changed top of chapter, got rid of politian rearranged Chase and Steven scene so that they're driving, set him up to help her by looking in the database.

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 40 deletions

diff --git a/CH-4.txt b/CH-4.txt
index eb7ecf3..0d83efa 100644
--- a/CH-4.txt
+++ b/CH-4.txt
@@ -1,43 +1,10 @@
-"That's no reason not to vote his way." Louis looked completely serious. For a split second Charley considered launching himself over the massive desk between them and trying to strangle Louis for being so pragmatic. It was like the man had no idea what principles were. But then that was part of why Charley depended on him. 
+"Let me get this straight, you think you can go through the service records and match the enlistment photos, or whatever photos you have against the guy's christmas photo?" Steven was talking with his mouth full again. Chase cringed and wondered how he could fail to realize he was doing it. She had tried telling herself that maybe the sight of partially masticated hamburger was a kind of art. Living art. But that idea never worked. Now she just insisted they sit side by side at a counter whenever they went out for lunch. that, at least, minimized the visual effects.
 
-Charley always knew what he should do. 
+"That's the plan yes." She sipped her coffee, felt the acid rumbling in her stomach. She did not add *and you're the only one who can do it without being logged* because she figured Steven ought to be well aware of what she was asking. He was the one who administered the whole database system. 
 
-Louis always knew what Charley needed to do.
+"Well, okay, I'll help you pull the files. Assuming they're in the database." Steven pushed back the plate of fries and twisted on his stool to face Chase. "Have you told Littrell what's going on?"
 
