A Cool Breeze on the Underground Read Online Free PDF Page A

him in his ambitions.”
    Money in the bank.
    “The probable Democratic nominee will need to look northward for a running mate. Ah … emissaries have already been sent.”
    Kitteredge paused to allow the import of this last statement to sink in.
    It didn’t.
    So what? Neal thought. Despite the somewhat distasteful fact that I’m going to vote for whatever Democrat is running, what’s all this have to do with me?
    “There is, however, a problem.”
    Which is where I come in.
    “The problem is Allie.”
    Neal turned a few pages of the file and saw a picture of a teenaged girl. She had shiny blond hair and blue eyes and looked as if she belonged on a magazine cover.
    Kitteredge stared at the model of Haridan as he said, “Actually, Alison always has been the problem.”
    He seemed lost in his thoughts, or in some more happy memory on board his boat.
    Neal said, “But specifically now?”
    “Allie has run away.”
    Yeah, okay, so we’ll go get her. But there was something else going on here, Neal sensed. Things were a little too tense. He looked at Graham and didn’t see a clue. He looked at Ed, but Ed wouldn’t look back.
    “Any idea where?” Neal finally asked.
    “She was last seen in London,” Ed said. “A former schoolmate saw her there over a spring-break trip. He tried to speak to her, but she ran away from him. It’s all there in your file.”
    Neal looked it over. This schoolmate, a Scott Mackensen, had seen her about three weeks ago. “What do the British cops say?”
    Kitteredge stared harder at the boat. “No police, Mr. Carey.”
    This time, Ed did look at Neal—hard. Neal buried his face in the file, then asked, “Alison is seventeen years old?”
    Nobody answered.
    Neal looked through the file some more. “A seventeen-year-old girl has been gone for over three months and nobody has called the police?”
    Another few seconds of silence and Kitteredge would actually will himself onto the model boat: a tiny model captain on a toy boat.
    Levine said, “The Senator was reluctant to risk publicity.” Less reluctant to risk his daughter.
    “Does the Senator like his daughter?” Neal asked.
    “Not particularly.”
    This came from Kitteredge, who continued: “Nevertheless, he wants her back. By August.”
    He wants her back. Not right away, not tomorrow morning, but by August. Let me see, what happens in August? It gets hot and muggy, the Yankee pitching falls apart … oh, yeah. The Democrats have a convention.
    “I trust you will not be offended, Mr. Carey, when I say that sometimes a … situation … arises that requires a blend of the … common … and the sophisticated. When someone is needed whose education has occurred as much … in the street … as well as in the classroom. This is just such a case. You are just such a person.”
    Except I don’t want to do it. God, how much I don’t want to do it. Not after the Halperin kid. Please, no more teenage runaways. Never again after the Halperin kid.
    Levine frowned as he said, “You’re going to go to London, find Alison Chase, and bring her back in time for the Democratic convention.”
    No I’m not.
    “What happens if Chase doesn’t get nominated, Ed? You want me to throw the kid back?”
    “Your fine sense of moral indignation will not be required, Mr. Carey.”
    “I’m not the man for this job, Mr. Kitteredge.”
    “The Halperin … tragedy … was an aberration, Mr. Carey. It could have happened to anyone.”
    “But it happened to me.”
    “It wasn’t your fault, son.”
    “Then why have I been on the shelf since it happened?”
    Kitteredge’s hand traced the sleek bow of Haridan. “The … hiatus … was for your benefit, not Friends’,”
    Well, then, it worked. After the drinking, and the insomnia, and the nightmares had gone on for a while, I found Diane. And school again. And now I don’t want to come back.
    “For once, I agree with Carey, Mr. Kitteredge,” said Ed. “He’s wrong for this one.”
    “I’m