“And she chose blackmail.”

“Exactly, although I’m not sure she’d ruled the other out altogether, if the blackmail didn’t work. It’s pretty clear at this point that she was… not exactly inhibited when it came to having sex.”

“Nonresponsive,” Padolino said. “Move to strike.”

“As you wish,” Judge Herndon said. “The jury will disregard the witness’s last statement.”

“Did she make a specific request?”

“She did. She told me she wanted a quarter of a million dollars, in cash, by the end of the week. And if I didn’t comply, she would release the tape to the press and destroy my husband’s career.”

“What was your response?”

“Well, I wanted to tell her to go-” She stopped herself. “Jump in a lake.” More scattered laughter. “But I couldn’t. She had the goods, and if anything her request was fairly modest.”

“So you considered her offer?”

“I had no choice. I tried to read her the riot act and threaten and scare her, but she wasn’t budging. She said she’d already sent a copy of the tape in a sealed envelope to a reporter friend of hers, and if anything happened to her he was under instructions to open the envelope. Which, I assume, is how the damn thing got out. Anyway, bottom line, a quarter of a mil wasn’t that much to salvage the career of a man who was being touted as a potential vice presidential or even presidential candidate. I suspect the Democratic National Committee would’ve put that up in a heartbeat.”

Padolino rose again. “Your honor…”

“I’m sorry,” Marie said quickly. “I’ll take that one back myself. Anyway, money wasn’t the issue. Trust was the issue. I knew she’d made copies of the tape. How did I know she wouldn’t come back for more money later? Addicts always need money and are often willing to do anything to get it. For that matter, how did I know this little minx wouldn’t take the money and then leak the tape anyway? I’d learned enough about her to be cautious.”

“So what did you do?”

“I gave her my Evelyn look.”

“Excuse me?”

She smiled. “My Evelyn look. Evelyn was my mother. And when she got angry, or she had a point to make, she had a look that told you in no uncertain terms that she was not a woman with whom you wanted to be messing around. So I gave this tramp my Evelyn look.” She sampled the expression for the jury, who appeared to be suitably impressed. “I told her that she might have some damn tape, but I knew more about her than her own mother, and I could do a lot worse to her than she could ever dream about doing to me or Todd.” She took a deep breath, then smiled. “I thought she got the message, so we set a time for the exchange. My money in exchange for her tape and all the copies, and a promise to quit her job and have nothing further to do with my husband.”

“Did you tell your husband what you had done?”

“Of course. If I hadn’t, the woman might’ve tried to get money out of both of us. But it was important that he stay out of it. Private citizens can pay blackmail without breaking the law. But a politician can’t-that’s called hush money.” She smiled. “You’ll find that in the encyclopedia under Nixon, Richard M. You have to remember, I was doing a lot more here than saving my husband’s political career. I was saving our lives, our futures. Regardless of what Todd may or may not have done, I believe in the sanctity of marriage, of the importance of the family unit. And I was determined to see that this woman didn’t destroy mine.”

Ben nodded slowly, giving everyone time to absorb her answer. “And did you in fact consummate the deal with Ms. Cooper?”

“Yes. I’d rounded up the cash and was all ready to go. Todd asked me to wait until he could talk to her, but I knew that was inane-no amount of charisma was going to persuade this cheap bit of-you know. Anyway, I paid her, but apparently she decided to two-time me, because the next day the video broke. I wanted to confront her, but when I tried to contact her at her apartment, she had disappeared. And then I learned the truth. She was dead.”

“Do you have any idea what happened to Veronica Cooper? Who killed her?”

“No. Unfortunately, I’d called my detective off after she agreed not to see Todd anymore, so I didn’t have anyone trailing her. But here’s my point.” She tilted her head toward the prosecution table. “These people keep saying Todd had a motive to silence Veronica Cooper. It isn’t true. In the first place, Todd may have trouble keeping his zipper zipped, but he’s not a murderer. No way, no how-it just isn’t in him. He couldn’t kill someone if his life depended on it. But it doesn’t matter, because his life didn’t depend on it. The situation had been handled. Cooper’s silence had been bought. And after the reporter leaked the tape-something I personally don’t think Veronica Cooper meant to happen-she could do him no more harm. There was no reason to kill her.”

“Thank you,” Ben said. He turned to Padolino. “Your witness.”

“Are we really going into this place?” Shalimar asked, as they stared at the dark gabled Victorian-style brownstone on the other side of the dark, rainy Georgetown street. “We don’t have a warrant. Isn’t this kind of… breaking-and-enterish?”

“I don’t have enough to get a warrant. But if Beatrice is in there-”

“Right, right.” She shuddered. “Just looking at it gives me the wiggins.”

“Hey, I’m lookin’ forward to this. After all the places we’ve been so far, it’ll be a relief to be inside a church.”

“It’s a vampire church, Loving.”

“I don’t care if it’s the Church of the Zombie-Eaters-of-the-Dead. It’s still gotta be better than the other places I’ve been.”

Once again, Loving was very wrong.

The room at the front of the building was small, Loving thought, but it was without doubt a church. It had all the hallmarks: a high steepled ceiling, pews, an altar, an altar rail, and an organ. But there were significant distinctions, too. Instead of electrical lighting, ornate gold candelabra provided the principal illumination. The altar rail was lined with golden goblets, stained-glass pentagrams, and similar gimcracks Loving suspected were more for show than use. The woodwork as well as the stained-glass window behind the altar incorporated bones, skulls, cups spilling with blood, and the ankh-which Loving now recognized as the shape Lucille had drawn in the air for him. Shalimar explained that it was the Egyptian symbol for immortality and had become the vampire’s logo. Of course, Loving rationalized, the Catholic Church he’d grown up in had talked a lot about drinking blood and, for that matter, eating flesh. But somehow he sensed this was very different.

No one was in sight, but the fact that the candles were lit suggested that someone was not far away. Loving tiptoed forward. “Did you see this?” He pulled a black hardbound book out of the cradle on the back of the pew before him. The gold embossed lettering on the cover read: THE VAMPIRE BIBLE. The title page explained that it contained “the underlying pagan and mystical lore derived from our forebears, with selections from Sherpu Kishpu and sacred mystical works.”

“What exactly do the parishioners here believe?” Shalimar whispered.

“Funny you should ask.” He pulled out a service bulletin he found underneath one of the pews. It was dated the previous Saturday-apparently that was their Sabbath day. “‘The Church is an exclusive society dating back to the time of the Annunaki-Those Who From the Dark Heavens Came. Our Brotherhood is composed of those genetically drawn by the ancient mysteries, those born to the Blood, or those who have heard and heeded the Call of the Night. Our mission is to find our Brethren, the Lost Children of the Blood, and to convert them to the ancient ways before the time of the Final Harvest is upon us. We, the descendants of the ancient priesthood of Ur, call upon the Undead Gods, the ancient Sumerian vampire dragon goddess, Tiamat, and the way of the Magick, to protect and defend us as we find the pathway into the Master Adepti-the Inner Circle.’”