Happy Halloween, my little pirates.

Every year we go to the Pal's house in the Central District to scare the neighborhood. Her house was built in 1906 and is on asmall hill that rises from the sidewalk. It looms over you especially and when lit from beneath.

This year our theme is Circue du Scaree. A couple years ago, the Pal and I bought a bunch of stuff from one of those professional haunted house things---we have probably a hundred skeletons and skeleparts, dozens of cast masks and related costumage, even bollards with skulls on them to mark out the walking path. And we got the creepiest clown costumes ever. I mean, so creepy, my skin crawled carrying the headpieces to the car. And I rarely get creeped out.

While Richard Nixon was struggling to survive the Watergate scandal another important government figure, the Deputy Director of Counterintelligence for the CIA, was fighting to preserve his own career. This is the story of how their paths crossed, and how they combined to destroy each other.