Part 24 (2/2)
”You thought I meant that wasn't Meg?” He chuckled. ”No, that is most certainly Meg. But that is not our young Scandinavian friend. It is his his picture that has been faked.” picture that has been faked.”
Confused, Lauren glanced from Mihaly, to the stacked photos, then back to Mihaly. It was a tempting idea, but made no sense. ”What makes you think so?”
”Because it is me.” He actually seemed to be enjoying her discomfort. ”I am the man in those pictures.”
She realized her mouth was hanging open, and closed it. ”How, um, I mean, what... ?” She gave up.
”They were obviously stolen from my apartment. You must realize they were meant to be private, only for Meg and me.”
Numbly, Lauren nodded. If she learned any more about her sister's love life she'd never be able to look her in the eyes without blus.h.i.+ng.
Drew cleared his throat, probably no more eager than she was to know the details of Meg's private life. ”Why would they change them?” he asked. ”They couldn't work as blackmail, since Meg would have recognized them.”
”I suspect your father was the intended target, at first. If their marriage were real, these might have been very effective blackmail.”
”At first? What are you talking about?” Drew demanded.
”Imagine the situation you described to me,” Mihaly explained. ”Senator Creighton and Meg announce their marriage. They wait for someone to contact them with some sort of blackmail. They are prepared for this type of photo, but they aren't worried. If the pictures are of Senator Creighton and some woman, he would expect that they can not damage his career. It is well known that he has dated, and been intimate with, many women in this town. Am I correct?” he asked Drew.
”Correct,” Drew muttered.
”In his home state, it is known he is like this. It is also known he is a good senator, so they re-elect him. If these photos show up, so what? He says, 'I am appalled, I did not know she took them.' Then maybe the woman looks bad, that's all. They would not influence his vote. He doesn't care, so he is immune.”
Mihaly watched both of them to see if they followed his reasoning. Lauren nodded. ”We get that much. Senator Creighton can't be blackmailed with dirty pictures of himself. But they would expect him to want to keep similar pictures of his wife out of the press.”
”Yes, quite likely,” Mihaly agreed. ”It is the nature of politics, at least in your country. Wives are expected to be pure, a good influence on the man. The people are more likely to forgive his indiscretions if his wife does.”
His a.s.sessment of American politics sounded right on target to Lauren. ”So why change the pictures? Why aren't they just as effective with your picture on them? It shows his wife fooling around with another man.”
Mihaly rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ”This is the troubling part. I believe the pictures are more than blackmail. They are a warning.”
”How? For whom?” Drew said it, but Lauren was glad he asked. She was starting to wonder if she was the only one getting lost in the tangled web of lies.
Mihaly a.s.sessed them before answering, debating how much information to share. Finally, pointing to the pictures, he said, ”Do you understand what this means? They broke into my apartment to get them. The blackmailers know who I am and what I do, and they were still still able to get into my apartment. Meg knows what that says about their level of competence.” able to get into my apartment. Meg knows what that says about their level of competence.”
Drew was nodding, but Lauren wasn't about to let him off that easily. ”That's not good enough,” she said, surprising both men. ”I want specifics here. We're talking about my sister, who apparently means something to you.”
”I love Meg,” Mihaly said, as if that should have been obvious. ”And she loves me.”
”So you said. And I'm beginning to believe it, at least your side of it. So I think I have a right to know exactly who you are. Are you a spy? Have you involved Meg in something dangerous or illegal?”
”Lauren, he can't-” Drew began. Mihaly cut him off with a raised hand.
”It's okay, she has a right to ask.” He smiled at her. ”Spy. That word has a certain panache, no? Perhaps more than I deserve. I am the Romanian Deputy Amba.s.sador to the United States. But I also provide information to certain people in my country. Sensitive information. I do not meet with agents in dark alleys or sneak into government buildings to steal doc.u.ments. Usually. But what I do is not always legal. Technically.”
Lauren frowned. ”Yeah, that's real specific.”
”I think you can say he's a spy,” Drew said.
Mihaly shrugged.
She wasn't happy with the answer, but realized she wouldn't get any more out of him. ”And Meg knows this?”
”Yes.”
”But all this blackmail stuff isn't related to who you are and what you do?”
”No.”
Lauren didn't think so either, but she wanted to hear him say it. ”So how is altering pictures to put someone else's face on your body a warning?”
”These people are not being subtle. It means they have eliminated me. Removed me. It is a threat, in case Meg wants to turn to me for help. Obviously, they do not want me helping her. So they would expose her affair and my ident.i.ty along with it. She won't contact me, because it would put me in danger.”
”And she won't put you in danger because she loves you.”
”Yes. She is wrong to do this, of course, but she is acting out of love.”
His confidence in Meg was amazing, and Lauren was beginning to believe it was justified. She bit her lip while she thought it through. Mihaly Dragos was at the very least a close friend of Meg's and probably the person best qualified to help her deal with threats from government agents. Yet, she hadn't contacted him. Meg must care a great deal for the Romanian man if she chose to protect him when she needed his help the most.
”All right, so the pictures aren't s.e.xual blackmail,” Lauren said. ”They're a warning that Meg shouldn't contact you. Which explains everything except why Meg and Harlan ran from the Secret Service agents they were supposed to be working with.”
Mihaly considered the problem. ”On that, I agree with Drew's conclusion. One of them recognized the blond man as a Secret Service agent. It is the only answer. Some of these men act like they are invisible, you know, but they are not. Maybe this one made that mistake.”
He leaned forward, more intense than he'd been before. ”You must let me help you. We have to find them before these rogue agents do.”
Lauren thought ”rogue agents” was a good term for them. She also thought it sounded dangerous as h.e.l.l. ”What do you think we should do?”
”Is there someone who might know a place Senator Creighton would consider safe? Or anyone he might contact if he needed help?”
”I wish it were us,” Drew complained. ”But he won't let us get involved, so my only guess would be Senator Pierson. Their politics may differ, but they've been friends for years.”
”Can you trust him?”
”Yes. If he were part of it, he could have removed us from the picture before we went to Florida. Plus, he already helped us once.”
”Then perhaps he will be able to help again.”
Drew nodded and looked at Lauren, including her in his response. ”We'll talk to him.”
”And this Agent Chapman you mentioned. He is expecting to hear from you?”
”I'll contact him again,” Drew offered. ”Maybe he already knows something about the guys who followed us to the motel yesterday.”
”Yes, we will have to involve him. Perhaps he can find out who the other Secret Service agents are, the ones Meg and Senator Creighton ran from, if they really are agents.” He scowled at the facedown photos. Lauren had half expected Mihaly to propose some clandestine operation right out of the pages of an espionage novel and was mildly disappointed that he would run straight to the authorities with their story.
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