Sean searched his memory-the name was familiar, but he didn’t know why.
“Three months ago,” Paxton said, “Bob killed himself in his chambers.”
Now Sean remembered. “He called recess on a murder trial and blew his brains out, right?”
“He was a friend of mine.”
“Sorry. And you think he was being blackmailed?”
Paxton didn’t answer.
Sean closed his laptop and stood. “That’s it, I’m done.”
He walked to the door.
“Wait.”
“No. You need to tell me everything, or I’m walking out. I will tell Lucy what happened, and she’ll deal with it like she’s dealt with every shitty thing life has handed her. And you can feel like scum of the earth for putting a woman you ostensibly love like a daughter into the untenable position of losing her career and everything she holds dear because she was protecting
Paxton waged an internal battle, and Sean wasn’t going to wait indefinitely.
He opened the door.
“Chris told me.”
“Chris Taylor,” Sean said flatly.
Paxton’s jaw tightened.
“If I walk out, we’re done. I will go to Noah. I’m willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes. But I will tell him, and Lucy, everything you’ve said to me.” Part of that was a bluff. Sean would leave the country before going to prison.
“Last year, Chris was upset about his wife’s work. Really worried about her. I knew about MARC and the work they did, I wanted to help. If it was money, I’d pay it. If it was legal matters, I’d find them an attorney or draft legislation and get it fixed. That’s what I do, Sean-I want to help people who no one else will.”
“Save it for your fucking campaign.”
Sean felt Paxton’s hatred rolling off him.
Paxton said, “Sergio and I took him out for drinks. He’s a lightweight. He told us Jocelyn was helping a young prostitute, and he thought she was too involved. It’s all she was working on, a mission. I didn’t know who it was at the time, but Sergio started following Jocelyn.
“Sergio took pictures and subsequently identified the prostitutes Jocelyn was helping,” Paxton continued. “Including Ivy. It was easy to put together that Ivy and her girls worked for Wendy James. I knew Wendy was having an affair with Bristow, a prick of a congressman from Colorado. But Bristow was single, so I didn’t think anything about it. Then Sergio said he had evidence that Wendy wasn’t a mistress, but a prostitute like Ivy and the others.
“Sergio got pictures of Ivy, Wendy, and the others with several prominent people-but nothing compromising. Then Bob-” He stopped.
Sean waited. He would wait all night, because this story just kept getting more and more interesting. And unbelievable. It was increasingly difficult to separate the truth from the lies.
“Sergio found out Bob was involved with Ivy. He was single, but I thought it odd that he would pay a call girl, considering he’s a judge and older than I am. We’d been friends a long time, but I couldn’t fathom being friendly with a man who was sleeping with a woman as young as Ivy.
“The day after Morgan’s suicide, I had Sergio confront Ivy, and set up a meeting with me. At first she didn’t want to talk, but I told her Bob was an old friend, that I wanted to know why he killed himself. She confessed that she’d been paid by Wendy James to make sex tapes with her clients. And then I realized, Wendy was blackmailing these people.”
“A twenty-eight-year-old secretary blackmailing congressmen and judges? You think she could have pulled it off?”
“Ivy was truly upset by Bob’s suicide. She said he’d been a client for three years and she regretted videotaping him, but she’d been paid twice what Wendy usually paid her. I offered her ten thousand to prove Wendy James was blackmailing anyone, preferably someone in a position of power. Something to use to avenge Bob’s death, which had to have been connected. But she and Wendy had a falling-out over it. All she could get were pictures with Crowley. I used them, hoping that when they were exposed, the truth would come out. But Crowley and Wendy covered it up, called it an affair! It wasn’t an affair. It was a paid relationship.”
“And you reneged on your deal with Ivy Harris.”
“Hell no! You know who she is. You did the research.”
“I know she’s the supposedly dead daughter of a wealthy televangelist.”
“Her father is sick, and he’s on my list.”
“Stop.” Sean closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He had already crossed the line, but he couldn’t go any farther. “Do not tell me anything about crimes you plan to commit.”
“What crimes?” Paxton answered with sincerity. Or fake sincerity.
“Who killed Wendy James?”
“I don’t know!”
“You have to go to the FBI with this information. They have no idea about Judge Morgan, and they’re just now figuring out the blackmail, but they don’t have names or motive.”
“I’m not going to the FBI. They need to figure it out themselves. And they’re close. After talking to Noah and you, I think they’re very close.”
“How many innocent people are going to die because you’re trying to protect your ass?”
“I didn’t figure it out until Chris was killed this morning.” He looked at the clock. “Yesterday morning. I can’t believe the feds haven’t put it together!”
“Noah didn’t tell you everything, but they don’t have all your information. They don’t know that Wendy was a prostitute, but they did find a room where recording equipment had been.”
“Had been?”
“It was cleaned out.”
Sean watched Paxton carefully. He was used to playing God. Sean wanted to take him down a peg.
“Five people are dead because you remained silent.”
“That’s
“These meetings were three weeks ago.”
“Correct.”
“And no one has asked you to do anything specific.”
“Correct.”
Sean sat back down and opened his laptop.
“Do you remember the trial that Judge Morgan was running when he killed himself?”
“No-I think it was a homicide. He sat on a lot of capital cases.”
Sean did a quick Internet search. “Commonwealth of Virginia versus Thomas Joseph Crandall. Ring a bell?”
Paxton shook his head.
Sean ran a program to pull out all the data he could find on Crandall.
“Anyone else?”
“Excuse me?”
“Anyone else you know about who Ivy or Wendy were blackmailing. We need a connection between those being blackmailed. And since they haven’t asked you to do something yet, we don’t have that-except we have a list of people who had access to your office that week. So think! Who else in the last year or so has voted in a way that had you suspicious?”
Paxton leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Sean thought he had fallen asleep. Maybe everyone was for sale and the list was too long to remember.
Sean read the report on Crandall. The thirty-three-year-old mechanic had been accused of killing a bank
