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threat was transmitted and had carted off the containers to check them for fingerprints and DNA. There had been neither on the threat message itself.
    The guys at the gate called for a colleague to meet McGill at Andy’s front door.
    Andy waited just inside and shook McGill’s hand when he entered. The congresswoman, he told McGill, had departed for Washington to tend to the people’s business. Just as well. She hadn’t been happy about his hiring the new security people, but Andy had thought there was no reason to do things halfway.
    “Feds have your mailbox and paper bin?” McGill asked.
    Andy shook his head. “The new security guys. When they heard I go out to pick up the paper and the mail myself, they took them away. Said they represented unacceptable risks.”
    McGill nodded. “Meaning the people who’ve threatened you could make good by booby-trapping one or both. That was one of the things I was going to talk to you about. That and things like varying your routine.”
    “Yeah. They’ve talked to me about that.”
    McGill was starting to feel like the slow kid in class.
    Ever sensitive to other people, Andy clapped him on the shoulder, and said, “The security guys said you were right on the money about protecting the lakeside of the house.”
    “Your tax dollars at work,” McGill said.
    Andy laughed. Then he looked a good deal more sober.
    “I told Patti, of course, that she couldn’t let any of this affect the way she votes. We start down that path, and it’s the end of democracy in this country.”
    “You’re absolutely right.”
    “But I am scared. The new water barrier’s going in right now.”
    Which explained the sounds of heavy machinery McGill heard.
    “I’d be scared, too,” he said, “and I get to carry a gun.”
    “Just so you know, Patti’s anger at you was nothing personal; she’s more frightened than I am.”
    McGill nodded. He knew all too well what fearing for a husband’s safety could do to a woman. His ex had left him when she couldn’t take being a cop’s wife any longer — after he’d been shot on the job.
    “We’re looking for whoever left the threat,” McGill told Andy. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”
     
    One thing McGill could do occurred to him that evening. He called Andy and got the phone number of the supervisor of the work crew that was putting in the barrier off the Grants’ beach. The man’s name was Costello, and he had a suspicious nature. He insisted on talking to Andy Grant himself before he said anything. Then he said he’d call McGill at the number listed for the village police in the phone book.
    McGill told Costello he appreciated his precautions and would wait for the return call. He wondered if the man was naturally careful or if he’d been briefed by Grant’s security team.
    In either case, the wait was short. Costello called back in five minutes.
    “Mr. Grant says to talk to you, Chief. So whattya want to know?”
    “How soon before you finish the job?” McGill asked.
    “It’s done. Rush job, premium pay.”
    Money did have its advantages, McGill thought.
    “What kind of a barrier did you put in?”
    “Structural steel beams. Anchored in the lakebed eighteen inches apart, pointing out and up at forty-five-degree angles. Rip the bottom right outta any boat that tries to land on that beach.”
    Effective but damn ugly, as McGill envisioned it. He was sure it would offend the community’s sensibilities. Too bad if the Grants were in danger. Winnetka had its aesthetics to consider.
    Costello interpreted the chief’s silence perfectly. “The beams don’t break the surface. They stop a few inches under the water. But not enough for a boat to get over. Of course, we get a dry year, and the lake level drops …”
    “We’ll worry about that later,” McGill said.
    “Hey, rich people don’t have worries. They chase ’em away with Franklins.”
    Andy Grant wasn’t going to solve his problems with money, but