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“Yes.”
“Hmmm.” Kennedy wondered if they’d just hit their first stumbling block. Part of her wanted it to end right here and now, but another part of her wanted to prove that her instincts were right.
“But, get this,” Rapp said. “Garret was the one who told her to make sure Cash and the wife went in the second limo. She said Garret told her the wife had specifically requested Cash.”
“And there’s no way of proving if she did or didn’t.”
“There is one way.”
“How?”
“I’ll grab that little piece of shit Garret and threaten to pluck his eyeballs out with my bare hands.”
“Mitch, we can’t go around doing stuff like that.” Kennedy glanced to her right and then left. “At least not without some more proof.”
“Fine. But do me a favor. The president is going to have you say a few words, right?”
“Yes.”
“Make sure you really play up the fact that we found certain records in Gazich’s office that have given us a good idea as to who may have hired him. Keep it real vague, but sound confident.”
Kennedy looked up and saw President Hayes coming down the hall with his press secretary. “I have to go. I’ll call you when I’m done.” Kennedy silenced her ringer and stuffed it in her purse.
“Are you ready?” the president asked with a confident smile.
“I’m ready if you are, sir.”
“Good, let’s go.” Hayes took Kennedy by the arm and led her into the cramped and hot White House Press Room.
46
WILLARD HOTEL, WASHINGTON, DC
T he first thing Garret did was separate the stork from his staff. The five people seemed put off, but Garret didn’t give it a second thought. He walked the wannabe politician over to the far corner of the lobby, grabbed two chairs, and got down to business. The stork was a Baptist who attended church every Sunday, which in a state like Indiana was very important. Even more so for a Democrat. The family was loaded. Grandpa started out buying radio stations in the ’30s, Daddy added TV stations in the ’60s, and then further solidified the family’s fortune with a cable monopoly in the ’80s. In the ’90s, the stork, who’d graduated from Purdue with an engineering degree, saw the future and convinced Daddy to get into the satellite business. The company now had three communications satellites in orbit, and the family’s net worth was estimated to be somewhere in the five-billion-dollar range.
The stork claimed to be happily married and faithful to his wife of thirteen years. He had three kids, no history of drug abuse, and no perverse habits that he would admit to. Garret told the man that before he would commit, he wanted to run some preliminary polls to see what the people of Indiana thought of him. The stork said they already had polling data, but Garret was adamant that he would need to do a poll of his own. The aspiring candidate would of course have to foot the bill. Garret would also hire a private eye to check for dirty laundry. It was a steadfast rule of his to have all potential clients investigated. He didn’t like surprises. He’d been burned one too many times by candidates with an over inflated sense of importance and a selective memory.
Garret saw a Secret Service agent enter the main door. He vaguely recognized him as one of the agents assigned to Ross’s detail. The man stopped, swept the room from right to left with a robotic gaze, and then brought his left hand up to his mouth and spoke into a small microphone. Garret knew Ross would be coming through the door shortly, so he apologized for such a brief meeting and promised to call the stork early next week. Even if he didn’t need to meet Ross, he would have kept it short. He wasn’t a
bout to dither with a potential client.
Garret saw two more Secret Service agents come through the door. One stopped to survey the guests while the other continued on to the elevator bank. A second later Ross entered the lobby. The murmurs started almost immediately. Those who saw him first whispered to the others and all heads turned to watch the party’s second most important person. One of the guests shouted something that Garret didn’t quite catch. Ross smiled and pumped his fist and then the other guests broke into applause.
Garret set out on a course to intercept Ross midway between the door and the elevators. The stork called out his name, but Garret didn’t bother to turn around. The guy probably wanted to meet Ross, but Garret had no time for introductions or pleasantries. He wanted to get up to Ross’s suite and turn on CNN. Garret fell into step with the vice president–elect and his bodyguards and marched straight for a waiting elevator. No words were exchanged.
Ross, Garret, and four agents stepped onto the elevator. When the doors closed, Garret looked over at Ross and asked, “How did things go out at Langley?”
Ross kept his eyes on the floor numbers above the elevator door. Out of the side of his mouth he gave a one word answer. “Interesting.”
Interesting, Garret thought. Interesting meant he had something to say, but he didn’t want to talk about it in front of the agents. They passed the rest of the short ride in silence. When the doors opened, another Secret Service agent was waiting for them. They walked down the hall to Ross’s suite where yet another sentinel was posted. The agent slid a card key into the reader and opened the door for Ross and Garret. They entered the suite where the smell of breakfast still hung in the air.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Ross pulled off his suit coat and said, “I can’t wait to see the look on that bitch’s face when she’s forced to resign.”
Garret already had the remote control in his hand and was working the buttons.
Ross draped his coat over the back of a chair and added, “Maybe we should get the Justice Department to launch an investigation. If we’re lucky, she’ll end up in jail.”
Garret frowned and made another attempt at entering the channel for CNN. “Be happy with your victory and leave it at that. The last thing we want is more investigations.”
