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I leaned on the wall next to the phone Not because I was necessarily worried about falling doith shock or surprise But because Lowrey&039;s stories were usually very long He fancied hiround And context Deep background, and deep context Nor back to a seas froether and form the earth itself

He said, "Audrey is a very ancient name, apparently"

The only way to knock Lowrey off his discursive stride was to get your retaliation in first I said, "Audrey was an Anglo-Saxon name It&039;s a dith There was a Saint Audrey in the seventh century She&039;s the patron saint of throat complaints"

"How do you know shit like this? I had to look it up"

"I know a guy whose mother is called Audrey He told er a very common name"

"It was nuhtly ium, and Canada Mostly because of Audrey Hepburn"

"You know this because of a guy&039;s randmother too, actually They were both called Audrey"

"So you got a double ration of knowledge?"

"It felt like a double ration of so"

"Audrey Hepburn wasn&039;t from Europe"

"Canada isn&039;t in Europe"

"They speak French there I&039;ve heard them"

"Of course Audrey Hepburn was froium She had a UK passport"

"Whatever, what I&039;ewise, if you search for Audreys you don&039;t get too many hits"

"So you found Audrey Shaw for me?"

"I think so"

"That was fast"

"I know a guy orks at a bank Corporations have the best information"

"Still fast"

"Thank you I&039;ent uneuy in history"

"So what do we know about Audrey Shaw?"

"She&039;s an American citizen," Lowrey said

"Is that all we know?"

"Caucasian female, born in Kansas City, Missouri, educated locally, went to college at Tulane in Louisiana The Southern Ivy League She was a liberal arts student and a party girl Middling GPA No health problehtly raduated on schedule"

"And?"

"After graduation she used faet an intern&039;s job in DC"

"What kind of intern&039;s job?"

"Political In a Senate office Working for one of her ho coffee, but she was called an assistant to an assistant executive director of so or other"

"And?"

"She was beautiful, apparently She uess what happened?"

"She got laid," I said

"She had an affair," Lowrey said "With a la out the fine print in trade deals with Bolivia You kno it is I don&039;t kno those people stand the exciteuy?"

"The senator hiets a little hazy fro was covered up like crazy But between the lines it was a torrid business Between the sheets too, probably A real big thing People say she was in love"

"Where are you getting this from, if the record is hazy?"

"The FBI," Lowrey said "Plenty of them still talk to s like this For leverage You notice how the FBI budget never goes down? They know too s about too many politicians for that to ever happen"

"How long did the affair last?"

"Senators have to run for reelection every six years, so generally they spend the first four rolling around on the couch and the last two cleaning up their act Young Ms Shaw got the last two of the good years and then she was patted on the butt and sent on her way"

"And where is she now?"

"This is where it gets interesting," Lowrey said

I pushed off the wall and looked over at Deveraux She see as left ofat it Deot rumors and hard facts The rumors come from the FBI and the hard facts come from the databases Which do you want first?"

I settled back against the wall again

"The ru"

"OK, the ru discarded in the way she was She felt used and cheap Like a Kleenex She felt like a hooker leaving a hotel suite She began to look like the kind of intern that could cause serious trouble That was the FBI&039;s opinion, anyway They keep track of that stuff too, for different reasons"

"So what happened?"

"In the end nothing happened The parties must have reached so went quiet The senator was duly reelected and Audrey Shaas never heard froain"

"Where is she now?"

"This is where you ask me what the hard facts say"

"What do the hard facts say?"

"The hard facts say Audrey Shaw isn&039;t anywhere anymore The databases are co No transactions, no taxes, no purchases, no cars or houses or boats or trailers, no snowments or arrests or convictions It&039;s like she ceased to exist three years ago"

"Three years ago?"

"Even the bank agrees"

"How old was she then?"

"She enty-four then She&039;d be twenty-seven now"

"Did you check the other name for me? Janice May Chapman?"

"You just spoiled uess," I said "Chap there more than three years old"

"Correct"

"They were the saed her identity Part of the deal, presu of cash and a stack of new paperwork Like a witness protection prograuys would help a senator out It would give them an IOU to put in their back pocket"

"And now she&039;s dead End of story Anything else?"

"Of course there&039;s so and obvious But I hardly needed to ask it I was sure I knew the answer I felt it co ed and fused for an air burst right next to my head

I asked, "Who was the senator?"

"Carlton Riley," Lowrey said "Mr Riley of Missouri The man himself The chairman of the Arot back to the table just as the waitress was putting doo slices of peach pie and two cups of coffee Deveraux started eating immediately She was a whole chicken pie ahead of htly edited recap of Lowrey&039;s infor, really, except for the words Missouri, Carlton, and Riley

She asked, "What ive him Audrey Shaw&039;s name in the first place?"

"Flip of a coin," I said "A fifty-fifty chance Either Butler&039;s buddy screwed up her case numbers or she didn&039;t I didn&039;t want to assume one way or the other"

"Does this stuff help us?"

S concepts Help, and us It didn&039;t help me Not with Janice May Chapman, anyway With Rosemary McClatchy and Shawna Lindsay, I wasn&039;t so sure anyht on them But Lowrey&039;s news helped Deveraux, that was for damn sure With Chapman, at least It decreased the chances about a billionfold that her local population was involved with her in any way at all Because it increased the chances about a billionfold that ht narrow things down a little I mean, if a senator has a proble to react?"

"Senate Liaison," she said

"That&039;s where I&039; The day after tomorrow"

"How did you know?"