Patricia moved back to her own little corner. She was dog tired, but wouldn’t let the others see it. As she sat down, Tim Sweeney leaned over.
“You’d be a great Den Mother,” he said as he patted her on the arm.
She chuckled again. “He may be right though. Things don’t really look that good for us,” she said. “I know they’re coming for us, but at the rate it’s going, we might not be able to help much.”
Sweeney grunted. “I can kick too, you know.” He sat back with a smile on his face and gave her a wink. She lay back and closed her eyes. In her mind, she could see her husband coming to her on the bridge of a great ship.
Deshawn Jackson had worked his way up the party chain to become one of the prime executant assistants with the campaign. He was proud of his work and for what he truly believed was the best thing for his nation and his family. Of course, it had meant 20-hour days and tons of behind the scenes work, but now he was determined to get Congressman Gregory Foster elected to become the next President of the United States. He had even been approached to have a position in the Foster White House.
It was already after ten in the evening. He had gotten back to his small apartment and had plopped down in front of his television with a beer to let the tension of the day drain off. The news on CNN was good. The day’s electioneering speech was being reported and looked favorable. At the same time they were tearing the President apart for the hostage situation, as usual. A part of him felt sorry for the President. After all, he hadn’t been the one to kidnap the mayors, but he was paying for it none the less. A knock on the door caused him to slump. Will it never end, he thought as he glanced at his watch. He stood and walked to the door and opened it.
“Mr. Jackson?” asked one of two men standing at the door holding some sort of badge.
“Yes, I’m Deshawn Jackson.”
One of the men smiled and lowered the badge. “Mr. Jackson, I’m Agent Kelly of the FBI, and this is Agent Hunt. Have you got a few minutes to talk to us,” he asked.
“Come on it,” said Jackson ushering the men to his small living room. He turned off the television. “Am I in trouble?”
Kelly smiled. “No, sir, not that I know of, but you could be a great help.”
“What can I do?”
“I need you to promise us that what we are about to talk about will go no further. Please don’t talk about this, especially around the office. Can you do that?” asked Kelly.
“Is it that important?”
“Believe me,” said Hunt. “It’s that important. The security of the nation depends on it.”
That got Jackson’s attention. He nodded. “I promise. Now what do you need?”
Kelly pulled out a tape recorder and placed it on the table. “Can you identify the voices you hear?” He played a part of the communications recorded from the telephone conversation.
Jackson’s eyes suddenly widened, and Kelly knew he knew who they were looking at. Jackson got a pained look on his face. After all he had done to achieve his goals; the men he worked for were being investigated by the FBI. He looked at Kelly. “Okay, I guess you know that I know who these two men are. The first is Williamson and the second is Foster. Now can you tell me why these men are under investigation?”
Kelly could see the conflict in the young man’s eyes. He took a moment to reassure him. “First of all, I need to reassure you that we have gone out to no one regarding this investigation. Before we do anything we will need to make sure of all the facts. That’s one reason why we asked you to keep this under wraps. But the second reason is that if there is something going on that is illegal, we do not want to jeopardize it by letting anyone know before we are ready. Do you see our position?”
Jackson nodded.
“Good. Now we need to ask you a few questions. Were you in the office night before last between 8 and 10 pm?” asked Kelly.
“Yes, I was there until about 11:15. I was there helping Congressman Foster with today’s speech and to run some interference with our public relations people. They have a habit of putting too many things on the Congressman’s plate,” Jackson explained.
“Okay, who else was there?” asked Kelly.
“There were several people working late. Williamson was in his office and Foster was back and forth between me, Williamson and Mr. Loring in PR. We also had Josh Becker and Jamie Cavanaugh, our interns running around doing things. But the rest left after 7 to attend a party at Glenda and Hal Shoup’s house over in Alexandria. They are celebrating their first anniversary,” Jackson said.
“That helps,” said Kelly. “Now do you remember any special phone calls around 8:45?”
Jackson laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. Those phones ring off the hook. There may have been fifty calls around that time, between calls from the party to us getting some take out and calls the Congressman received from supporters.”
That didn’t help. Kelly changed tack a little. “I can imagine, but I’m talking about any calls that seemed to preoccupy these two men,” he asked.
Jackson thought a moment. “Nothing comes to mind. Do you know what line it came in on?”
Kelly read off the phone number.
Jackson shook his head. “That’s not any of the main lines coming into the office. That’s one that only rings in Williamson’s office. It was set up so that private calls from supporters and other politicians could come in and not tie up office lines. Only three people can pick up on that line — Williamson, Foster and Foster’s secretary, Mary Ellen.” He stopped and thought a minute. “You know, that line was in use that night. It lights up on the phones even if we can’t use it. I remember thinking they might be on with some big donor or something that night. I remember Foster practically running from his office into Williamson’s and shutting the door. A few minutes later that light went on. I noticed after a few minutes it went off, then a few minutes later it came on again. When it finally went off, Congressman Foster came out. He looked a little shaken. I just figured they had a slight setback, but Williamson came out smiling like the whole world had changed. I remember he walked up to Foster and told him to cheer up, that everything would work out just fine. Foster said something like, ‘That’s what you say,’ and went in his office. Williamson went in and there were some raised voices, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. I was kind of busy at the time, but Mary Ellen was a little closer. She might have heard something,” he said.
“Mary Ellen was there? You didn’t mention her before,” Hunt said.
Jackson chuckled. “Mary Ellen is always there. We kind of take her for granted. Everybody says she and Williamson have something going on together. He’s the one who got her the job. She nearly always leaves after I do,” said Jackson.
“You mentioned that Foster and Williamson were arguing, do they do that often?” asked Hunt.
“Well, they weren’t really arguing as far as I could tell, but we could hear them over the rest of the office noise. I guess that’s why I noticed it. They usually don’t make such things public. It’s only the second time I recall hearing their voices raised,” Jackson said.
“When was the last time?” asked Kelly.
Jackson thought a minute. “It was about a week ago. They were in Congressman Foster’s office and nearly everyone heard Foster almost scream, ‘I don’t need something like that to get elected.’ A few minutes later Williamson came out all angry and Foster closed his door again. A while later, Williamson went back in, and when he came out, he was smiling. We all thought Williamson had come up with some crazy scheme and Foster shot him down. The rest of the time it’s been all business. Williamson runs the office and does his behind the scenes stuff and Congressman Foster does his schmoozing to keep the funds coming in and appease the voters,” Jackson said.