The Shut Mouth Society (22 page)

He didn’t expect her to show off her sexual prowess or give him a light kiss when he didn’t expect it, but he found disheartening the erosion of the camaraderie they had shared crossing the country. He thought it odd that he feared losing their intimate conversations more than losing their intimate physical moments. This was a new one for him, but he would think about it later. For now he decided to leave it alone. Then a thought occurred to him. Perhaps he was seeing Professor Baldwin for the first time. Not Professor Baldwin in front of a class, but the scholar immersed in research and distracted. He could understand that behavior, because when he became engaged in an investigation, he was often accused of becoming distant. The thought gave him hope.

Evarts bought his supplies at the computer store and went to the men’s department in Macy’s. In twenty minutes he had everything he needed and wandered around the women’s departments looking for Baldwin. He finally found her when she emerged from a dressing room.

“
All set?” he asked.

“
No.” She discarded an armload of clothing onto a bench. “I need to try on a few more things. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

Evarts hated waiting in women’s wear, but he sat down in what he hoped was a patient pose and started reading the instructions on the cameras and the baby monitor he had bought. The simple instructions held no surprises, but he wondered about the technical configuration of her laptop. She had put her case beside him to watch, so he took out the laptop and opened the lid. The computer snapped out of its slumber, and the cursor started blinking. He was about to check the memory and system capabilities when he noticed a file on the desktop titled “notes.” He assumed these were the notes from her research at the Athenaeum.

He opened the file, thinking it might be more interesting than reading computer instructions he already knew. She had formatted the Microsoft Word file in the Outline view. As he reviewed the contents under the various headings, he found nothing she hadn’t already conveyed to him. He moved the cursor to close the file when he noticed a heading he had missed: GE, his initials. He opened it.

Can I trust him?

Scared Mrs. Greene!

“
We were told you would fight the union”

Ran away from him

Running from police—guilty?

Parents unharmed

Conspired with Douglass?

Parents’ apartment

Would not let me visit

Hurried me away

Apartment now probably searched

Won’t let me out of his sight

Discouraged research on Skull & Bones

Lied about appointment in Westwood

Escape from Oxnard too easy

Evarts stared transfixed at the screen. When he looked up, Baldwin stood arms akimbo outside the dressing room, looking white-hot with fury.

“
What the hell are you doing in my computer?”

Chapter 23

“
I was just—” Embarrassed, Evarts snapped shut the lid of the laptop. “You don’t trust me?”

“
Damn you, Greg. Do you think rummaging around in my personal property makes you trustworthy? How dare you?”

“
I … I thought the file contained your research notes from today. Aren’t we working together?”

She stepped over and jerked the laptop out of Evarts’s hands. “Are we?”

“
If you’re this upset about me seeing your notes, perhaps not. Especially if you think I’m part of the opposition.”

“
Are you?”

“
No! Damn it, come on, Trish. You know me.”

“
I thought I knew my DEA guy too, until they arrested him for scamming drug dealers.”

“
I’m not accountable for your past boyfriend’s sins.”

“
Oh, yes you are.” This came from a man who sat about six feet away. “Believe me buddy, you are.” He made a gesture toward the dressing rooms. “Charlotte’s prior boyfriend boffed her best girlfriend. For some reason, she kept the girlfriend but makes every man pay for that dumb-shit’s transgression.”

Baldwin gave Evarts a look that said that she didn’t want to discuss this in public. “I’ll check out.” She turned her back on him and said over her shoulder, “Meet me at Au Bon Pain across the way.”

Evarts left Macy’s and walked across the pedestrian way to the small café. He ordered a coffee for himself and one for Baldwin. As he stepped out, heading for the outdoor seating, Baldwin intercepted him, charging like an enraged lioness. “How do you expect me to carry coffee with all these bags?”

“
I thought we should sit down and discuss this.”

“
In public? After that? Are you crazy?”

“
Let me take the books and a couple of your bags.”

“
Fine.” She dropped several of the bags on the sidewalk, grabbed the coffee, and started toward the apartment. Before Evarts could sling all the bag handles over his arms and juggle his own coffee, she was gone.

By the time he caught up with her, she had already entered the Commons. “Trish—”

“
Wait until we get to the apartment.”

They marched across the Commons and up Charles Street in silence. The arm Evarts used to carry the books began to ache, but Baldwin wouldn’t slow her pace enough for him to shift loads. He tried to keep up and ignored the pain. By the time they had unlocked the door, climbed the stairs, and unlocked the second door, Evarts’s initial embarrassment had transformed into anger.

He dropped the book bag onto the hardwood floor. “Goddamn it, Trish, I’ve done nothing wrong.” He threw the second armload across the room onto the divan. “Your attitude stinks.”

“
My attitude?” She plopped her load onto the floor. “Damn it, why were you spying on me?”

“
Spying on you? What the hell are you talking about? I got bored waiting for you to try on all those damn outfits and decided to check your computer specs for the cameras. I saw the file on your desktop and thought I’d read your notes from today’s research. I thought we were—” Evarts ripped off his windbreaker and threw it. “Then I found out what you really think of me.”

Baldwin let her computer case slip off her shoulder and held it out in front of her by the strap. “This is mine.”

