‘‘Abusing how?’’ prompted Diane.
‘‘It was Buckley who first noticed something. You remember Buckley Kramer, Dad.’’
Her father nodded. Her mother murmured that he was a nice boy.
‘‘He was in Atlanta at a new restaurant. He saw Jef feries there with three young boys—I guess I should call them men—but they were high school and college age, Buckley said. They weren’t as well dressed as Jefferies. But they were young people; it’s hard to tell if they are poor dressers or just in style.’’
She stopped to take a drink of coffee. Diane imag ined it was cold by now. It must have been, because she set the cup and saucer down on the coffee table.
‘‘Jefferies was giving them gifts,’’ she said. ‘‘Buckley couldn’t see what kind of gifts, exactly, but they looked like watches.’’ Diane raised her eyebrows a fraction.
‘‘I know that’s certainly not incriminating behav ior,’’ continued Loraine, ‘‘but Buckley said there was something about it that was creepy to him. Not all the kids looked happy.’’
Loraine called them kids, but it sounded like some of them were adults—young adults, but adults just the same. Still...
‘‘What did you make of it?’’ said Diane.
‘‘Nothing, at first. But we spoke with someone from his campaign who had quit. He said the mayor and his friends gave him the creeps. It looks like Jefferies gave everyone the creeps. I can’t understand how he got elected. Sometimes I think people deserve the leaders they vote in.’’ Her voice was vehement.
Diane could see that the election defeat had stung her too—and was still stinging.
‘‘Now, Loraine,’’ said her father. ‘‘He pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. Look at how the governor took to Jefferies. You know people don’t deserve to suffer for making bad choices; let’s just hope they learn from them.’’
He may have been gently chiding his daughter, but Diane could see he was feeling the same thing she had felt—vindication. She felt a bit ashamed of herself for it.
‘‘Did the campaign worker tell you anything use ful?’’ said Diane.
‘‘Not at first. But then he told us he’d noticed Peeks was spending a lot of time talking to kids in chat rooms. He didn’t know about what or which chat rooms. He only got a glance or two over his shoulder, but he read enough of the screen to see that Peeks was buttering up someone who was obviously much younger than he was.’’
‘‘What did he do with the information?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘There’s the problem,’’ said Loraine. ‘‘Nothing. He quit a few weeks later when he was verbally repri manded rather harshly by Bryce for a mistake he made in a mailing. We thought the guy might be just a disgruntled volunteer. It happens in all campaigns. Some people think because they are volunteers they don’t have to abide by a work ethic.’’
‘‘Where is he now? Will he talk to me?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘He’s a manager at Wal-Mart. And, yes, Mother, I go to Wal-Mart sometimes. I like their craft section.’’
She smiled at her mother, who, Diane gathered, wouldn’t be caught dead in a discount department store.
‘‘Buckley and I got together to talk about what to do. The problem was, we really didn’t have any infor mation. Just vague suspicions
could be very innocent. Then
about something that Buckley remembered about Jefferies’ business in Atlanta. We knew they made commercials—they would have film equipment. It occurred to us that he might be into, well, into porn with these kids. I know it was a stretch. But could we take a chance?’’
‘‘Oh, no,’’ said Mrs. Sutton. ‘‘Tell me you didn’t investigate that?’’
‘‘Well, yes, Mother, we did. That is, Buckley did. He said, being the candidate’s daughter, I should stay out of it.’’
‘‘Well, thank heaven for that,’’ said her mother.
‘‘Buckley knew someone who was having a com mercial made by Jefferies’ company. He went with them a couple of times and nosed around. Jefferies wasn’t there. He has...had someone else run his business for him. Buckley couldn’t find anything that suggested any kind of illegal activity at all. We thought it was a dead end. But Buckley wouldn’t let it go.’’
Diane didn’t quite see how they arrived at the no tion that Jefferies was making porn from that scant evidence. It sounded to her like the beginnings of a smear campaign that Sutton’s people had hoped to start. His supporters were known for planting mali cious innuendos about political opponents, turning the most innocent things into something suspicious. Sutton himself had even helped spread rumors about Diane when she wouldn’t agree to move the museum and sell the property. It was their bad luck that Jefferies was better at vicious campaigning than they were.
‘‘What did Buckley do?’’ said Diane. Her body was starting to ache from sitting in one position for so long. She was more sore than she thought she would be.
Loraine looked at her father. ‘‘You know how loyal Buckley is,’’ she said.
‘‘Oh, Lord, what did he do?’’ said her father.
Loraine turned to Diane. ‘‘Dad’s volunteers are very loyal to him. They know they are working for someone who has Rosewood’s best interests at heart and they want to see him elected.’’
‘‘I take it Buckley was at the forefront of loyalty,’’ said Diane, smiling.
‘‘He was. He followed one or the other of Jefferies or Peeks. He didn’t stalk them or anything, but he’d follow
