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“I thought you were starving.”
“Guess I wasn’t.”
“What’s wrong, Barrie?”
“Nothing,” she said impatiently. Then, reluctantly: “I don’t know.”
“You’re right where you always wanted to be, on top of your profession with every network in the country clamoring to get you under contract. You can name your price. You had the interview of the century. I thought I’d find you guzzling champagne.”
“That’s what I thought I’d be doing too,” she said ruefully. “But you’d be surprised what a downer it is to be the person responsible for toppling a president.”
“You aren’t the person responsible. David brought about his own downfall.”
“You’re right, of course. Up here,” she said, tapping her head, “I know you’re right. Maybe I’m ambivalent because of Howie. He was a casualty, and he shouldn’t have been. I feel I’m indirectly to blame.”
“Spence is to blame.”
She gave a despairing sigh. “I guess it’s sort of like postpartum. After a hard labor, I’ve delivered the baby, but I’m not sure I love it yet.” Averting her eyes, she said, “Pursuant to that, Vanessa called me this afternoon.”
Gray looked at her inquisitively.
“She thanked me for handling the Becky Sturgis interview in such a low-key manner when I could have exploited the story, made it more tabloid.” She paused and thought about that for a moment. “I suppose my restraint shows that I’m maturing. I’ve grown a lot, personally and professionally.”
“Without a doubt.”
“Anyway,” she said, shaking off the introspective tone, “Vanessa’s moving out of the White House tonight, but she’s not sad to be leaving because it holds such terrible memories for her.
“Naturally she’s shattered by Becky Sturgis’s story. She kept repeating that she couldn’t understand how her father could have had a hand in something so nefarious—my word, not Vanessa’s. He not only covered up a violent crime, he allowed her to marry David. He encouraged it. She feels betrayed.”
“Where has she left it with Clete?” Gray asked.
“She claims she’ll never forgive him.”
“Her rejection is no better than he deserves, but it’ll kill him.”
Barrie nodded. “She’s promised Bill Yancey her full cooperation when he begins his investigation into Robert Rushton’s death. Now that she doesn’t have to fear for her life, she can tell the truth. David killed the baby, but it was Spence’s idea to blame it on SIDS.”
“Sounds like him. Keeping things simple was Spence’s forte.”
“Was Vanessa in love with him?”
“With Spence? No. She wanted from him what she wants from every man—attention and protection. Out of spite, she gave David a taste of his own medicine, with a man whose loyalty David thought was incorruptible. But when Spence turned his back on her, she took the rejection hard.”
“And turned to you.”
“For friendship.”
Barrie rose and made a restless circle around the coffee table. “I’m not sure that’s all she wanted.”
“That’s all she got.”
“You could have told me.”
“There was nothing to tell.”
“That’s what you could have told me.”
“I didn’t want Vanessa, and I never had her. There. Satisfied?”
