I talked with Roanne during my cab ride home. She was enthusiastic to hear about my trip. I made my case about seeing each other in person without telling her I had something for her. She suggested FDR’s Memorial in West Potomac Park. We agreed on a time.
Anna and Tyler welcomed me home, and I held and hugged my very excited little boy. Jerry came in at 5:30, and the three of us enjoyed our reunion, albeit a short one. I told Jerry about the note and that I was meeting Roanne at 6:30, a ten-minute jaunt across Memorial Bridge and into West Potomac Park. Jerry was okay with that and said he’d feed Tyler. We’d pack up and go to Scalawag after I got back.
The drive was as quick as I had expected. I parked and began walking toward the outdoor Roosevelt Memorial when I saw the senator standing alongside a cab in the drop-off area. I waved, and she waved back.
“Hi,” I said happily. “Thanks for doing this.”
“If you wanted to see me privately, it was the least I could do,” she said lightly. “Why don’t we walk through the memorial and down to one of the benches along the Tidal Basin?”
We went through the open gallery passing polished granite walls with quotes from the WWII president. Water cascades fell into catch basins giving life to an otherwise colorless ambiance. “I have heard that it takes an out-of-town person to get a local out to see the sights.”
She smiled. “Ah, you’ve not been here either?”
“Right.”
“We can walk around, play tourist if you like.”
“I like your first suggestion better,” I said casually.
We found a path through trees to the edge of the water and took a bench facing the gorgeous Jefferson Memorial across a portion of the basin. It seemed majestic, only a few hundred yards away.
“When H.T. was on the Hill, and I was here during cherry blossom time, I would walk along the basin. It’s a rare beauty . . . the trees and the setting.”
“I’ve driven by,” I said sheepishly.
“You have to get out more, girl.”
“I get out . . . just to less engaging places.”
She smiled. The soft breeze off the water reduced the mugginess. “Well, what do you have for me? Was my father a good boy?”
I had obsessed about how I would handle this and decided she should read Rufus’s note to me. “Your father was great. He asked me to give you a message in a note he addressed to me. I think you should read the whole thing, even though that was not his intent.”
Her face was expressionless except for her eyes that had narrowed slightly. I took the note out of my bag and handed it to her. “I’m, eh, going to take a short walk.”
Roanne accepted the note, and I walked off in the direction of the memorial. After about fifty yards or so, I stopped and turned. She had already read it. The note was in her lap, and she was dabbing her eyes. Seeing her like that, my eyes teared, and I turned away using a finger to wipe off a tear running down my cheek. I sniffed. I’d forgotten to reload my purse. I turned back and found her walking toward me. I started back to her, and we met. She spoke first.
“When this whole mess is over with, I would like for us to spend some time together. I hardly know you, but right now I feel that you are the best friend I have ever had.”
I was stunned. Only a stride apart, she extended her arms and closed the gap to give me a hug. I returned it in kind.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
She backed out of our hold, sniffled and laughed lightly.
I felt overwhelmed and changed the subject. “Jerry and I need to get you out on Scalawag and show you a good time.”
She frowned. “Oh?”
“It’s our sailboat, a thirty-five-foot gorgeous sloop in the marina.” I half-turned and pointed. “It’s on the other side of the 14th Street Bridge and the Interstate. Jerry was living on it when we met.”
“Oh?”
“When his wife divorced him, he moved aboard. He was a defense attorney with an office near police headquarters. He’s now a partner in a different firm doing corporate law.” I told her all that because I didn’t want her to think Jerry was a bum.
“And you are there now, with the baby?”
“No. We bought a house in the Clarendon section of Arlington.”
“I’ve eaten in that area. We’re Metrorail neighbors.”
I chuckled and she joined me, while wiping her eyes and blowing her nose.
She held up Rufus’s note. “Your suspicions about Rogers were correct. Where do we go from here?”
“I asked Michael earlier if we three could get together Monday. I’ll break your father’s news about Harley to both of you at—”
“I can tell him.”
“Yes, but that would break a trust between Michael and me. I could have told him, and he would have told you, of course. But I felt you needed to see the letter first, privately.” I hoped she didn’t take offense to my plan.
“Of course. Michael did ask me about Monday. I have some time late morning. Then what?”
I mentioned that Michael’s friend at Rogers could become more talkative when he heard what we now know.
“I’m going to research General Aviation’s airline records of private passenger and cargo planes departing from Newark Airport the past few months.”
We began walking back through the memorial, and I asked if I could give her a lift.
“My cab’s waiting,” she said, shaking her head and offered Rufus’s note to me.
“Oh no,” I said. “It may have been written to me, but it’s yours. I was just the messenger.”
She looked at me softly. “Heaven sent.”