In the meantime, I had to check on the other races my office was running. We had new internals on all of them. The majority of them looked good; two were disasters. Pair two less-than-stellar candidates against several million in dark money and victory is going to be elusive.
The phone rang at the receptionist’s desk and half a minute later Donna Watson buzzed and said it was for me. Abby waved goodbye and left.
As soon as I said hello, a woman’s voice said, ‘Thanks to you I have to hide out. You have the police looking for me.’ The day bartender had called her. My mystery friend from last night.
‘You need to talk to the police.’
‘Well, I don’t want to talk to them.’
‘You may have information about the person who tried to kill Congresswoman Bradshaw last night.’
‘He needs help. I want to help him. If the police get involved they like to shoot people.’
‘Apparently so does he. Are we talking about your husband?’
But she said only what she wanted to say. ‘His third tour in Afghanistan really changed him.’
‘I’m sorry. If he needs help then I’ll let the police chief know that and he can arrange to handle this without any threat of violence.’
‘I’m not sure I believe that.’
‘So what are you proposing to do?’
‘I’d like you to talk to him.’
‘Does he know about this call?’
‘No. Before I tell him about it I want your word that you’ll talk to him before you call the police.’
‘I don’t know if I can do that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I could be accused of harboring a felon.’
‘He’s my husband. And I know he’s in some kind of trouble. I found six thousand dollars in cash in his underwear drawer. He was trying to hide it. He hires out as a landscaper to work on crews at not much more than minimum wage. I don’t know where he’d get that kind of money.’
‘So how do we resolve this?’
‘I need you to be at a certain place tonight at ten o’clock and I need your solemn word you won’t tell the police. I’ll explain when I see you.’
If that was the only way I could move this along, fine. Showalter wouldn’t like it, but if we could identify our man and then apprehend him, Showalter couldn’t complain for too long.
‘Where?’
‘Do you know where the houseboats are tied up in Tomlin Park?’
‘No.’
‘Just ask somebody.’
‘All right.’
‘At the east end of the area there’s a pavilion. At that time of night on a weeknight nobody’ll be using it. My husband and I will be inside. Waiting for you.’
‘I hate to say this, but your husband may have tried to kill the congresswoman last night. To me that makes him a dangerous man. I won’t have any protection at all if he decides to shoot me.’
‘I can’t believe you think he could kill somebody. You don’t even know him. For your information, he’ll be unarmed. I’ll make sure of it. I promise.’
He might be unarmed. But I wouldn’t be.
‘What if I tell him that I want to call the police on my cell phone and have them take him in for questioning?’
‘He’s pretty scared right now. I’ll tell him that you’ll bring that up.’
‘So he’s thought about what he did last night and he’s scared?’
‘We’ll talk about it tonight. I’m at work right now and I need to go.’
I scribbled quick notes about the conversation. I wanted to remember everything. Her remark about her husband being scared had seemed odd to me at first. But as I sat there going back over everything she’d said I realized how natural it would be for him to be afraid now. The excitement would overcome fear — planning it, practicing it, doing it. But not only had he failed to even hurt her, now he had to face a couple of hard facts. The cops would be everywhere searching for him. Relentlessly. And when they found him he would be going to prison for life. I’d be scared, too — damned scared.
‘So you’ll be there.’
‘I’ll be there.’
‘And you won’t bring the police.’
‘I won’t bring the police. I won’t contact them beforehand.’
‘How about afterward?’
‘You’re not a defense lawyer, are you?’
For the first time, she laughed. ‘I sound like one, don’t I? But really — will you contact them afterward?’
‘Depends on how things work out.’
A pause. ‘I guess that’s fair.’
‘As fair as it’s going to get.’
‘We’ll see you tonight, then.’ And she hung up.
Suddenly even the two elections we were likely to lose didn’t seem as depressing as they had earlier. I went to work redrafting Jess’s last two commercials.
Twelve
I was standing at the window watching dusk turn the sky and the world below into a dolefully beautiful evening. In Chicago I might be in a bar having drinks with a woman who interested me, hoping that I interested her as well. The old Mick maudlin side always wrenched me in its self-pitying grip at this time.
‘Hello!’
Young voice, male. Cory Tucker, the volunteer driver.
‘In here, Cory.’
‘I’m sorry if I interrupted anything.’
‘You didn’t. I was just thinking a little about the commercials we do next. What’s up?’
‘Just thought I’d stop in and see what was going on. I finished up my school work and thought I’d stop by and see if anybody needed me.’
He was modest, capable and nice-looking in an upwardly mobile way. In his V-neck blue sweater with the button-down white shirt and the tan-colored slacks, not to mention the blonde crew cut, he could have been a college boy in one of those old MGM musicals my mom always watched on TV. That was his appearance, anyway. But his enthusiasm bothered me. He seemed too bright to think that being an ass-kisser would get him anywhere. He was a volunteer. Even if he got a raise he’d go from zero dollars an hour to zero dollars an hour. Dorsey’s wet dream — slave labor. Sometimes I wondered if he was overcompensating. But then the question was overcompensating for what?
‘I’m going to have to rent a car.’ I needed one for the drive to the houseboats.
‘Hey, I’m your driver, remember?’
‘If you really want something to do, I’m sure they can find you plenty of work at the campaign headquarters.’
‘I was there earlier. Boy, the mood has really changed. Nobody’s uptight about the election anymore.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. They figure that we’ll win for sure after... after what happened last night.’
‘That’s not very smart. We have two weeks to go before the election. Anything could happen.’
‘That’s what they’re worried about now. Not getting out the vote and stuff like that. They’re worried about whether the congresswoman is going to be alive. A couple of the girls were crying when I was talking to them about it. They’re really scared.’
‘Tell them she’s under full twenty-four-seven protection.’
‘They’re wondering why she’s going right back out tomorrow.’
I wondered if he’d come here as a kind of unofficial spokesperson for the volunteers at headquarters. Of course they’d be worried. Of course they’d be afraid that there might be a second attempt and that maybe the second attempt would be successful. And of course I should haul my ass down there and talk to them — something I should have done several hours ago.
‘You know what, Cory?’
‘What?’
‘I could use a ride to headquarters.’
‘They’ll really appreciate it, Dev. They trust Abby and all but they see her every day. You’re from out of town and you’ve been doing this most of your life. And you were an army investigator. I mentioned that several times to them. I’ll mention it again when I tell them that you want to talk to them.’