“He’d have run out the back door, and then complained the cops didn’t get there fast enough!”
I nodded. That sounded true enough. “That’s our Andy! He’s going to make hay out of this for sure.”
“I think you are worried about nothing. Either way, though, you need to relax. Want me to help you relax?”
That made me smile. “Sure! Here?”
“No, silly! Your children are getting too old. We don’t need them wandering out into the living room to see that!”
“You’re no fun anymore. You’re an old married lady now!” I laughed.
“We’ll see about that. Anyway, I am going to call Taylor tomorrow, and tell her we’re going to the Bahamas, just you and me, the day after the election. We’ll get my parents to come down and stay with the kids. Win or lose!”
“Sounds like a plan.” I began tugging the zipper down on her sweatshirt. “Sure about the fooling around part?”
Marilyn grabbed my hand and stopped me. Laughing she said, “Forget it! In the bedroom!” Then she climbed up off my lap and headed towards the hallway, giving her rear a nice shake as she did so.
That worked, too.
Chapter 103: The Women’s Vote
I was wrong about the effect the fight would have on the election, very wrong. Brew McRiley called me about seven in the morning, while I was still struggling to wake up. Marilyn answered the phone and then passed it over to me. I heard Brew’s voice even before I got the phone in my hands. “CARL! CARL! PICK UP! COME ON, CARL!”
I fumbled the phone for a moment before I could get it to my ear. “Brewster, calm down! What!?”
“Why didn’t you call me!?”
“What? Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Last night! You should have called me!”
I sat up in bed, remembering the disaster. “Brew, I figured I would let you get a night’s sleep before telling you we were all out of jobs.”
“What are you talking about!? Haven’t you read the paper yet?!” he gushed. He was almost frothing at the month with excitement.
“Brewster, it’s only seven. The only thing I’ve read is the alarm clock. What’s going on?”
“Jesus, Carl, I had to read about it in the Sun! This is great!”
Great? Something didn’t sound right! “Brewster, what the hell happened? Andy have a heart attack while laughing at me?”
“Carl, what are you talking about? This is great news! You made the front pages of the Sun! They damn near put you up for sainthood!”
“WHAT!?”
“Go read the paper!” he ordered. “I need to work on this!”
Marilyn asked, “What’s going on?”
“Damned if I know. The Sun is doing something strange, I guess.” I grabbed my bathrobe and stumbled down the hall and went to the front door. The newspaper was in a tube on the same post as our mailbox, and I had it open before I ever got back to the house. There it was, a quarter page article, just below the fold on the front page. ‘HERO CANDIDATE STOPS ASSAULT, SAVES DINER!’ There was even a photo of the Westminster Diner, and I have no idea how they did that, since I didn’t see Donaldson with a camera. I stopped reading and headed back to the house.
By the time I got back to the house, the phone was ringing again. It was a request from WBAL for an interview. I stumbled through telling them yes, but to check with my campaign manager. As soon as I hung up, there was another call, this time from WJZ. How did they get my unlisted number? I was going to have to change phone numbers again.
At the next call I simply told Marilyn to answer and take a message. I sat down at the kitchen table and spread the paper out. Fletcher Donaldson had really outdone himself. He must have been staying up late on this one. After I left, he managed to get interviews with Nick and Lieutenant Hughes, and he must have driven over to the hospital and gotten in to see Amy and Collins’ wife. The story continued on to page three, and there were separate but attached stories on domestic violence and the need for more women’s shelters. He even managed to dig up the story they had on me from back in 1982, when they picked up the AP report on the fight in the bar in the Bahamas. The man had been very busy last night!
Another couple of calls came in while I was reading, and Marilyn told people I was in the shower, but then she said, “It’s Brewster, and he doesn’t believe you’re in the bathroom.” I didn’t get to argue; she simply handed me the phone.
“Yeah, Brew.”
“This is great! Did you read the Sun yet? We have to jump on this right away!” McRiley was so excited he was babbling! It was like a political orgasm to him.
“I’m reading it now, Brew.”
“Great! I’ll meet you at your office at nine! Wear a good suit! We’re going to be doing some interviews! We have to follow this up!” He hung up before I had a chance to say another word.
I hit the button on the phone to hang it up. Marilyn looked over at me and asked, “Well?”
“Brewster’s so excited he just came in his pants.”
“That’s disgusting!” she said, grimacing.
“I agree!” I stood up and headed back to the bedroom. “I’m under orders to get to the office by nine. I’m not sure who’s working for whom.” I headed back to the bedroom. I hadn’t even brushed my teeth yet.
I hung around long enough to kiss my daughters before they went to school (Charlie didn’t get kisses, he was a big boy!) Then I kissed their mother, perhaps a little more enthusiastically, and headed out. When I got to the office, I got a standing ovation as I entered the lobby. I just rolled my eyes and ordered everybody back to work! That earned me a mixture of laughs and raspberries. John and Brewster simply grabbed me and hustled me into John’s office.
“You’re supposed to call me when you get involved with the cops!” said John.
“I’m supposed to call you when I get in trouble with the cops. I wasn’t in any trouble!”
“There’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” was his response.
“Hey, it wasn’t anything somebody else wouldn’t have done.”
“Yeah, but it was you,” said Brew. “Now we build on it. This is great!”
“How so?” I asked.
“Okay, so far you and Andy are running neck and neck. Now, that’s not bad, considering you’re a complete novice and he’s the incumbent, but it’s still too close to call. We need something to move you ahead, far ahead, and this is it. This helps on two fronts. First, it really shows you as the ‘law and order’ candidate. Normally that benefits the Republican candidate, and you were polling ahead on this, but this really cements it. The important part is the women’s vote. Women normally vote Democratic over Republican. There’s a real gender gap, and it is very difficult to close! You just nailed the gender gap!”
“Huh?”
“Listen, you already have them half in the bag because of your stand on abortion and women’s health issues. Fletcher Donaldson just reported you wanted to donate to a woman’s shelter. Were you serious on that?” he asked.
“Absolutely. I have no problems with that,” I told him.
John just nodded. “And that takes care of the women’s vote. If the gender gap is normally on the order of ten to fifteen percent, and you just broke even, that gives you at least a five percent edge over Stewart.”
“Huh!” I said, as it sank in. “We probably should be polling again.”
He nodded. “We need to ride this. I’ve got you set up for a lunchtime interview down at WJZ and then something in the early afternoon with WMAR and WBAL.”
I nodded. “What do you think Andy’s going to do? Newton’s Third Law, remember. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction! He’s going to do something.”