the phone and called her secretary, knowing full well she wouldn’t reach her. Lizzie left a voice mail and knew Sandy would take care of things the way Sandy always took care of her schedule the moment she opened the office.
Cosmo would have to wait.
Chapter 3
Lizzie couldn’t believe her good luck when she found a parking space right in front of Jack Emery’s house in Georgetown. And from the looks of things, Jack was up and moving around inside because the house was lit up from top to bottom. She looked to her left, three houses down, and could see that Maggie Spritzer was up and about, too, her house lit up just the way Jack’s was.
Lizzie was out of her car a moment later, an enormous paper sackful of cinnamon buns and three huge cups of coffee in hand. She set down her purchases on the stoop, called Maggie, and said, “Jack’s house. Now!” Then she rang Jack’s doorbell.
Jack opened the door, took in the sack of sweets and the coffee. He looked at Lizzie, and said, “Oh, shit! What now? It’s only quarter to six!”
“Leave the door open, Maggie is on the way,” Lizzie said, heading toward Jack’s kitchen, where she rummaged for a plate on which to set the buns. “Come on, Jack. You need to smile when you greet your guests. It’s the only way to start the day. And, I brought breakfast! That alone should put a smile on your face.” She was turning around to reach for a stack of napkins when Maggie breezed into the kitchen, her freckled face alight with questions. High heels in hand, she was in her stocking feet.
Maggie reached for a bun, rolled her eyes, and sat down. “Oooh, these are soooo good, and I need this right now. What’s up?” she asked as she happily munched away.
“Honey, if you thought that little gig in Utah was Pulitzer material, wait till you hear what I have to tell you. Right now, right this minute, I can probably give you enough fodder for your paper for the entire year! Banner headlines for a solid month. You are absolutely going to love what I am about to tell you,” Lizzie said, reaching for a bun she knew she didn’t need. But she wanted it, and she never denied herself anything if she could help it. That was what life was all about in her opinion.
“What about me, Lizzie, am I going to love this?” Jack grumbled as he eyed the cinnamon buns and tried to exercise willpower. Finally, unable to resist the sugary treat, he snatched one and shoved it into his mouth. “I hate Starbucks coffee!”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Maggie said as she swigged at the strong coffee. “Tell us, Lizzie, all the little ‘ifs,’ ‘ands,’ and ‘buts.’ Don’t leave anything out!”
“Guess who called me at three o’clock this morning?”
“Cosmo? He asked you to marry him!” Maggie said.
Lizzie shook her head. Maggie looked crestfallen, as did Lizzie.
“Charles? He’s on his way back, and the girls are planning to flog him?” Jack suggested.
Lizzie shook her head again. “You’ll never guess, so I’m going to tell you.” She paused dramatically. “Martine Connor. President Martine Connor.”
Jack’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “She’s going to pardon the girls! She’s coming through on her promise!”
“No! Not yet. She said she can’t do it yet, but she will. I told her what the consequences would be if she reneged. No, she called asking for help. I turned her down on behalf of the Vigilantes because she’s already running a tab with the Sisters. No freebies, ladies and gentlemen. I hope I wasn’t out of line. I haven’t even called the girls yet. I have to tell you, she made me a little angry.”
“I don’t think they’ll fault you, I would have done the same thing,” Maggie said as she bit into her third cinnamon bun. “The president made you a little angry. So what’s the deal?”
“A scandal of mega proportions involving her brand-new administration. Actually, last night at Judge Leland’s retirement party, I heard some lavatory gossip but wasn’t able to follow through on it at the time. Then when I got home, Cosmo called, and, as luck would have it, he has a client who is tied to the scandal. He suggested that she consult one of the ‘very good lawyers’ he knows in D.C.”
“Cosmo’s in Vegas. How does that tie in to the president calling you in the middle of the night?” Jack asked as he contemplated a second cinnamon bun.
“What? What?” Maggie snarled.
Lizzie grinned. “It seems that our new president has an administration of perverts. It would also seem that a good many of them, like fifty or so, enrolled in the Happy Day Camp for some…unorthodox…uh…activities. It would appear that when Martine won the election, they, the perverts of the current administration, got carried away and had a little camp outing. Then they had another camp outing after Martine took the oath of office.” She waited for a reaction, and when she saw only blank expressions, she said, “A brothel. Happy Day Camp is a brothel in Las Vegas. Actually, it’s a little more than sixty miles from Vegas. As you know, prostitution is legal in Nevada in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents. However, when the madam was contacted to bring her dog-and-pony show to the nation’s capital, she balked, but they, the perverts, convinced her and her girls that there would be no blowback. It appears they were wrong.”
“Oh, shit!” Jack said.
“Wow! You were right, this is big stuff. Do you have names?” Maggie asked as she picked frosting from the remaining cinnamon bun. Jack slapped her hand away from it.
“I don’t, but Cosmo does. The madam is on the run and she gave him her books, financial records, and cell phones for safekeeping. The administration is trying to contain the situation, but the other side of the aisle must have gotten downwind of it somehow, and they’re going to blow it wide-open. I don’t know when, but I have to assume very soon. She’s going to end up being known as not only the first female president but, as Martine said, also she’ll be the laughingstock of the free world. Actually, the whole world.”
Maggie snorted. “They’ll go after the madam, string her up, and the johns will lose face, their jobs, and go on with their lives. Half of them will probably end up as lobbyists or CEOs. That’s how it usually works. Wait a damn minute here. Are you saying the president wants the Vigilantes to…cover for all those guys so they can keep their jobs and not embarrass her administration, meanwhile letting the madam get slammed into jail?”
“Yeah,” Lizzie said.
“Well, damn, I think the girls will take this one on for free. But no way are they going to do what she wants, pardon or not. By ‘books’ do you mean Cosmo has the madam’s little black books?” Maggie asked.
“Yes, and some of those clowns actually used their credit cards. The woman was no dummy, she made sure she got fingerprints of the whole bunch, and she’s matched them up to the payments. The reason she’s on the run is she was tipped off that this was going to go down. She didn’t waste a minute. She sent her girls off to the far corners of the globe, and she’s taken on a new identity. She also told Cosmo that copies of all the materials she gave him were on their way to the ‘intended recipients’—and then she winked at him and gave him the V sign! So Cosmo thinks she might mean the Vigilantes! How she would know where to find the girls I have no clue. However, there is every possibility she knows Rena Gold. You remember Rena, who helped us with that little caper at the World Bank and then again in Vegas when things went sour there
