Mr. Justice Read Free

Consequently, Burton could only go so far in expressing her displeasure with her chief aide because he had gone too far when his careless mistakes left their target unscathed, killing his wife and child instead.
    Oates would never forget that day. He had driven from Washington to Charlottesville in order to get a feel for McDonald’s movements … for a typical day in the life of one of America’s most celebrated law professors. Oates actually enjoyed some of his trip. Most of the one-hundred-mile drive between the nation’s capital and the University of Virginia wended through rolling hills and pastoral farmlands at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the headwaters of the Rivanna River. Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s magnificent home, was visible on the horizon about ten miles outside of town. Charlottesville, a city of approximately forty thousand people, looked like a postcard of a college town. The university itself—locals, in fact, referred to UVA as “ the university”—was one of the most scenic campuses in the nation. The Lawn, a/k/a “Mr. Jefferson’s Academical Village,” was the heart of the university. The Rotunda, a scale replica of the Roman Pantheon, sat at the top of the Lawn, and rows of student rooms and professors’ residences proceeded down it. The Lawn was a beautiful sight on a good day. During a 1993 visit to the university, Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, had said, “You people live in paradise.”
    The law school was located about a mile from the Lawn, in a part of the campus known as the North Grounds. And it was on the North Grounds where Jeffrey Oates found Jenny and Megan McDonald waiting for the man that Oates had been told to kill.
    Peter McDonald’s wife and daughter looked like they had just finished posing for a Hallmark card. Jenny, McDonald’s wife, was wearing an emerald green Laura Ashley dress spotted with yellow daises. It was a striking choice for a woman of her porcelain complexion and chestnut hair color. Megan, the little girl, had on an identical outfit. She was carrying a heart-shaped box of chocolates in her tiny hand.
    Valentine’s Day! Oates said to himself after taking in the scene. He had forgotten all about it. Why wouldn’t he? He had no one to share it with. He had spent his entire adult life serving Senator Alexandra Burton, one of the most powerful women in the country and, someday, perhaps the first female president of the United States. Oates didn’t know why the senator wanted him to kill Professor McDonald, but it wasn’t his job to ask why. It was his job to do it.

CHAPTER 5
     
    Peter McDonald exited the law school’s back entrance and spotted his wife and daughter standing in the faculty parking lot next to the family’s new Volvo station wagon. A huge smile spread across his handsome face. He waved hello to his wife and then called out to his daughter. “Hiya, June Bug,” he said. Megan had been a June baby. “Are you ready for lunch?”
    “Yeth!” Megan bubbled. The recent loss of her two front teeth had turned her s’s into th’s. It had made her even more adorable than she already was. “Pitha!”
    Jenny McDonald said, “I thought we decided to take Daddy someplace special for Valentine’s Day, sweetheart.” She stroked her daughter’s chestnut hair.
    “Pitha ith thpethal, Mommy.” Megan decided that now would be a good time to start spinning like a top. “Pitha! Pitha! Pitha!”
    Peter McDonald said, still smiling, “Pizza it is, June Bug.”
    Jenny said, “But I’ve got reservations at the C&O, Peter. I wanted today to be special. You’ve been so busy since the nomination was announced.”
    The C&O was the most expensive restaurant in Charlottesville. It specialized in French cuisine. Julia Child had called it the finest French restaurant south of the Mason-Dixon line in her classic book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking .
    McDonald took his wife by the hand. He looked directly