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Barrie stressed. "Look at the public sympathy Jackie Kennedy received when little Patrick died. She became an icon."
    "For many more reasons than losing a newborn."
    "But that tragedy contributed to the legend she became. Maybe this First Lady wants to create a similar aura for herself."
    "Next theory," Daily said with a dismissive gesture.
    "HIV. What if one of them is carrying the virus? The child could test positive. Mrs. Merritt couldn't risk the

    EXCLUSIVE 45
    humiliation of the world finding out about her or her husband's seal history."
    "Another very slim possibility," Daily said. "If either of them was HIV
    positive, it would have come out before now-say, when she got pregnant. The President gets routine physical checkups. A secret like that wouldn't remain a secret for very long."
    "I suppose you're right." She thought about it for another moment. "Maybe we're overlooking the obvious. What if her motive was plain of everyday spite? She impresses me as a woman accustomed to getting her way, a woman who wouldn't tolerate rejection."
    "What's your point?"
    "She killed their son to punish the President for his affairs."
    "Rumored affairs."
    "Come on, Daily." Barrie groaned. "Everybody knows he's a womanizer. He just hasn't been caught with a naked lady in bed with him, yet."
    "And until he is, and the 60 Minutes crew is there to tape it, and Mike Wallace gets his confession on video, his escapades remain a rumor."
    "Mrs. Merritt must know."
    "Of course she knows. But she'll smile and pretend that she doesn't, just like every wife of every horny public official has done throughout the history of elected office."
    "I still think the woman-scorned motivation is a damn strong one." Daily tugged thoughtfully on his lower lip. "Barrie, this story has won you industry attention. Positive attention this time."
    "My moment in the limelight has nothing to do with this."
    "You sure? This series was so good, it's temporarily 46 Sandra Brown
    overshadowed the Justice Green debacle and proved your critics wrong. You deserve the accolades, but beware of getting greedy. Are you sure that you're not exploiting your sudden attention by inventing another story?
    Could you be using all this hype as a ticket out of professional purgatory?"
    She was about to answer a firm and unarguable no, but she paused to reexamine her motives. Was she shaping the facts to suit her own purposes?
    Was she letting ambition color her objectivity? Worse, was she falling back into her habit of jumping to the wrong conclusion in order to create a much more dramatic story?
    "Honestly, no. I've looked at this objectively and from every possible angle. The woman lost her child. For that, she has my heartfelt sympathy.
    But isn't it possible that instead of being a victim of cruel fate, she's the victim of unfathomable malice, which drove her to commit the worst crime imaginable? That's the question that's got its hooks into me. "From the start, it smelled fishy. Why'd she call and invite me to meet her?
    She's never done that before-not with any reporter I know of. And while we were talking, it was as though she was trying to communicate something without coming right out and saying it. What if that something was a confession?
    "If she were anyone other than the First Lady, I wouldn't have waited this long to investigate her story. I think I owe it to myself to dig a little deeper. And, at the risk of sounding incredibly corny, I think I owe it to our nation."
    "Okay," Daily said. "Let me ask you just one more thing."
    "Shoot."
    "What the hell are you hanging around here for?"

Chapter
Six
    "Wfter a week of zealously following leads that led nowhere, Barrie's ardor began to cool. All she had to show for the time she'd spent pursuing the story of Robert Rushton Merritt's death was frustration.
    She'd explored every angle that she and Daily had discussed, but none had panned out. She was trapped in a Catch-22: The story called for a full-fledged investigation, which