‘Well, “invited” is a little strong. We were going to have a little food, that’s all. It wasn’t anything formal.’
‘Did you get the sense that he wanted to tell you something? Was there any urgency when he talked to you?’
In fact, there had been. ‘No — I mean, I didn’t notice any.’ She wanted to keep me talking in case I’d accidentally say something she wanted to hear. I had to be careful. As much as I hated it, I needed to protect Ward, at least for now.
‘I see. You weren’t concerned when he didn’t show up?’
‘There was no chance to be concerned. Lucy Cummings called and woke me up from a nap and told me what had happened. That changed everything.’
‘The staff people I interviewed this morning said that they were worried about James Waters. Said that he had seemed agitated lately.’
‘Again, I knew him so briefly I had nothing to judge that against. He seemed anxious I suppose, but everybody gets that way when a campaign is this tight. And Burkhart has a lot more money than the Ward people do.’
‘They’re both wealthy.’
‘True. But Burkhart has access to a lot of right-wing money. They’re spending millions this election cycle.’
‘That’s what I hear.’ She gave me the police stare again. ‘So you’re a hired gun.’
‘In a way. I’m here as a favor to Jeff Ward’s father. He saved my father’s life back when they worked together. Tom Ward was my father’s protege.’
Her phone buzzed. She hit the intercom button. ‘Yes?’
‘Just wanted to remind you that you have the meeting in the chief’s office in less than ten minutes.’
‘Thanks, Julie.’ Her full attention came back to me. ‘So you’re here just as a favor. You’re an established hired gun who’s seen all kinds of problems with campaigns over the years. I have the sense that you’re also good at reading people. Picking up on their moods, maybe even their thoughts through their expressions and body language.’
‘You’re giving me way too much credit.’
She brushed aside my humble pie. Irritation crackled in her dark eyes. ‘But somehow you don’t pick up on somebody who to everybody else is clearly in some kind of distress. And he asks to talk to you and you don’t sense any urgency.’
‘I told you, you’re giving me too much credit. I’m no mastermind.’
She stood up. ‘If I didn’t have a meeting I need to go to I’d keep you here until you started telling me the truth. I have pretty good instincts, Mr Conrad. To me it’s obvious that there’s something you’re not telling me.’
‘I don’t like being called a liar.’
‘Well, now you know how I feel. I don’t like being lied to. And holding something back is a lie any way you look at it. If you want to get technical, you left campaign headquarters before our people could interview you — after you’d been ordered to stay.’
‘Requested to stay. Not ordered.’
‘You also lied to the apartment house manager about Mr Waters wanting you to pick up something in his apartment. You got there ahead of the police.’
‘A good lawyer, and I have access to one, would be able to show that neither of those are violations of law. A) I’ve made myself available to you and other detectives and I’ve answered all your questions. And B) yes, I lied to the apartment manager but at that time there was no indication that Waters’ apartment was part of a police investigation.’
‘What were you looking for in Waters’ apartment?’
‘I’ll be honest. I wanted to make sure his apartment wasn’t some kind of drug den or sex den. Things the press could make something of. Very bad for our campaign.’
‘How did you get in?’
‘Somebody at headquarters loaned me a key.’
Bitter amusement in her intriguing eyes. She touched her sternum as if her stomach was sending up fiery spears of pain. ‘No wonder people are cynical about politics with consultants like you running around. You’re not cooperating one damn bit and you know it.’
She walked around the desk to the door. She opened it and stood back for me to pass through. ‘I want a call before you leave town.’
Our gazes clashed.
As I started to walk through the door she said, ‘And that’s an order.’
TWELVE
I drove straight to the hotel.
The lobby was crowded. A banner read WELCOME PHARMACEUTICAL SALESPEOPLE! They were a prosperous-looking group standing outside the ballroom where their shindig was to start in a few minutes. I had nothing against any of them personally but their lobbyists were among the most treacherous in the business.
A prominent retired senator from our side now worked for their major lobbying firm. He didn’t want to damage his rep as a progressive so he cheated. If you worked fewer than twenty hours a week lobbying, you didn’t have to register as a lobbyist. He worked eighteen, nineteen hours and still got lots of great sentimental accolades on progressive websites. That’s why I agreed with so much of the anger the anti-government people felt.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat in a chair in front of the TV screen. The DVD player the hotel had brought to my room was, thankfully, easy to operate.
The DVD had slid into the maw of the machine and was now posting electronic blotches on the screen. Then the show began. According to the counter, the DVD ran eleven minutes and twenty-eight seconds and then ended.
I watched it all, then clicked off the machine with the remote and just sat there thinking about what I’d seen and what it might have to do with the campaign and what it must have represented to Jim Waters. This DVD would have brought him money and the kind of vengeance he’d waited all his life to have. The outcast would have been the one in power now.
I made the assumption that he’d stolen it. He’d been a bright guy but collecting the kind of material on the DVD would have presented him with an insurmountable problem. Likely this was the work of an oppo researcher or private investigator. Millions and millions of dollars are spent every campaign cycle collecting damaging information on opponents. Both sides do it.
So we were back to stealing. Waters had somehow learned about it and somehow managed to steal it. And somebody took great angry exception to what he’d done. No doubt the object of confronting him had been to get the DVD back. But something had gone wrong. They’d killed Waters but had not gotten what they’d come for. Now I wondered what Waters had been going to do with it.
I took the disk from the machine and put it back in its clear cover. Funny how the presence of an object can change once you know its true nature. Before, it had been just another DVD in a world of a billion DVDs. Not even a barely-dressed twenty-something on a cover. Grubby, utilitarian. But after seeing it, it now had the presence of a highly classified document. The first thing I did with it was hide it in a suit jacket with a special liner. I never wore the jacket but I’d had it altered so that nobody could find its contents without ripping it apart. You’d have to pat the coat down to feel it.
I left the room and the jacket. I didn’t want to haul the disk around. I didn’t know who I was up against. And right now I wanted to go see the very comely Mrs Rusty Burkhart and ask her just why she had been following Jim Waters around. And taking his picture.
You could spot the Rusty Burkhart headquarters from several blocks away owing to the enormous American flag that had been set up on top of the two-story building. Given the weather, they’d probably been doing a lot of taking down and running back up lately.
