There was something about the guy at the bar. It was his walk or how he carried himself or something Patton couldn’t put his finger on. He watched the video he took the night before. He started the video, paused it, watched it again, rewound it, and watched it yet again. This process went on for nearly an hour and then something clicked. Patton double-clicked a file folder on his desktop and double-clicked an icon. A new video popped up. Patton double clicked the icon and waited. Three minutes into the video he saw it. When Jennifer walked in to tell him breakfast was ready she found Patton watching his computer screen, his mouth wide open with shock.
“What—” she began to ask, but he stopped her with a raised hand.
Patton rewound the video and watched the video again, sliding over so she could see it. Jennifer had seen the footage in question at least a dozen times.
“Why are you watching this again?” she asked, obviously still annoyed with him.
It was the security footage from the break in of Patton’s house months earlier.
“Watch this,” he said without looking at her. He rewound the video a few seconds and clicked play.
“What am I looking for?”
“Just watch. Notice how this guy with the long hair walks. You see that little hitch in his walk?” Patton asked her, pointing at the monitor. “It’s like he’s lifting up on the balls of his feet when he takes a step.”
She grabbed the mouse and rewound it to the beginning. She clicked play and watched it again. Patton was right—he had a noticeable walk. Still, she didn’t see why her husband was in such a huff.
“Okay?” she said cynically.
He frowned at her and took the mouse out of her hand.
“Now… this is video I shot last night. Watch the walk,” he said, pushing play and leaning back so she could get closer to the screen.
The video was shot from behind, and although it was taken outside, the light was similar to the first video. After watching for a few moments, Jennifer gasped loudly, her palm covering her wide-open mouth.
“Same person?” she asked, knowing full well that it was.
Patton nodded solemnly.
“Okay, it’s the same person that broke into our house, but who is he? Why did you take video of him last night?”
Patton leaned back again and crossed his arms, satisfied with his discovery—satisfied that she was finally catching on.
“We weren’t even interested in him… until after we saw him meeting with David Asher.”
He watched her, waiting for the information to register.
“David Asher? Why would the person who broke into our house be meeting with David Asher?”
Patton grimaced and said, “Well… that’s why we followed him home—to see where he lived. Turns out, he lives in an apartment building not far from the bar where they met and talked. They were in there together for over a half hour.”
Her expression told him to keep going.
“We waited and waited. Finally we saw someone coming out of that building this morning.”
He didn’t finish and she was about to explode at him.
“Who!”
He chuckled, glad that he finally had her attention.
“Okay, do you remember that night we went to that restaurant and there was that really young brunette with that really old looking guy?”
She nodded and then her eyes went wide. “Her?”
Patton nodded. “Yep. I’ve got video but I’m sure you believe me right?”
She smirked at him and kicked him playfully on the shin. “Smartass,” she said, obviously no longer angry with him.
Patton chuckled.
“So the person who broke into our house with a gun is connected somehow to the guy who is running to be the governor?”
“Yes. That’s scary but I’m not sure that’s all,” Patton said, contemplative now. “I need to find out more about this kid before the election.”
She nodded at him and said, “Yeah, but don’t you think that if this girl is involved that the old man is in on whatever is going on too?”
“Oh yeah. Absolutely,” Patton said seriously. “He’s got to be.”
Charlie was trying to simultaneously fight off a hangover and pay attention to Anna. Bless her heart, he thought. She won’t let me have her but she’s more than willing to show me practically everything. Anna was wearing one of her jogging outfits. The blue and white Adidas jacket was unzipped halfway down, exposing a plain black sports bra and a generous amount of cleavage.
“So what do you think?” she asked, looking at him with her large, gorgeous green eyes.
He shook his head, confused.
“Sorry Honey. What did you just ask?”
She sighed and shook her head.
“Dammit Charlie! If you’re going to plan a meeting for this early in the morning don’t get fall-down drunk the night before!”
He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Being screamed at by this girl wasn’t helping his hangover any.
“All right all right!” he shouted back, just trying to get her to stop yelling at him. “Now… would you kindly repeat what you just said? I have a hard time concentrating with your tits hanging right in my face,” he said, his eyes still closed. When he opened them he was surprised to see that she was smiling at him.
He chuckled hoarsely and said, “Sorry Honey. Continue.”
Anna sighed then said, “I just asked if we should spend the money to do some polling.”
He laid his head back and closed his eyes again. Without raising back up to speak he said, “Yes, but we need to frame the questions. And we might need to oversample the numbers, you know.”
She laughed at him again. “Charlie, with David running, we’re not going to need to tweak the numbers. We just need to get him on TV. We need to get him out doing speeches. We need…”
“I got it. I’ve played this game before you know,” he said, trying not to show his annoyance with her. “He’s the perfect candidate. We just need to make it about him and nothing else.”
What he didn’t tell her—what really bothered him—was that every time she talked about David Asher, her eyes lit up like night on the Las Vegas strip. He could only imagine what memories conjured those expressions. A twinge of jealousy suddenly made him feel ill.
“What about the message?” she asked.
He grinned at her naiveté.
“The message will come after he’s elected. And it will come to the people in the form of policy. And when some people stand up and piss and moan he’ll get on the TV and make them like it. Just think Obama in 2008.”
“Charlie, these are good ideas we have. You don’t think the people will get behind this?” she asked, offended at this brushing aside.
He looked her in the eye and delivered an answer that nearly took the wind out of her sails.
“No. They won’t. Not with the way things are now. Things are good right now. People are happy. Most of these people have more money and possessions than they’ve ever had before. The good thing is that they’re spending their money like crazy. The haves and have nots thing is already developing. In a year it will be much worse.
“And when some try to remind the people that ‘Hey, we don’t need social programs to help the poor. These people started out with everything everyone else had,’ we’ll put up the smokescreen. We’ll distract and disrupt.”
“Charlie—”
He raised his hand to her.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in what we’re doing,” he said in his grandfatherly voice, “it’s just that we have to create the situation that will allow us to implement our program.”
Anna had never been more disappointed in her life. She felt like the little girl that found out that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy were all fake. She felt disillusioned, an emotion Charlie had dealt with when he was about her age. All her political life she knew that she was right. She believed it when Marx said that capitalism would bring about its own destruction and that socialism would take its place. What Charlie was telling her was that they had to bring about capitalism’s destruction and replace it.