsewhere, an aide tapped him on the shoulder. “I understand you need to make a phone call.”
Stone shook his head. “That wasn’t me.”
“Yes, it was. If you would follow me, please.”
“He has a cell phone,” Margo said.
The aide shook his head. “It’s from another phone.”
Stone shrugged helplessly. “If you’ll excuse me, it seems I have to make a phone call.”
Margo slipped a card into his hand. “Just in case you have to make another.”
Stone followed the aide across the banquet floor and out the double doors. Instead of taking him back the way he had come, the aide ushered him through a service door marked NO ADMITTANCE.
Stone found himself in a narrow back corridor. Halfway down the hall was a desk with a phone, but they sailed right by it, followed a labyrinth of back passageways, and emerged in a small antechamber. The aide gestured for Stone to sit down.
There was a phone on the desk next to him. “Is this where I’m supposed to make a call?”
“No. When the intercom buzzes, don’t answer, just get up and go in.”
The young man went back out the way they’d come, closing the door behind him.
The intercom buzzed a few minutes later. Feeling like a fool, Stone got up and pushed his way through the door.
He entered the Oval Office and found Kate Lee sitting at the coffee table with the Speaker of the House.
“Ah, good, you’re here. Come in, sit down. You know Congressman Charles Blaine?”
“Only by reputation, we’ve never met.”
The congressman did not rise to offer his hand, but he looked up and his face told the story. This was a man on the brink of despair.
“My God, what’s wrong?” Stone said.
Kate took a breath. “What I’m about to say doesn’t leave this room.”
Stone figured he was being warned largely for the congressman’s benefit. Kate knew he’d be discreet.
“Of course.”
“As you may be aware, the congressman and I had a meeting this afternoon.”
“I think everyone is,” Stone said.
The meeting had been widely reported, and rumors were rampant. The fact that the Republican Speaker of the House was having private meetings with the Democratic president was significant, particularly in light of the current congressional session. Several crucial votes were coming up, and the prospect of a bipartisan compromise had led to wild speculation. The political news shows could hardly talk of anything else.
“Congressman Blaine and I are supposed to be ironing out our differences. To a certain extent that is true, but it’s not the reason for this meeting.”
“Then what is?”
Congressman Blaine looked at him with pleading eyes. “My daughter’s been kidnapped.”