Poisoned Politics

by Maggie Sefton

  “Seeing all of you busy worker bees, I know I can leave with a clear conscience,” I teased as Aggie walked my way.

  “Would you like me to get you a glass of Sauvignon Blanc before you leave? Bud’s got everything set up.”

  “No thanks, Aggie. I’ve got a date tonight, and we’ve got dinner plans. He’ll be here any minute.”

  Aggie’s slow smile started. “Well, you have fun, Molly. You definitely deserve to take a break from the Senator’s entertaining. All those politicians can be tiresome.”

  “Isn’t that the truth,” I said, knowing full well Aggie would be more than interested in tonight’s dinner guests. Senator Dunston, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and his wife were Senator Russell’s main guests, along with the next two senior members of the committee. Whether Aggie was still playing a spook’s role or not, she’d hear a great deal of information over the dinner table tonight.

  “I know you’ll manage to enjoy yourself, Aggie,” I said with a knowing smile.

  Just then, I heard Luisa’s voice calling my name. I turned and saw Danny standing in the doorway and my pulse did a little skip.

  “I think I won’t be the only one, Molly,” Aggie called after me as I hastened to the door.

  I smiled as I walked up to Danny. Luisa had already scurried back to the kitchen, her Cheshire cat smile firmly in place. “Hey, there. How was your trip?”

  “Great, if you like being stuck in meetings with a bunch of guys all day,” Danny said as he slipped his arm around my waist, guiding me through the doorway.

  “Well, at least you weren’t dodging bullets or some such,” I joked as Danny closed the mansion front door behind us.

  I didn’t get to say anything else, because Danny pulled me close, his mouth on mine before I could say more. The heat of his kiss took my breath away. Hungry. I must have dropped my purse because my arms went around him before I knew it, melding my body to his.

  Slowly, Danny raised his mouth from mine and whispered. “We’d better get to the car before we’re arrested.” Releasing me, he snatched up my purse and hurried me down the front steps.

  To hell with dinner. I was ready for dessert. Ravenous, in fact.

  sixteen

  Saturday

  Traffic noise. A truck rattling down the street. Car horns. Light slowly filtered through my eyelashes. Morning light. Was it morning? I wasn’t sure. Enclosed in the cocoon of Danny’s embrace, I wasn’t sure of anything else. Just us. Curved against each other, a perfect fit. Somehow I always knew it would be.

  Skin against skin. Warmer than warm. And something else, something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Safe. I didn’t recognize it at first. Such a strange feeling. After all this time.

  I felt Danny’s breathing change, as if he’d sensed my awakening. I moved against him, just enough to get his attention.

  “Good morning,” his husky voice whispered against the back of my neck.

  “Saturday or Sunday? I can’t remember.” My movements deliberate until I felt the heat of his response.

  His hand found my breasts. “Saturday, all day.”

  I molded myself against him, and his very warm thigh slid between mine. I said nothing more.

  Sunday afternoon

  Raymond blew out a stream of cigarette smoke as he glanced up from the book in his lap to the video monitor screens on the desk. Nothing moving in front of the Malone house. Not even a pedestrian. Wait … a guy walking his dog. Raymond took another drag on his cigarette and returned to the novel. Good thing he’d brought something to read.

  His cell phone sounded, and he grabbed it along with a throat lozenge. Recognizing Trask’s number, he popped the lozenge into his mouth before answering. “You were right. Good thing I brought two books with me.”

  Trask laughed. “I told you, she’s a workaholic. Nothing exciting.”

  “Well, she’s got something exciting going on this weekend. She showed up here with a guy on Friday night. They started kissing on the front step, then they went inside, and that’s the last I’ve seen of them.”

  Trask snickered. “Well, well, Ms. Malone’s got a boyfriend.”

  “I’ll say. They even had food brought in. A catering truck showed up from some restaurant Friday night, and Malone and her boyfriend haven’t come out since.” Raymond inhaled deeply, felt the burn.

  “Good. Maybe he can keep her occupied and out of our way.”

  “Let’s hope so. What’s happening with Jorgensen?”

  “The same as last weekend. She’s out with friends; they’re over here near East Potomac Park, watching some rugby teams.”

  “No sign of meetings with the Congresswoman or working at the office?”

  “No, just normal weekend stuff.”

  Raymond glanced at the video monitor and straightened. “Well, I’ll be damned. They’ve come up for air. Tee shirts and shorts, looks like they’re going for a run … yep, there they go down P Street.”

  “I’ll let you know if anything unusual shows up over here. Otherwise, I’ll check with you tomorrow. Any word from Spencer yet? I see plenty of opportunities to take care of her. Easy.”

  “Not yet. You never know with that bunch. They’ve got a lot of people to answer to. Apparently more have joined on the upper end. No telling what they’ll decide.”

  Trask snorted. “Translation: No guts for a preemptive action. They’ll regret it. In that case, there’s no need for me to waste any more summer weekends watching Jorgensen. I could be out on the boat.”

  Raymond chuckled. “Don’t go too far.”

  _____

  I looked up at the night sky and spotted the familiar summer constellation—Orion. It was hard to make out the stars with all the city lights around. Back in Colorado, it was far easier to find the perfect spot to stargaze in our mountains, even along the darkened roads at night. Oftentimes, I’d pull my car over to the side of a canyon road, douse the headlights, and stare into the black skies above. We saw the same constellations out West that the Easterners did, but from a slightly different angle. And there was another important difference: in Colorado, the stars appeared larger. Being thousands of feet higher in altitude allowed Coloradans to witness a vast canvas of stars, sparkling in the night skies. Far easier to stargaze there than it was here in the midst of a big city surrounded by streetlights, headlights, and miles of suburban sprawl.

