DC By the Book

Excerpt: It's 1765 Euclid Terrace. My aunt and uncle are there. There were shots fired. I'm in the house behind it. I had to get away.

Excerpt: Peter arrived at the funeral for Henry and Paulette Campbell a few minutes before noon, slipping through the doors of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown.

Excerpt: The burial was at Oak Hill Cemetery, a beautiful stretch of woods on the other side of Georgetown, on a hillside above Rock Creek.

Excerpt: He didn't want to draw attention to himself, so as the last mourners streamed through the gates, he crossed the street and stood under a bare tree in Montrose Park. It was uphill from the cemetery, and he could see the burial through the crypts.

Excerpt: What the hell were they in the middle of? As they climbed the hill past Adams Elementary School, she glanced over her shoulder.

Excerpt: Peter crossed and signaled, and Rose picked up the A spot once again. There were more people here, outside the Columbia Heights Metro station and a three story mall. It would be hard terrain even for an experienced tracker.

Excerpt: Peter walked Rose through the Mayflower lobby -- all white and gold with coffered ceilings and marble floors -- and kept thinking of this surveillance lessons, a string of exercises at Hogan's Alley.

Excerpt: Fletcher's Cove was an inlet tucked in the woods along the Potomac, about twelve minutes out of town at this time of night. Beside it there was a gravel parking lot and a boat rental spot, all inside the C&O Canal park. This late you could count on it being empty.

Excerpt: Through a guarded gate, in a flash of white, he saw an old brick house on a hill. President Lincoln's Cottage. He had heard of this place but had never visited: Lincoln's summer home during the Civil War, where he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. Now it was nestled on the grounds of the Old Soldiers' Home, a retirement village for veterans, surrounded by cemeteries and parks.

Excerpt: They cruised along Beach Drive, past Peirce Mill, a nineteenth-century stone landmark. Peter's whole body tensed as they went by the US Park Police headquarters, then crossed the creek.

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Excerpt: Greg stood on the sidewalk outside DC General Hospital and pulled on his cigarette. This was the meeting site that he had given Peter and Rose. Ileana was keeping a lookout on the west side. The hospital had been abandoned years ago and was now surrounded by a chain-link fence. A host of community health service and other municipal buildings adjacent to it still seemed to be in operation, though their parking lots were empty on this weekend afternoon.