The Willard (26 page)

C
HAPTER 59

CATHERINE PARKER

1865

Before Catherine had even come down for toast and tea that afternoon, President Lincoln had sent a messenger to Ford’s Theatre requesting the state box for the evening’s performance of
Our American Cousin
. Mr. Ford was thrilled to oblige. Ticket sales at his theatre had been dismal of late and having the president in the audience was sure to fill the seats. He wasted no time in having a new playbill printed touting the president’s attendance and sending the story to the newspapers. The afternoon papers all reported that the Lincolns and the Grants would be in attendance at Ford’s that very evening. When General Grant received his wife’s note urging him not to be late for the evening train he knew he could not impose on her any longer. They had been apart from each other and from their beloved children for too long. She wanted to go home and home she would go. He offered his apologies. The Grants would be on the evening train to New Jersey and unable to accept the president’s kind invitation.

After his meetings President Lincoln took his wife on a promised carriage ride around the city. Onlookers remarked how they heard the First Lady laughing as she rode alongside her husband. When they got back to the White House the exertions seemed to have taken a toll on the fragile woman. She reported that she had a headache and would like to cancel their theatre plans. While Lincoln would loved to have skipped it as well, he
knew the word had been spread and that people were expecting him to be there and he didn’t want to let them down. He told Mary they must attend and she found alternate guests to accompany them. Prior to this night, Abraham Lincoln had never met Major Henry Rathbone or his fiancée, Clara Harris, but their names would be forever linked with his because they accepted the late invitation from Mary Lincoln. The show would go on with the Lincolns in attendance.

Catherine had finally found the strength to leave the table some time after Mrs. Grant’s departure. She had looked in vain for Edward Chase and had no idea where he could have gone. What a terrible time to disappear! Eventually she went back to her room and reclined on her bed as day faded into evening. The lady’s maid came again to help her dress for the theatre. Catherine was like a rag doll, moving as the maid told her to and letting her push and pull and lace and button her until she was properly outfitted in a beautiful deep blue velvet gown that had been hanging in her closet. The maid had been prattling on nonstop about all kinds of goings-on, including the earlier departure of General Grant and his wife. Laura Keene had been receiving lovely bouquets all afternoon and she sent a few over to Catherine’s room for her to enjoy. Catherine didn’t notice the heady fragrance as the maid wove some of the smaller ones into an elaborate braided bun.

“Miss, would you like to wear this?” the maid asked.

Catherine snapped out of her daze and noticed the maid was holding her grandmother’s diamond brooch. It was the one Catherine herself had pinned on her navy suit just before she had taken a nap that first day here.

“Where did you get this?” she asked the maid.

“It was here,” the maid indicated a rosewood box on the dresser Catherine had not noticed before. The brooch was the only thing in the box. “It’s so beautiful.”

Catherine looked at her grandmother’s pin and felt tears come to her eyes.

“Yes. I would like to wear it,” she said.

The maid pinned the delicate brooch on the neckline of her mantua where it sparkled in the lamplight.

What have I done, Gramma?

Whatever she must face this night she would face with her grandmother’s strength. She took her wrap and went to meet the carriage that would take her to Ford’s.

C
HAPTER 60

TOM KELLY

1962

The Soviets were furious. The messages coming back and forth were getting more heated and trigger fingers were getting itchy. The official clandestine pipeline was bogged down with Khrushchev insisting the Turkish missiles were nonnegotiable. But that was only one channel and nobody on either side seemed sure which one was truly “official.” Back Channel was pulling missives off the line showing the contentious exchange over the suggestion that Khrushchev take out Castro. The first responses simply ignored that part of the message, but someone on the American end kept putting it back on the table. Finally, the Soviets addressed it and said there would be no deal. The American side reported the president was considering bringing the blockade ships closer to Cuba to aid in a possible invasion and that American submarines were being redeployed to join in the effort. None of this was true, which made it all the more frightening because every man on the ExComm swore on his sainted mother’s grave that he knew nothing of these messages. It quickly became clear that someone had gone rogue and was threatening the safety of the world.

Officials began trying to mitigate the damage by adding assurances to the official clandestine messages that the negotiations were still on track, but they couldn’t outright say there was someone outside their control sending the messages. There was simply no way to know who it was or what the final
agenda might be. Every hour the clock ticked closer toward Armageddon.

Tom was moving back and forth between the Willard and the White House, but he needed help. He had asked to have Ethan be a runner for him. At first the officials balked at sending Top Secret information out with an intern, but Tom argued that Ethan would have no idea what he was carrying or what any message he might send meant. In the end, they didn’t have anyone of the right clearance who could be spared so the young man from Fort Mill became Tom’s courier.

C
HAPTER 61

CALVIN WALKER

1963

It was like they had disappeared; they had simply vanished into the crowd. Or more likely they just blended into the sea of people, just as they had planned to do. Calvin couldn’t find any of the men he had seen at the apartment. The police were executing a grid search as effectively as they could, given the enormous crowd. Once or twice they thought they had found something, but came up empty. The program had moved on and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP was addressing the crowd.