-"Louis, there are half a dozen reasons," Charley stood up wearily and walked around the front of the desk, slide an ornate fountain pen holder out of the way and sat down on the edge.  "My personal favorite though is that Bill Tyson is an asshole. The biggest asshole in the party if you ask me." Charley crossed his arms and leaned back. His office was bigger than what most junior senators were afforded. Charley knew his father was behind that somehow, though he had never been able to figure out precisely how. In the end he had given up and moved in. But he had insisted on bringing his own desk, his own bookshelves, his own chairs, all from the mayor's office back in Baltimore. The bookshelves were even filled with his own books, most of which Charley had actually read, something that never ceased to amaze reporters, who would notice the spine of some poetry volume or a novel and, thinking that Charley wouldn't pick up on a quote, would drop one in casual conversation when they could, to try to trip him up, add a little humor to their otherwise doomed for the back pages pieces. But Charley rarely missed the allusions and never the quotes. His sister was a poet, he read what she sent him. Eventually word got around that Maryland had a literate junior senator and, at least for now, the press had been almost universally kind. It had even started to move from the back pages. Of course it didn't hurt that he was the same age as John F. Kennedy had been at his prime or that he looked the part as well, slightly wavy dark hair that framed a face that had attracted no shortage of dates, though thus far no Mrs. Bradford.
-
-"I could find you plenty of people with reason to say Charley Bradford is an asshole." Louis chuckled. His chair creaked as he leaned back and grinned up at Charley. "Shit, I meet people who think you're an asshole just because of your name." 
-
-Charley cringed, but he knew Louis was right. As usual. It wasn't Charley, or at least it was rarely Charley. Few people who had ever met him had, to the best of his knowledge, ever called him an asshole. Some people didn't like the color of his skin, which was too white to be from Maryland and definitely too white to be running against an incumbent black president. But the reason most people didn't like Charley was because his father was rich, and by extension, in most people's minds, so was he. In truth he was rich. And in truth he had not earned any of the money. In a way I am an asshole, he thought. I should just give it away, give everything away and join a monastery and then after a while come back and say hey everyone, here I am, I have no money, I am poorer than you, will you have me now? But Charley knew they would not. The only thing more offensive to someone struggling to get by than being rich is to be rich and renounce your riches. Fuck you and, oh fuck you again. 
-
-Charley sighed. "Goddamn name." 
-
-Louis groaned. "Please. Spare me the hardships of being a Bradford." 
-
-The smile had left his face and Charley realized that on the family score, even Louis had lost faith in him. 
-
-"Look, just give the asshole your vote. Get his pork bill that no one cares about through the committee no one really cares about and we can nudge someone else to shoot down later if it really bothers you that much. Or you can get over it by then and focus on getting some face time in New Hampshire. Either way, we win and no one really loses." Louis smiled again. "But if you really want to fuck Bill Tyson," Louis raised his hands and sighed, "you can. I mean, don't let me stand in your way. But do recognize that you won't be fucking him very hard or very well. And he will come back on you. He'll turn around in fuck you like sailor on shore leave when we head up to New Hampshire. Shit, you won't even been able to get your face on a milk carton, let alone in the debates."
-
-"All right, fine. I'll let it go... what else is there today?"
-
-Louis pulled up his tablet and skimmed down the list. "A few signatures Ev will bring by when we're finished, you have a meeting with the ministers over in Chevy Chase this afternoon, and then we have a fundraising dinner, a couple hours to kill, which you can read as a chance to make some calls and raise a bit of money yourself and then we jump on the plane around midnight and make the hotel by sunrise. "
-
-"Lovely," Charley's head hurt just listening to it, he knew it was going to hurt even worse byt he time he'd done it. "Did you schedule a nice walk on the beach when we get there?" He glanced mockingly over at Louis who was scribbling some sort a note to himself at the top of the day's itinerary.
-
-"Would you like me too?" 
-
-Charley glared at him, but before he could muster a suitably sarcastic response, Ev sauntered in the door, "Morning senator, sign here, here..."
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-"Let me get this straight, you think you can go through the service records and match the enlistment photos, or whatever photos you have against the guys " Steven was talking with his mouth full again. Chase cringed and wondered how he could fail to realize he was doing it. She had tried telling herself that maybe the sight of partially masticated hamburger was a kind of art. Living art. But that idea never worked. Now she just insisted they sit side by side at a counter whenever they went out for lunch. that, at least, minimized the visual effects. 
-
-"That's the plan yes." She sipped her coffee, felt the acid rumbling in her stomach. 
-
-"Well, okay, if you help me with this Parsons case then I'll help you pull these files." Steven pushed back the plate of fries and twisted on his stool to face Chase. "Have you told Littrell what's going on?"
-
-"Of course not." Chase liked her boss. Littrell shared her genuine enthusiasm for the work. She had actually spent most of the morning debating whether or not to tell him about her freelance case, as she had come to think of it. But she couldn't shake the feeling that that was exactly what her anonymous tipster -- her employer she thought suddenly -- wanted her to do. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction until she had the satisfaction of knowing who they were. "Besides I've already run his name through everything we have. I know as much as you do. Those files you found in the main library are still all I have." Chase turned all the way around and looked out at the street. She had, ever since that day, insisted they come back to the same tawdry Greek diner. The walls were still yellowed with cigarette smoke, though it had been years since anyone had been allowed to smoke indoors. The booths that lined the back wall were tattered and orange foam tufts stuck up through rips in the black vinyl cushions. But Chase had come to enjoy the place, the food wasn't much but coffee was good and Chase could sit at the counter and stare out the window using the mirror in front of them. It let her keep an eye on the street despite having her back to it. Chase was half looking for the prostitute, but deep down she knew she would never see her again. And even if she did she probably wouldn't recognize her. It was finally Autumn. People had on overcoats, the northern winds were starting to blow. No one was running around in rubber micro skirts, not even prostitutes. 
+"Of course not." Chase liked her boss. Littrell shared her genuine enthusiasm for the work. She had actually spent most of the morning debating whether or not to tell him about her freelance case, as she had come to think of it. But she couldn't shake the feeling that that was exactly what her anonymous tipster -- her employer she thought suddenly -- wanted her to do. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction until she had the satisfaction of knowing who they were. "Besides I've already run his name through everything we have. I know as much as you do. Those files you found in the main library are still all I have." Chase turned all the way around and looked out at the street. She had, ever since that day, insisted they come back to the same tawdry Greek diner. The walls were still yellowed with cigarette smoke, though it had been years since anyone had been allowed to smoke indoors. The booths that lined the back wall were tattered and orange foam tufts stuck up through rips in the black vinyl cushions. But Chase had come to enjoy the place, the food wasn't much but coffee was good and Chase could sit at the counter and stare out the window using the mirror in front of them. It let her keep an eye on the street despite having her back to it. Chase was half looking for the prostitute, but deep down she knew she would never see her again. And even if she did she probably wouldn't recognize her. It was finally Autumn. People had on overcoats, the northern winds were starting to blow. No one was running around in rubber micro skirts, not even prostitutes. Chase and Steven both had overcoats and yet they had still taken Steven's car down the to the diner rather than face the cold bite of the wind for six blocks.
 
