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“You heard what I said about my son, the president, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You should think about what you’re doing while you still have a career to save.”
“I don’t work for the president, ma’am. I work for the people of the great state of Ohio, and you have the right to remain silent.”
The newsof his mother’s arrest on misdemeanor prostitution and federal racketeering charges dominated the Monday morning news. President Nick Cappuano stood in front of the TV in the suite he shared with his first lady and watched the madness unfold in Ohio. They’d cuffed her and brought her out of her home in a red silk robe that clung to her considerable curves.
He took perverse satisfaction in noting she looked rattled. Her long dark hair fell in messy waves around her ageless face. People said she reminded them of Sophia Loren. She reminded him of disappointment and neglect.
He wondered if she’d dropped his name yet and then laughed. “Of course she did.”
“Did what?” his wife, Samantha, asked as she joined him, dressed for another day in charge of the Metro Police Department’s Homicide squad.
“I was wondering if she dropped my name and then decided of course she had.”
“No question,” Sam said, “but it doesn’t seem to have helped her at all. There were a lot of ways they could’ve arrested her.” Eyeing the TV, she said, “They went for a full-impact perp walk, and someone tipped off the media to make sure it was recorded for posterity.”
“Probably by someone who thinks her son is an illegitimate president.”
Sam sat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I know I’ve already said it, but I’m sorry again to have brought this down on you.”
In a fit of rage toward his mother months ago, Sam had asked their colleague and friend FBI agent Avery Hill to investigate her. Nick had been furious when he recently found out his mother was about to be arrested thanks to that request. However, he’d calmed down after he’d had a minute to think it through. As always, his mother was causing him pain. He wasn’t going to allow her to cause a marriage crisis for him, too. No way.
“You didn’t. She did. At least we had a heads-up it was coming, which we might not have gotten without Avery’s involvement.”
“Did they say what she’s being charged with?” Sam asked.
“Misdemeanor state prostitution charges and federal money laundering.”
“State prostitution charges won’t pack much of a punch beyond the salaciousness, but the money laundering is a bigger deal. That’s almost always a RICO charge.”
“Tell me more about that.”
“Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, RICO charges are invoked when someone has engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity related to an enterprise. So, if she’s been laundering money through another company to cover the activities of her bordello, that meets the threshold for a RICO charge.”
“Wasn’t that what mobsters were charged with?”
“Often. Yes.”
“Awesome. So my mother will be lumped in with mobsters and other famous madams.”
His personal cell phone rang with a call from his father, which he took, knowing Leo would’ve heard the news and was calling to check on him. “Hey, Dad.”
“Nick… I can’t believe this.”
“You can’t? Really?”
“Well, I can, but it’s outrageous. Did you know this was happening?”
“I knew it might be coming, but not when.”
“I’m sorry you’ll have to deal with this. She’s caused you enough hell and heartache in your life. This is the last thing you need right now.”
That much was certainly true. He’d spent the last few months trying to convince the American people that he could handle the office he’d never been elected to, and having his criminal mother marched across every screen in America wouldn’t help anything. “We’re handling it.”
“I wish there was something I could do for you.”
