'No. If it was, I would be legally required to inform you of that fact.'
I could all but see him rolling his eyes. 'Yes, and I'm sure you're a law-abiding investigator, Mr. Strachey. Just like the law-abiding investigators who followed Eliot Spitzer into post offices and hotels.'
'Yes, and I'm sure you're a law-abiding public official. Oh, thanks, by the way, for calling off the Serbians. They nearly ripped my ear off the first time I ran into them.'
'I have no idea what you're referring to, and I have no need to know what your private eye snooping-into- people's-privacy type of life must be like. What I'm telling you is, I'm willing to meet with you, and when I told my wife, Deidre, what I was planning to do, she insisted on being there, too. I find this all just excruciating, and so does she. But she says rightly, I think, that her being there might help convince you and the people you are working with that what you are embarked on is just terribly wrong and unfair. And if you have any sense of justice-and of Christian charity, if I may say what's in my heart-then you and Tom Dunphy and Shy McCloskey will drop this entire wrongheaded line of investigation, and find something better to do with your time and your bushels of money.'
'Wrongheaded in what way?'
'You'll see. Can you meet Tuesday morning? I'm at home in Kurtzburg now and won't be back in Albany until Monday night. I have a friend who maintains a suite at the Crowne Plaza. Could you meet there?'
'I could drive out to where you are today or tomorrow.
You're what, just west of Rochester?'
'No, don't come here. If you come here, it's no deal. I can't have someone like you being seen with me in my district. I'm sure you get that.'
'Someone like me? Mr. Louderbush, can you hear yourself talking? If you did, you'd have to wonder.'
More breathing. 'I know what you think of me. And I admit some of it's deserved. But you don't know the whole story.
Far from it. That's what you're going to hear on Tuesday, the whole story. And then you're going to think better of me. I promise you that you will think better of me.'
It sounded like a con to me, and what I was mostly thinking about was the wire I'd wear and the additional evidence I'd end up with it that further revealed Louderbush's irredeemably rotten character.
We set the time and place for the Tuesday morning meeting, and I immediately called Timmy to update him on Louderbush's brazen gamesmanship. He was in the midst of his brunch with Ann Holmes and couldn't stay on the phone, but he said Frogman Ying had gotten back to him and was 159
Red White and Black and Blue by Richard Stevenson willing to meet me later that afternoon. Ying had told Timmy that Kenyon Louderbush was a great man who would make a great governor, and Ying was happy to hear that the Stiver family was setting up a memorial scholarship in Greg's name.
He remembered Greg as one of a number of bright, promising young conservatives who had supported Assemblyman Louderbush and whose careers, academic and otherwise, had been boosted by the assemblyman. Greg was one of several college students who had been mentored by Louderbush.
Greg was a particular favorite, but there had been others.
Chapter Eighteen
'Who were the other college students Assemblyman Louderbush took an interest in?' I asked Ying. 'Maybe some of them knew Greg and would like to participate in organizing the Stiver family's memorial scholarship?'
'I'm sure the assemblyman's office could give you a list.
Why not just wait until Monday?'
'The family is interested in young conservatives who actually knew Greg. They'll be looking for donations, of course, but from people of your generation it's predominantly testimonials they're gathering. And doing it through you and others like you gives it all the personal touch the family yearns for.'
Ying nodded and seemed to swallow this hooey. He was a slender Chinese-American youth of thirty or so with close-cropped hair and a single silver earring. Not your average Federalist Society Scalia-phile. Ying was just back from the gym when I met him in a coffee shop on Lark Street, so his tank top gave me a partial view of the fiery-tongued dragon tattoo that looped over a satiny beige shoulder and onto his right pectoral. He spoke with no discernible accent, and I wasn't surprised by his distinct enunciation. I caught myself watching his mouth opening and closing. Might I catch a glimpse of it?
He said, 'I don't know that Greg had much contact with the other students the assemblyman mentored. They lived out in his district for the most part. In any case, Greg's situation was different. The assemblyman assisted Greg with his master's thesis, as I recall. That's what he told me after Greg died, and Mr. Louderbush asked me and another staffer to get hold of the SUNY report on the suicide. The assemblyman wanted to make sure the investigation was thorough and that the death was actually a suicide and not some sort of absurd accident the university was covering up.'
'What did you find out?'
'That it was in fact a suicide. There was a note that the police found, and they notified the university.'
'How well did you know Greg? His death must have come as a terrible shock. Or did it?'
'I liked him, but I didn't know him terribly well. He came into the office once for a tour, and I saw him occasionally at SUNY Federalist Society get-togethers. Have you talked to his rugby buddies? I don't know who they were, but I'm sure they'd be interested in the memorial.'
'No, I haven't talked to them. I'd love to locate some of them.'
'Ask the assemblyman. It's one of the interests he and Greg shared. It's a rough sport, too messy for a gym addict like me. But I know Mr. Louderbush played sometimes. Even at his age. He'd come into the office with scrapes and bruises.
But he always said he found it invigorating.'
'I know all about that.'
'You play, too? Is that what happened to your ear?'
'Yep.'
'Softball is rough enough for me. I grew up in Taipei and played Little League. My family moved to the US when I was twelve. Rugby was a bit exotic for me and my brothers.'
'What's your favorite sport now?'
He laughed. 'I'm tempted to say muff-diving, but I guess that's not what you were thinking about when you asked the question.'
'Ha ha.'
'Anyway, are you Timothy Callahan's friend? Why is a raving progressive like Timothy interested in a memorial for someone like Greg Stiver? Or is he a friend of the Stiver family? Or are you?'
'I am. Greg's sister, Jennifer, asked me to help out. This all goes beyond politics.'
'Oh sure. It's one of the reasons I love this country. You can hold the most passionate ideological beliefs and still be friends with the opposition. It's one of the ways I disagree with the Tea Party types. They make it all too vehement and too personal. On the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsberg tear each other to pieces on the bench, and yet off the bench they're the best of friends. Take you and Timothy. You can disagree with Assemblyman Louderbush's positions, and yet you still respect him enough to want to memorialize an unfortunate young man who meant so much to him and to the conservative youth movement in Albany.
What you're doing just serves to reaffirm my faith in my adopted country.'
'Great.'
'So are you supporting Shy McCloskey for governor? I gather you are.'
'Timmy works for Myron Lipschutz. So, sure.'
'It's not Shy's year. Four years ago maybe. But Kenyon Louderbush's time has come. He'll be a great governor. At a minimum, he'll keep New York State from turning into a basket case like California. Overspending, fiscal paralysis, government by the special interests-that's all over.'
'You think Louderbush can really beat Merle Ostwind? New York has never elected anybody as far right as your former boss. Anyway, you don't go for the Tea Partiers' extreme partisanship. And yet they're Louderbush's main supporters.'
