When she finished, she stood back for a final time and said, ‘You look very nice, Senator. Very nice. And I’ve already said a few prayers for you.’
‘I really appreciate that, Angela.’
‘Now I need to get out of here so you can change clothes.’
When we were alone, Robert said, ‘I should’ve taken some Pepto. My stomach and my bowels are in bad shape.’
‘I’ll spare you the stupid jokes.’ Though I was laughing.
‘I actually appreciate them. They remind me of my life before I became a vicious killer.’ He got up and started changing into his blue button-down shirt, red-and-blue rep tie and blue tweed sport coat. He left his jeans on. ‘You know, I really don’t give a shit if I lose. All I care about is getting out of this mess. And Elise would be delighted if we went to our house in the Hamptons and said goodbye to all this. Does that surprise you?’
‘That giving up your seat looks good to you now? Of course not, Robert. I’d be thinking the same thing you are. You’ve been working the press for sixteen years and now they’re working you. But I believe that everything you’re feeling is temporary. We’ll find the killer and then in a day or two you’ll wake up and think how good it would be to be back in Washington. You like the game the same as I do. And buried somewhere inside the game are one or two actual ideals you’ve held on to while peddling your ass to survive. You care about average people, Robert. You’ve got a good understanding of how they live and what they need and how to appeal to the good parts of their nature. There aren’t many on either side who can say that.’
‘Hell.’ Sad smile. ‘That was so eloquent I’d vote for myself.’
Ben retreated from the wall. ‘Sorry. Chicago business. I’ll have to fly back there tomorrow morning to be in court in the afternoon.’ He raised blocky fists. Then dropped to a boxer’s crouch and swung hard and fast at an invisible opponent. ‘You ready, Senator? We’re going to kick some ass, right?’
‘I’ll try.’ He nodded to me. ‘Dev says it’s all right if I say “fuck” twice.’
Ben picked up the line easily. ‘That’s right, two fucks but only one cocksucker.’
‘Got it,’ Robert said. But the fun in his voice was waning, waning just as the knock came. ‘Senator, we need to get going. Are you about ready?’
‘We’re ready now,’ I said as I made my way to the door.
The same guy who didn’t think much of the Channel 4 Action News Team (I was waiting for the InAction News Team to show up somewhere) waited for us to file out and then we followed him down a corridor to a door marked Studio B.
In small cities, Studio B’s, or whatever they’re called, always look the same. You have a desk with a picture of something on the wall behind the person in the chair — here we had a nature shot — and cheap bookcases filled with hardcover books brought from the homes of various Channel 4 employees.
When the young woman came into the studio, talking to somebody on her headset, I signaled that I wanted to talk to her. Her tight red blouse and tight jeans loved her overweight body a bit too much, but the face was intelligent and pleasant. When she finished talking on her headset she came over to me. ‘I’m Mary O’Brien.’
‘Dev Conrad. I work with the senator.’
As we shook hands, I said, ‘Is there any chance we could lose that photo on the wall?’
‘Sure. What did you have in mind?’
‘Solid background. And shoot everything in medium close except when we open. Then we’re out a little wider.’
‘I was thinking along the same lines. I guess we must both be geniuses.’
‘Speak for yourself. That’s one of the few names I’ve never been called. And for good reason.’
It helps everybody to get along with the local crew. You generally get a better product. I’ve watched too many Chicago hotshots snap out orders to local people as if they were idiots. Once in a while they are idiots. But then so are some of the Chicago hotshots. And more times than they seem to realize.
There wasn’t much to do except set Robert in the chair, spend a few minutes lighting him and then running through the words on the Teleprompter. Ben and I reassured him that he’d do fine and that this was the right thing to do.
The middle-aged gentleman operating the camera was either having an upset stomach episode or he didn’t much like our senator. I caught him rolling his eyes when Robert got to the part about his enemies. And he caught me catching him. The apologetic smile confirmed my read of his political opinion.
The same gentleman gave the countdown. ‘Senator — in five, four, three, two, one — in!’
I listened as carefully as I could. Nuance could kill you just as much as an outright mistake. Even though he insisted on his innocence and apologized to his constituents for putting them through this ordeal, and even though he offered his condolences to the family and loved ones of Tracy Cabot, he could undercut himself with an expression that could be misread or a passage he seemed to hurry through. Every breath he took would be parsed.
Ninety seconds isn’t much in real life but in TV life it can be an agonizing year or two. I stood next to Ben as Robert started in. There was a monitor close by. I kept looking from Robert in the studio to Robert on the tube. He’d managed to relax some and that helped establish an intimacy with the public. He wasn’t this treacherous beast. He was a guy — admittedly wealthy, admittedly a Washington insider and player — who wasn’t all that different from most folks after all. And who had been falsely accused. He was especially good with that part of our response.
At the one-minute mark I realized I was sweating. Cold sweat; flop sweat. If he could just get through the next thirty seconds without screwing up...
And he did.
‘And we’re out!’ the cameraman said.
Ben and I rushed to the desk and started telling him how well he’d done. We didn’t have to hype it; he’d done damned well. I resented the fact that the cameraman was still in the studio wrapping things up. I wanted only true believers around for this little celebration.
‘I wish I felt as good as you two,’ Robert said. But he had allowed himself a tentative smile.
‘That’s the first step back, Senator, and a good one. You’ve faced your public. That’s got to help.’
I put my finger to my lips. Robert and Ben glanced at me then understood when I nodded in the direction of the cameraman. He’d no doubt made an agreement with somebody to report on everything he’d seen and heard when we were here.
He pretended to be intensely interested in pulling a piece of cable a few feet along a baseboard.
‘You about done over there?’ I said. I didn’t bother to sound friendly.
‘I work here, remember?’
‘Great. But we’d like a little privacy, if you don’t mind.’ I realized I likely sounded like one of those Chicago hotshots who pushed around local TV people. At the moment I didn’t give a shit.
He dropped the snaky black cable to the floor and rolled his eyes again. We weren’t in danger of becoming buddies. Then he sort of flounced — yes, flounced — toward the door and let himself out.
‘Friend of yours?’ Ben smiled.
I returned the smile and then said, ‘OK, now we make a run for our cars. I’ll do what I can but they’ll be moving in a pack and that’ll make it even tougher.’