Guilty Minds Read Online Free PDF Page A

Chase house or does she?”
    “She does. I live at the Watergate.”
    “I see.”
    “I live alone. So that, uh, won’t work as an alibi.”
    I could have tormented the chief justice further, asking whether the doormen or the lobby attendants would back him up, but I’d done enough. “You actually weren’t at the Watergate on those nights, were you?”
    He gave me a look that I couldn’t quite read. Was he surprised or offended or just taken aback? He didn’t reply right away, so I went on, watching him intently. “For that entire week, you were somewhere else.” Just before our meeting, I’d gone to the Watergate and asked a few questions, dispensed a little cash. I’d done my due diligence.
    Now he looked away. I noticed a reddening in his cheeks, but I wasn’t sure whether I was seeing a flush of anger or the sting of embarrassment. I remained silent. I’m a big believer in the power of silence.
    “It’s irrelevant where I was,” Claflin said.
    “If we want to blow this story out of the water, I’m afraid it’s entirely relevant. The simplest refutation is to establish an ironclad alibi.”
    “Then I think we’re going to have a problem.”
    I waited, said nothing.
    “Your challenge is to prove I never met with this prostitute. I’m afraid I can’t help you beyond what I’ve already said.”
    But I persisted. “The court was in recess that week. You had no public appearances, gave no speeches. There’s nothing on the public record for that entire week. The Watergate’s security cameras, the parking lot cameras, they’re all going to reveal you weren’t home at the time of the alleged incidents. Did you travel somewhere?” I was bluffing, of course. I didn’t have time to check out security cameras.
    He continued looking away. Finally he turned toward me and spoke. “Can I trust your confidence?”
    “Of course.”
    “If this gets out I’m going to have real problems.”
    “I understand.”
    “The reason I wasn’t home that week is that I was at Sibley Hospital, in the inpatient mental health clinic. I was having electroconvulsive therapy.”
    I tried to hide my astonishment. “Electroshock therapy?”
    He nodded. “For depression. You can understand why it’s important to me that this be kept private.”
    “So you have an alibi we can’t use,” I finally said, because it was all I could think to say.

7
    W ho else knows?”
    Claflin shrugged. “No one except you and my wife and Gideon, as far as I know. My wife and I may have our differences, but she’d never betray my confidence. I’m certain of that.”
    “Are you still being treated?”
    “No. I had twelve sessions at Sibley.”
    “Did they work?”
    He smiled, unexpectedly. “They did, thank you.”
    “Maybe it’s not a coincidence.”
    “What’s not?”
    “That each of the occasions you allegedly saw a call girl occurred at the same time as you were being treated at Sibley. Whoever is setting you up must know about the treatments.”
    “I don’t see how it’s possible. Unless someone at the hospital . . .”
    “Anything is possible.” I thought for a moment. “You allegedly met with this girl in a room at the Monroe.” The Monroe was one of the finest hotels in DC, a few blocks from the White House. “Have you ever stayed there?”
    “Why would I stay in a hotel? I live here.”
    “When you moved out of your house, for example.”
    He shook his head.
    “I’ve never stayed in a hotel in town.”
    “The questions refer to hotel records at the Monroe, claiming you reserved a room for each of those nights.”
    “How would anyone know that?”
    “Obviously they had a source at the hotel who checked the guest registry database.”
    “But it’s not true. How long do we have before they decide whether to run the piece?”
    I looked at my watch. “As of five P.M. yesterday it was forty-eight hours. By my count, there’s twenty-seven hours left.”
    “That’s impossible. What can you possibly hope