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James PATTERSON Over tea in his town house, she noticed, Epstein ate all the finger food that had been put out for both of them. She found it odd that the only book this supposedly brilliant man had left for s a paperback by the Marquis de Sade. And then of Epstein’s assistants — a ‘Jeffrey wanted me her to see wa there was the call afterward from one woman Ward did not know— who told her, * to tell you that you looked so pretty.” Ward is pretty, with fine English fe hair. She was also very pregnant then, ing sickness. She threw up often, sometimes in clumsy advances on Epstein’s part only added to her ever-present nausea. For a man who was supposedly brilliant, he’d struck her, oddly, as not very smart. “Epstein is charming, but his eyes,” she wrote. “They are stee some hint at the steady whir of machinery runnin ‘Let’s play chess, he said to me, after refusing to give an inter view for this article. “You be white. You get the first move. It was an appropriate metaphor for a man who seems to feel he can win no matter what the advantage of the other side. His advantage is that no one really seems (Oo know him or his history completely or what his arsenal actually consists of. He has carefully engi- he remains one of the few truly baffling myste™ atures and flowing blond with a bad case of morn- public, and these he doesn’t let the charm slip into ly and calculating, giving g behind them. neered it so that ies among New York's moneyed world. Peo but few know the whole.” The testimonials Ep think we both possess the skill of seeing patterns ” Les Wexnel | nd financial markets, : d fashion trends. My skills are . told her. “Jeffrey sees patterns in politics a and I see patterns in lifestyle an ple know snippets, j stein’s friends gave were glowing: Ia not in investment strateg knows, his are not in fast world trends as each of us “?’m on my 20th boc Epstein in 1997. “The onl ily that I send drafts to is But Ward also talked questions and qualms ab« in lawsuits against him. C with him. One who had \ board of Rockefeller Univ One powerful investn conspicuous absence frot ing desks don’t seem to animals that big to not le: Ward uncovered lega view with the SEC, given Stearns. She visited a fed at length with Steven Ho made a major mistake in told him to stay below the accusations, about Epste denied—and Ward kne mastermind, was not to b - throughout the reporting - concerned with what sh 4 with what she’d uncovere q Time and again, he ° have on the girls?” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022002