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“Can you believe him?”
“I think so. He claims he had no intention of using them. His candidates were ahead in the polls.”
“Then why did he buy them?” Rapp asked a bit skeptically.
“He says the campaign was flush with cash and he thought the best move would be to take them out of circulation. He thought there was a slight chance they could be released and might cause sympathy for Alexander.”
Rapp laughed. “Yeah, right. When did he buy them?”
“Mid-September, I think.”
“A lot could’ve happened between then and the first Tuesday in November. His candidate could have fucked up in one of the debates and overnight his lead would have vanished. These photos were his insurance policy.”
“I agree.”
“So why did he decide to give them to you?”
Kennedy sighed. “This is where things get interesting. Apparently there’s some bad blood between Baker and Stu Garret.”
“Alexander’s campaign manager?”
“Yes. They despise each other. In early October, Baker decided to give Garret something to really sweat over, so he took three of the photos, wrote, ‘You’ll Never Win,’ on the back, and had them delivered to Garret’s hotel room in Dallas.”
“Did Garret know they came from Baker?”
Kennedy shrugged. “If he did, it was a guess.”
Rapp put his hands on hips, looked down at the photos, and then shook his head. “Did Special Agent Cash happen to be in the second limo on the day of the attack?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.”
Kennedy walked back to her desk and grabbed a two-inch file in a red folder. She returned to Rapp’s side and said, “I want you to take a fresh look at the case from top to bottom.” She handed the file to Rapp. “This is the Secret Service’s preliminary report. Read through it and talk to Special Agent Rivera. I want to know if she knew one of her people was screwing the boss’s wife.”
Rapp nodded. “So you’re thinking Gazich might be telling the truth.”
“That the second limo was the target…I think that a lot of people rushed into this thing assuming certain facts. Read the report. Especially the investigator’s notes. The entire investigation was conducted through the prism that the attack was perpetrated by terrorists. Give it a fresh look and we’ll talk about it in the morning.”
Rapp lifted the file up and looked at it for a second. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” Kennedy hesitated briefly and then said, “Have Marcus do a thorough check on Stu Garret.”
“Stu Garret,” Rapp said with obvious surprise. “That little pud. You think he’s capable of pulling something like this off?”
“There are some things you don’t know about Mr. Garret, and I’m not going to get into them right now, but trust me when I say the man is capable of almost anything.”
“Okay. I’ll have Marcus start right away.”
“Have him focus on the month before the attack.”
“You got it. Anything else?”
“No. Just be careful and move fast. We don’t have much time.”
41
WASHINGTON, DC
