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“I know you didn’t. Someone has misused the truth.”
“Then you were here that night?”
“Yes.”
“Who did you come to meet?”
Lila did not answer. She had no intention of implicating her little brother. Though only an intern at present, he longed to be a senator. The last thing she wanted was for his career to begin with a lie.
But saying La Roux’s name would stir up the press.
Saying La Roux’s name would stir up Tristan.
“Well? Who did you come to see? We will need to confirm your story.”
Leather squeaked behind her. Shaw rose to his feet. “She came to see me.”
The senators turned to one another, eyes wide.
“She came to see you?” Masson asked in surprise. “Whatever for? And why haven’t you mentioned this before tonight?”
“Because the purpose of her visit was classified. It still is.”
“I apologize for betraying your trust,” Lila said over her shoulder.
Shaw inclined his head, his face expressionless.
Masson cleared his throat. “Fine. On what cases did you use the stolen information?”
“That is confidential.”
“You are before the senate disciplinary committee, Ms. Randolph. There is no such thing as confidential.”
“I assume you already searched my room and office. Go through the data you found and figure it out yourself.”
“We can’t. Bullstow could not recover your data. It seems as though your hard drives have gone astray.”
“That’s convenient,” Lila replied.
“We thought so too.”
“Senators, I have given my defense of the charges against me. If you have any shred of circumstantial evidence leading you to conclude that I profited from the information I found in the BIRD, then by all means, shoot me full of truth serum and find out if you’re right. But you can’t because there’s no evidence to find, no matter how circumstantial. I receive my family dividends, my salary from the hospital, and my chief’s salary every month, not a credit more. But you already know that, because you’ve checked my accounts.”
“Yes, and those accounts you speak of are now empty.”
“Yes, and they weren’t emptied by me. I’m sure your investigation has revealed that. Several criminals are off the streets because of what I’ve done. They’re getting the counseling they need to become productive citizens, as well as gaining a fair amount of job experience they didn’t have before. Their victims received justice and fair compensation. I’ll admit once again that I was overzealous in my approach, but impulsivity is the worst of my crimes. Theft? Hacking? In light of my confession, both are at odds with the truth. A fake logon? Which fake logon? Misuse of a computer? Which computer did I use?”
The senators eyed one another with severe expressions.
“Madam, people have rights,” Senator Masson said. “One of those rights is the right to privacy. You cannot break the law in order to make a case against a suspect if you cannot make it on evidence alone.”
“Really? You’re prepared to violate my rights and shove a needle in my arm simply because you can’t prove yours.”
“It’s a treason charge. The rules are different.”
“Perhaps if you had evidence for a treason charge it might be different, but you don’t have that. You don’t have any evidence at all, just words on a piece of paper dropped in your lap by…whom? Do you even know?”
Masson gripped his gavel. “Can you prove your innocence, Ms. Randolph?”
