‘You can’t resign, Dad. Do you know how that would look to everybody?’
‘That’s what we’ve been telling him, Maddy. But he won’t listen.’
‘You and Ben are so damned clever, aren’t you?’ Glowering. ‘Dragging my poor daughter into it.’
‘There you go again. “My poor daughter.” Dad, I’m a grown woman. And there’s no way you can resign now.’
‘What about your mother? How much more can she take, Maddy? She’s my wife and I owe her—’
But Maddy was shaking her head and interrupted him. ‘You were stupid about the Cabot woman. Very stupid and very selfish. Don’t be the same way all over again about this. You know damned well that Mother and I will support you. What we want is for you to be proved innocent and to finish the race. Even if you lose. Do it the right way, Dad. For all our sakes, including your own.’
I was glad I’d brought her into it. Her words had a visible effect on Robert. The anger at me faded from his eyes, the tension in his jaw line relaxed and the voice was softer now. He even smiled. ‘You always could talk me into anything.’
‘Not “anything.” You wouldn’t buy me a car until I was eighteen.’
‘Oh, that’s right. You had to ride a burro back and forth to school. I forgot.’
She joined in the fun. ‘Other kids had cars at sixteen. But then. .’ And she struck a dramatic pose. ‘That was when I learned all about suffering.’ That smile had doubtless broken several young hearts.
I eased out of the booth. ‘I need to get back to town. I appreciate your help, Maddy. And Robert, Ben’ll be calling you after talking to the press this morning.’
‘I still should be mad at you, Dev.’ He wasn’t making a joke. ‘Sometimes your cynicism really gets me down. I’ve talked to a few of your other clients. We all think that deep down you hate politicians.’
‘Sometimes I do. But I hate consultants — myself included — just as much, Robert. We’re all guilty.’
Genuine surprise in his eyes and voice. ‘You really believe that?’
‘Yeah, I do.’
‘Oh, Dev, that’s so sad,’ Maddy said.
‘Not as much as you might think.’ I laughed. ‘Because I love playing the game.’
I was about halfway back to town again when my old friend Detective Farnsworth appeared behind me and honked me over to the side of the two-lane blacktop.
He came up to the Jeep with a smile on his face and I wondered why. Through the open window he said, ‘Have you seen the news in the past ten minutes?’
‘Haven’t had the chance.’
‘Detective Hammell turned up a witness who claims that the Cabot woman told him she was afraid Senator Logan was going to kill her.’
‘Oh? I notice you used the word “claims.” If you had something for sure you wouldn’t use a word like that.’
‘She rushed into her hotel one night and asked if she could get a different room. The clerk there helped her. She swore him to secrecy about where she was hiding. That was when she told him about being afraid of Logan.’
All I could do was counterpunch. ‘Did you put a tracking device on my Jeep?’
He managed to look curious. ‘Somebody do that?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It wasn’t me. Or anybody in the department.’
‘You speak for the whole department, do you?’
‘In this case, yes. Two years ago we did it to a guy we suspected had murdered his wife. He figured it out and his lawyer got a judge to issue an injunction against us using one. The guy is suing us for two million dollars now. The mayor is pissed because we have to spend so much of the taxpayers’ money on the case. So he gave the order. No more tracking devices till this is resolved. Does that answer your question?’
‘Guess it’ll have to do.’
He put a hand on the edge of the roof and leaned forward. This early in the morning and he was already tired. But then so was I.
‘You managed to change the subject, Conrad. But now we’re going back to it. I was headed out to Logan’s with a search warrant to take a look around his house.’
‘He didn’t do it. He’s not the killing kind.’
‘Most people are the killing kind in the right circumstances.’
‘Maybe. But he still didn’t kill her.’
‘So just as I’m about to pull up to where the security guards are on his property I see you about half a block away headed back to town. I followed you to give you the courtesy of being there when I hand him the search warrant. I’m told his wife is very highly strung.’
Maybe he was right. Maybe I’d have a minor calming effect on the family by being there. This hotel witness was one more reason Detective Hammell had to put a formal charge of murder on Robert.
‘How about following me back?’ His tone had changed considerably.
‘Sure. But I’ve got a question.’
‘What?’ Guarded again now.
‘Has the press gotten the news about the hotel desk clerk?’
‘Probably by now. We’ve got a whole department full of leakers.’
I’d have to talk to Ben as soon as I could. The news just kept getting worse. The press would hang this around our necks like a noose. I felt sorry for Maddy and Elise. And I allowed myself the pleasure of getting pissed off at Robert again for setting all of this in motion. And then I had the most troubling thought of all — what if he was the killer?
The guards just waved us through. At the moment there were only around eight or nine reporters and camera people waiting around. That would change quickly when the first reporter got the news about what Tracy Cabot had told the hotel clerk.
As we walked up to the door, Farnsworth, dressed this morning in a gray tweed sport coat and black trousers and cordovan wing tips, said, ‘I’ll need you to help me keep everyone as calm as possible. That’s why I didn’t bring a crew with me. I’ll call for them after I’ve had a chance to talk to Logan. I know his wife has had some mental issues. There’s no point making things any worse than they need to be.’
‘She was playing the hotel clerk.’
‘Who was?’
‘Cabot. This whole thing was a setup to destroy Logan’s career. When she ratted him out to the press she’d drag the hotel clerk in on it and he’d testify that she’d told him how she feared for her life. So you’d have the affair, which never happened — he never slept with her — and for the cherry on top you’d have this bullshit about how she was afraid he’d kill her.’
‘And you can prove all this?’
‘Yeah, I can.’ I wasn’t happy about the irony of having Howie Ruskin save our ass. The strange bedfellows cliché had never been more apt. I took a few more hits of the chill, clean Midwestern air and then said, ‘You’ll be surprised.’
‘You trying to talk me out of serving this search warrant?’
‘Not at all. Right now at least three or four people in a city of your size are committing felonies of one kind or another. If you’d rather waste your time hounding an innocent man, be my guest.’
‘C’mon,’ he smiled, nodding to the front door, ‘let’s go waste some time.’ Halfway up the stairs, he said, ‘Every political op I’ve ever met is a bullshit artist. I thought maybe you were different. But you’re all alike. And you get paid so much money for it. That’s the part that amazes me.’
‘Hell, if you want more money move to Chicago. I know cops there who make a couple hundred grand a year and they don’t have to report any of it to the IRS.’
‘To protect and serve,’ he said and knocked on the door.
Mrs Weiderman answered, looked first at him and then at me. She didn’t need to be told that something serious was going on here.
Farnsworth had his ID ready. Her eyes went from it to me. Beseeching me. I don’t know what’s going on, Dev. But you need to protect us. These are the people I love. This is the only family I have left. They took me in when I lost everything. Please help us.