 "That's not true. There was a handwritten note in the file right?"
 
@@ -55,11 +22,11 @@ Steven turned around again and grabbed her shoulder. "Listen Chase, You have to
 
 "Why the hell do I care what kind of paper it is?"
 
-"Because it might give you some clue as to when the person looked into it." Steven was grinning from ear to ear. "Figure out when the paper comes from and you might be able to get Littrell to pull the assignments log and find out who looked into it. Then you can track them down and find out what they know." Steven half bowed his head, clearly proud of this leap of logic, which, Chase had to admit, was clever, if not entirely practical.
+"Because it might give you some clue as to when the person looked into it." Steven was grinning from ear to ear. "Figure out when the paper comes from and you might be able to get Littrell to pull the assignments log and find out who looked into it. Then you can track them down and find out what they know." Steven half bowed his head, clearly proud of this leap of logic, which, Chase had to admit, was clever, if not very practical.
 
-"All right. I'll give it another look tomorrow." She grabbed the bill and spun it around. She fumbled through her purse and pulled up a dollar fifty in change which she dropped in the little tray on top of Steven's money. "This afternoon I'm dedicating to your Sgt. Parsons, remember? Now let's get out of here."
+"All right. I'll give it another look tomorrow." She grabbed the bill and spun it around. She fumbled through her purse and pulled up a dollar fifty in change which she dropped in the little tray on top of Steven's money. "Let's get out of here."
 
-Chase couldn't help watching the man in the car as she and Steven left the diner, but, as far a she could tell he never so much as blinked. *I've become paranoid. Christ, I have got to stop this shit.* Steven was driving, the car smelled of nutter butters. Down by her feet a handful of video game magazines that made for a slick carpet of crunching noises. They were two blocks away when something made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Steven was stopped at a red light. Chase reached into her purse and pulled out some lipstick. She swung down the sun visor and angled the mirror back behind her. She brought her lips up and started to apply lipstick, but her eyes darted around the scene behind her. She saw nothing at first, and was at the point of admonishing herself again when she glanced across the seat at Steven's mirror and saw, two lanes to their left, the same man, the same green Lincoln. Her heart started to speed up. 
+Chase couldn't help watching the man in the car as she and Steven left the diner, but, as far a she could tell he never so much as blinked. *I've become paranoid. Christ, I have got to stop this shit.* Steven's car smelled of nutter butters. Down by her feet a handful of video game magazines that made for a slick carpet of crunching noises. They were two blocks away when something made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Steven was stopped at a red light. Chase reached into her purse and pulled out some lipstick. She swung down the sun visor and angled the mirror back behind her. She brought her lips up and started to apply lipstick, but her eyes darted around the scene behind her. She saw nothing at first, and was at the point of admonishing herself again when she glanced across the seat at Steven's mirror and saw, two lanes to their left, the same man, the same green Lincoln. Her heart started to speed up. 
 
 "Steven, change of plans, I totally forgot I told a friend I'd meet her down at the mall this afternoon." She glanced around, up a head, they were just about to TK, which would cut down to the mall where there were thousands of tourists milling about the monuments. 
 
@@ -85,3 +52,8 @@ Her plan had been to ask her mother to come get her, but as it turned out, her m
 
 Chase assured her mother she would stay and visit, though she already knew she probably would find an excuse before the day rolled around. She hung up and walked two blocks to the subway station. She got off an exit sooner than her work and walked the last half mile above ground, keeping an eye out for green Lincolns. She didn't see any, nor did the hair on her neck ever stand up, which she was beginning to trust more than she used to. She went in the office, told her boss she was going to be working remotely for a few days, grabbed her things and bolted. Steven watched her go, the hurt look having been replaced by a more honest general sense of bewilderment. Chase smiled at him and waved from across the room as she headed out the door.
 
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