Boden snatched open his desk drawer and pulled out a .38 caliber revolver. He pointed it at Jake. "You're a fool if you think for one second you can blackmail me. I have powerful friends. You can't get away with this."
Jake opened his left hand. Bullets.
Boden dropped the gun. "What do you want? Money?"
Jake gave Francesca a slight nod. She pulled her gun and aimed it at Boden. He leaned back in his chair. Jake saw the fear in his eyes.
"Are you going to kill me?" Boden's voice cracked.
"Try to relax, Senator," Jake said. "I'm not going to touch you. All I want to do is talk to you about a video."
Boden's hand trembled as he removed a stick of gum from the pack and slowly unwrapped it. He put it in his mouth and started chewing.
Francesca pushed her gun closer and aimed it at his head. "Ready to talk now, old man."
Boden unwrapped a second piece and stuffed it in his mouth.
"So predictable." Jake picked up the pack and held it out to Francesca. "Care for some?"
She shook her head. "Trying to quit."
"Please," Boden pleaded, "tell her to put the gun away."
Jake nodded and Francesca holstered her firearm. Boden had been chewing his gum with nervous intensity when he stopped abruptly.
Jake recognized the symptoms by the fretful expression that came across Boden's face. Kyli's formula was working. Time to turn up the heat, really get that heart racing. "You see, Senator, we watched this video the other day. Pretty disturbing, if you ask me."
"Sick is more like it," Francesca interrupted.
"I saw a 76-year-old man force a thirteen-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him." Jake leaned over Boden's desk. "Made me want to track him down and kill him. Give him a good bashing, just like he did to her."
Boden's face started sweating. He rubbed his left arm.
"Now, there's this video out there and I'm not sure I can stop it from going viral on the Internet. And the thing is…you can see the man's face clear as day."
The old man clutched his chest, squeezing his shirt tighter on his body.
"What do you think I should do about it?" Jake saw the man shaking.
"Heart. Attack. Call. 9-1-1." Boden cried out. His shaky hand reached for a bottle on his desk. "I…I need…my…nitro pills."
Jake picked up the bottle. "These?"
Boden nodded. "Yes. Please. Give them here." The old man stretched out his trembling hand.
Francesca walked up and stood next to Jake while he opened the bottle and dumped the contents on the desk. Boden's hands scooped at them as a wave of nausea caused him to double over. He managed to pick up a few and put one in his mouth.
"By now, I can only imagine the pain coursing through your body." Jake said. "You see, Senator. I didn't lie. I told you I wasn't going to touch you." Jake looked at Francesca. "I guess this mission is over."
Francesca glared at the old man. "This one's for Kim Ly."
Jake watched the old man convulse.
Senator Richard Boden's eyes rolled back and he collapsed in his chair, still clutching his chest.
8
Four days later Ashley Regan and Sam Connors lay in bed after making love. It wasn't their normal Saturday morning romp. The steamy sex stimulated their appetite for each other until their naked bodies were drenched in sweat. Connors had fallen back to sleep. Regan was almost asleep when she heard her cell phone vibrate on the nightstand.
Arthur DeLoach.
She grabbed her phone and padded naked across the room. She grabbed her robe and quietly closed the bedroom door behind her.
"Mr. DeLoach, what a pleasant surprise." Regan was good at turning on the charm when she needed to and this was one of those occasions. She walked into the kitchen and turned on her Keurig coffee maker.
"Your book is ready. Be here at 9:45 precisely. Six hundred fifty dollars, cash. As agreed?"
"Yes sir. I'll be—"
DeLoach hung up on her. What a grumpy old bastard.
She looked at the clock. 8:42. She had one hour to get ready, swing by the bank to get the cash, and drive to DeLoach's house.
Regan walked back to her bedroom and opened the door. Connors was awake.
"Ashley, why did you get up?" Connors asked.
"Turn on the coffee pot. I gotta get moving. I'm burning daylight."
"Come back to bed." Connors lifted the sheets. "We can go for round two."
"Not now, I have errands that can't wait." Regan slipped on her jeans and a t-shirt. "You wouldn't want me interrupting you during trading hours, would you? No. So respect my need to do things too."
"It's Saturday. It's not a trading day," Connors said.
"That's right. And since I can't get anything done during the week because of my job, I have to do it all on Saturday."
"You're right," Connors said. "You don't have to be get snippy about it. You've been edgy ever since we got back from Europe."
"I know, Sam. I'm sorry. I just feel…unsettled. Like I can't get back in the groove." She looked into Sam's eyes. "Does that make any sense?"
"I know just what you need to fix that." Sam said. "How about a 'wine and dine' tonight?"
Regan's lip curled into a faint smile. Today was the day she'd anticipated since she returned from Europe with the book. She wasn't about to let anything spoil her day. "That would be nice, Sam. It's a date."
Regan pulled in front of Arthur DeLoach's house with a minute to spare. She used the brass knocker to announce her arrival. Within seconds she heard DeLoach shuffling down the long hallway.
DeLoach opened the door and gestured her in with his arm. "Come in. Let's talk about your book."
"Good morning, Mr. DeLoach." Regan was determined not to let her discord with Sam Connors this morning ruin her enthusiasm about the book. "Did you have any trouble with it?"
"Not really, no. The pages are a bit stiff and fragile, so you'll need to exercise extreme care." DeLoach motioned for her to follow him. "The leather binding restored remarkably well considering where your uncle had it stored."
Ashley Regan noticed a strong smell of chemicals in the workroom, much stronger than her first visit. Her book was lying open on the table. It looked significantly different than the soggy book she'd found. The leather was supple and soft with a rich new color and the pages were lighter, the writing easier to read.
"I hope you can read German, Ms. Regan, because most of what is written inside is in German. As far as I can tell the book dates back to World War II. Of course, I'm basing some of that on the swastika branded on the front cover. If I had to guess, I'd say your uncle got this journal during the reign of the Third Reich. This could be a valuable find for you. As family heirlooms go, its contents could reveal volumes about your family history." He picked up the book and ran his hand gently across the cover, hesitating at the hole in the book. "I have no idea what caused this perforation, but it went through clean. I'm afraid these stains are set and won't come out. Looks like blood as best as I can tell. Kind of adds character and mystery to it, wouldn't you say, Ms. Regan?"
"It certainly has sparked my interest." Regan opened her purse and pulled out the cash. "Six hundred fifty dollars, just as you said."
"Ms Regan, the format of what's written inside doesn't look much like normal journal entries. It could be a family genealogy, which would explain the format. Family is important and so are roots. I've traced my family line back almost three hundred years. Beyond that, records become scarce and in many cases nonexistent." He took the cash and started to hand her the book. "Wear gloves or wash your hands well before handling the book. The oils from your fingers can damage the fragile pages."