“
I’m afraid not. It’s the only computer we have, and while we’re in the apartment I need it to hook up the cameras.”

“
I have personal stuff on here, and you have no right to ransack through it.”

“
I won’t look at your damn files, but I have to use the machine. You can watch me if you want.”

“
I want.”

“
Fine, but we still need to work together, so how do we get beyond this?”

Suddenly she looked spent and exhausted. Collapsing onto one of the dinette chairs, she said, “I’m not sure. I didn’t mean for you to see that. It’s not what I believe; it’s what I fear. Those questions just keep bothering me.”

“
How long have they been bothering you?”

“
Since New Canaan.”

“
How about we get a glass of wine and talk through your points?”

She looked ready to cry. “Greg, I don’t—” She did start to tear. “I want to believe in you, it’s just—”

“
I know. Your parents, all this trouble. At least let me explain.”

“
Can you?”

“
Some. I did lie about the appointment in Westwood, but it wasn’t to keep you under my control. I … I thought you were pretty, and I wanted to be alone with you for the two-hour ride.”

She made a dismissive wave with the back of her hand. “That’s minor. What about Mrs. Greene?”

“
Is that what started you on this train of thought?”

“
Can you blame me? She wrote a note warning me about you.”

“
Is that the way you read it? I didn’t know what to make of it.”

“
It seemed obvious to me. You frightened her. She didn’t expect to see us together because she thought I would fight our union.”

Evarts went to the tiny kitchen, poured one glass of wine, and pulled a beer from the refrigerator for himself. After he had handed her the wine, he sat in the opposite chair. “I can’t explain that note, but it never occurred to me that she meant us. At least, not until you brought it up.”

“
What else could she have meant?”

“
I don’t know, but at that point I believed our relationship had grown into something meaningful, so perhaps I was blind to how you might read it.” He sat silent awhile and when she didn’t speak, he added, “Perhaps she meant the Shut Mouth Society when she said union.”

“
That’s a stretch and you know it.”

“
You’re right.”

They sat silent for a long while, just looking at each other. Finally, Evarts said, “I never lied about anything else on your list. In each instance, I did what I thought was right in the moment.” When she still didn’t react, Evarts grabbed at the only thing he could think of that might persuade her. “I gave you a gun when you asked for one.” No reaction. “And I never tried to separate you from it.”

“
Did you know I’ve been carrying the .45?”

“
Yeah, but I just thought you preferred the heavier caliber.”

She looked embarrassed. “I was afraid you might have tampered with the Glock.”

“
Then keep the .45.”

“
I will.”

“
Trish, this is a dangerous situation and we only have each other. How can we work together if you feel this way?”

“
Carefully. And from this point forward, we need complete honesty.”

“
I have been honest. What about you?”

“
What do you mean?”

“
What’s on that computer?”

She failed the flinch test. “None of your business.”

“
Excuse me. I thought you said we needed complete honesty.”

“
Some things are personal. I’m not ready to share them yet.”

“
When?”

“
When I know I can completely trust you. When I know I can let you back into my personal life.”

“
I’m out?” Evarts felt an unusual emotion. It went beyond disappointment, and he realized it was fear. He feared losing her. He took a sip of his beer. “What about our relationship?”

“
That can only be healed with time and events.”

Chapter 24

Evarts finished his beer and worked on installing the cameras. He started with the entrance and pointed the camera down the enclosed staircase toward the door that led to the street. He put the camera high above the upper-landing door and ran an extended USB cable down the doorframe and under the door. After he installed the software drivers on Baldwin’s computer, he got a clear picture of the staircase on the laptop. Baldwin sat in a chair with one of her books, but Evarts noticed she kept an eye on him while he worked on her computer. He made sure it always faced her and sat to the side so she could see the screen.

After the camera, he installed a baby monitor at the bottom of the staircase so any intrusion could be heard from inside the apartment. Next, he worked on the staircase lights so they would always stay on to provide enough illumination for the camera. He rewired the fixtures so the switches no longer controlled the lights and then rewired the switch at the bottom door so that, if someone threw it in an attempt to turn off the lights, a buzzer would sound inside the apartment.

Entering the apartment again, Evarts reexamined the back alley and the fire escape. He had two more cameras, but he had a problem. No matter how he positioned them, there would still be blind spots. He decided to point them in either direction down the alley and hoped they would catch movement before someone got directly beneath the apartment window. When he finished, he called Baldwin over and showed her how everything worked.

“
How much did all this cost?” she asked.

“
Less than three hundred dollars.”

“
I’m impressed. I feel safer already.”

“
Even with the enemy inside the apartment?”

“
Greg, I’m sorry. I—”

“
Forget it. We have other business.” He didn’t want to reopen the subject. “I had a chance to think while I worked. I no longer believe the law book idea will pan out. I want you to tell me about Lincoln: his personality, his interests, everything … especially prior to his inauguration.”

“
This time I’m hungry.”

“
Okay, let’s find a quiet restaurant.”

They left the apartment and walked the half block to Charles Street. Baldwin picked a high-end Italian place named Ristorante Toscano. When Evarts saw the white tablecloths and upscale place settings, he wondered how much money the safe had contained. Most of the time, Evarts viewed food as fuel. He would have preferred to conserve their assets, but he didn’t want to start another argument.