Calvin and Captain Perry had covered the area where Fish was last seen. Their actions didn’t go unnoticed. From his perch in the tree, Fish could see them. He wasn’t surprised Calvin had turned, but he was angry at himself for not completely trusting his gut with regard to the man who had shown up at the eleventh hour claiming he could get to Dr. King. Fish knew it was his own ego that had caused him to let down his guard. He had briefly entertained the idea of a one-on-one confrontation with the movement’s most heralded leader. During the night that Calvin had gone to get his proof, Fish had chastised himself for such hubris and vowed that if Calvin returned he wouldn’t be swayed by his claims of insider status. He’d keep the man close in case he turned out to be a traitor, which he had. By that time, Fish knew his plans had already been successfully put in place so he wasn’t concerned about any
damage Calvin might be able to do. On the contrary, the stupid man was right in the blast zone and had brought three cops with him. Yes, everything was working out exactly as Fish had planned, even with the diversion of Calvin.

Roy Wilkins concluded his speech and the crowd was getting restless. Four speakers had taken the podium since a choir had performed and it was time for more music to stir the souls of the crowd. The great Mahalia Jackson took the stage and Calvin heard the opening bars of her song.

He was briefly distracted by the music and stopped to see who was about to perform. From his vantage point something caught his eye as he turned to look at the stage. A man off to the side of the crowd, a good distance from the stage but not too far to be out of Calvin’s line of sight, was unwrapping something. It looked to be a small box with wire around it. He seemed nervous, fidgety almost. But when he finished unwrapping the wire he looked back at the stage and that’s when Calvin got a look at his face. He had seen it in the apartment that morning and now it bore the same look of hatred and resolve that the other Kifo members wore. In a split second Calvin realized the wire he had unwrapped was part of a long run that headed off in the direction of the stage. With all the people around and the technical equipment nobody had noticed a thin wire that had been carefully placed to protect it from being pulled loose. Calvin’s eyes moved in the direction of where the man was intently staring. He looked all the way to the stage and that’s when he saw it. Just below the podium, on the structure under the stage, was a black box. It blended in with the rest of the apparatus but Calvin instinctively knew what it was.

Mahalia Jackson started to sing “How I Got Over.” Calvin knew the bombs were about to explode, including this new one he had just discovered. He still believed the duffel bags were real bombs. Even though they weren’t, they still had a role to play and the men who carried them began placing them on the
ground at their feet and preparing to open them at the first chorus of the song. This would start the panic and once it began the man with the detonator would slowly count down from fifteen and fire the switch.

Calvin had no idea where the other “bombs” were but he knew he had to stop the man with the detonator. It was the only thing he could do. There was no time to explain to the Captain as Calvin pushed his way to the edge of the crowd and sprinted for the man with the tiny box in his hand.

Mahalia Jackson approached the chorus of the song with gusto and the men with duffel bags bent and prepared to open them. Calvin lunged for the det man and, in what seemed like slow motion, he felt his feet leave the ground.

C
HAPTER 62

OLIVIA FORDHAM

1913

All afternoon Olivia had paced and worried about the scene outside. Things could not be more messed up. The situation felt a bit like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree; you can’t do it because pieces of it keep falling off. Victoria was leaving and now she’s staying. James was gone, then back, then drunk and confused, and now Olivia had more or less told him to take a hike. And Edward had been uncharacteristically stern with her about keeping her focus on the big picture. Yes, it was important for Victoria to be part of the movement, but it was equally important for her grandparents to get together. That part was bothering Olivia because she remembered specifically hearing that her grandparents had met in Washington as the result of a carriage accident, not a motorcar spewing dirty water and not because of some political event. None of it made sense and Olivia was out of ideas for how to fix it. Her grandparents were turning out to be very stubborn young people.

There was a knock at the suite door and Olivia found Victoria standing there looking tired, but happy. She’d been working all day at the office and looked like she was ready to drop.

“I ran into Mr. Chase downstairs and he told me you wanted to speak with me.”

“Yes, please come in. Would you like something to eat? I had a few things sent up.”

“Now that you mention it I didn’t actually eat lunch today. Once that telegram occupied my mind I forgot all about it.” They each filled a plate and sat at the dining room table.

Olivia saw no way around what she had to do. “I saw James this afternoon. He was looking for you outside the hotel.” Victoria’s eyes lit up. “But before you get excited you should know I told him to go home to Middleburg and leave you alone.”

“Why? Why would you do something like that?”

“Because he was talking nonsense about what other men would think of him if he took up with a woman who would devote herself to causes like this one.”

Victoria visibly deflated. “Oh. I see.”

“No, you don’t see, Victoria, and neither did I. He came here, quite a bit past tipsy I might add, because it bothered him that he was concerned with such things.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He was disappointed in himself that it mattered what they thought and I didn’t see that he needed to be encouraged and not scolded for how he was feeling. He likes you, Victoria. In fact, I think he likes you so much he’s looking for a reason to tell everyone else to go fly a kite. But I jumped to the conclusion that he was somehow judging you unfairly and I’m afraid I was unkind to him.”

Tears were welling up in Victoria’s eyes. She looked for all the world like a child, and Olivia had to remind herself she wasn’t. She was a young woman who knew her own mind enough to defy her parents to be here and she was capable of deciding for herself whether or not James Asher was worth her time.

“He’s like every other well-bred young man in this day and age. He’s been raised to see things only one way, just as you have. But now you’ve been exposed to other ideas and started to see the value in them while this is all new to him. He only knows the opinions he’s been taught to have. I believe that, given time,
he will come to see things as you do and be a support for you, and you for him, as time goes on. I urge you to give him another chance.”

“But you said he’s gone home.”