  Danny shifted beside me on the chaise lounge, and I nestled closer, my face resting on his bare chest. There in the darkened privacy of my small enclosed backyard, we relaxed in one another’s embrace. Our long-overdue weekend of exploring our passions and each other was winding to a blissful close. Tomorrow was Monday and the regular world awaited. But there was still tonight. And tomorrow, and the day after. And next weekend beckoned in the distance.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  “How good this feels.”

  “Ohhhh, yeah.” He picked up my hand, kissed it, then placed it on his chest again, covering my hand with his.

  “I’m just glad we found each other again. Thanks to the sleaze rag.” I laughed softly against his skin.

  “I always had a feeling we would.”

  “Danny, the odds of that happening were impossibly low. With all the millions of people in this area? Crazy.”

  “I know. But I still had a feeling we were meant to be together.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Plus, I still remembered that first kiss all those years ago.”

  I smiled. “So did I.”

  I felt his soft laughter beneath his skin. “I could tell. And believe me, that memory kept me warm through a whole lot of cold nights in God-forsaken hellholes.”

  I pictured Danny huddled in some jungle, rain pouring down, afraid to close his eyes and give in to sleep. His stories from last May still haunted me
. Treacherous jungles and deserts. Killers hiding in both.

  “I’m just glad you survived all that, and we found each other again.” I slid my hand over his warm flesh. The mosquitoes might be eating us alive, but we were oblivious.

  Danny stroked the back of my hand. “I have to admit, I’ve often wondered what would have happened if we’d gotten together after high school. You know, run away and gotten married.”

  “You mean, after my father had you arrested? He’d have gone ballistic, trust me. It would not have been a storybook ending.”

  Danny laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But what if we’d met in college? You know … after I got back from Nam and you were going to grad school like you said you wanted to do. History, right?”

  Brother, this man’s memory amazed me. “God, Danny, I can’t believe you remember all that.”

  “I remember everything. Plus, I’ve got a good imagination.” He laughed. “Still, it could have been good. Providing you hadn’t met Dave in college, that is.”

  “Boy, you do have a good imagination. You forget what it was like when we were that young. We would have fought like cats and dogs. Dave and I did. I’ll bet you and your wife did too. Admit it.”

  “Ohhhhh, yeah.”

  “You remember what we were like in our twenties and thirties, don’t you? Convinced we were right about everything?”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “I mean … Dave was mellow, and yet we still fought. You and me? We would have torn each apart.”

  I felt Danny’s laughter ripple beneath my fingers on his chest. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said after a moment. “But the make-up sex would have been glorious.”

  We both laughed so hard, the next door neighbor’s dog began to bark.

  seventeen

  Monday

  “Here, Molly, let me empty this pot, so I can start another,” Luisa said as she bustled into my office, coffee carafe in hand.

  “You’re making me an offer I can’t refuse, Luisa, especially on a Monday morning,” I replied, extending my oversized ceramic mug.

  “Peter came in at six thirty this morning, and he and the Senator started working in the library. Casey and Albert just about finished off the pot.” She shook the last drop into my mug. “There you go. Now you can return to those spreadsheets while I get back to the kitchen. Caterers are coming at two o’clock.”

  “Oh, yes, the last summer reception tonight. I’ll be ready,” I said as she hurried from my office. I suddenly realized I’d forgotten to check Peter’s updated list for Senator Russell’s schedule. Usually I would check first thing Monday morning when Peter posted it. But considering this past weekend, I figured I was lucky to remember my name.

  I clicked back to recent messages this morning and found Peter’s list. Tonight would be a reception for various Colorado manufacturers and energy producers. And the last scheduled entertaining before he left for the rest of the August recess. I scanned through tonight’s guest list, noticing there were several names I was unfamiliar with. Businessmen and women, entrepreneurs, university researchers. Russell was known to invite a varying guest list to some receptions. Stirring the pot. “Cross-pollinating for ideas,” he called it.

  Returning to the spreadsheet, I tabbed through the columns and rows, entering the figures on another of Peter’s rental properties. It was a newer townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. The high cost of Metro Washington–area real estate still amazed me. I remembered years ago when that area of Alexandria was first developed.

  The familiar strains of “Hotel California” sounded beside my coffee mug. Classic Eagles. Loretta Wade’s name flashed on my phone screen.

  “Hi, Loretta. What’s up?”

  “Hey, Molly. I know you’re as busy as I am right now, but I wanted to tell you that I had a few minutes before I left Friday night and did another scan. I was curious. This time I looked for who else had requested searches similar to Quentin Wilson’s. And I think you’ll be interested in the answer.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. Who?” I took a big drink of coffee while I waited.

  “Larry Fillmore.”

  I gulped down the coffee quickly. Images of Larry Fillmore’s smirking face appeared in my mind. “Fillmore, huh? Congressman Jackson is on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. So maybe he wants them for the congressman. Strange that Fillmore would do the search himself. I’ve heard he’s really full of himself now that he’s Jackson’s chief of staff. Usually he’d use one of his—”

  “Research grunts,” Loretta finished for me, her voice sarcastic. “Yeah, I wondered why he was doing it himself. So I did another scan, which I can do because I know the system, and I found Fillmore had first looked at research requests and who made them. In effect, he was searching the searchers. That’s how he found out what files they were looking for.”

  I pondered that for a few seconds, my brain cells slowly coming back online from a weekend of blissful sexual indulgence, thanks to strong coffee and even stronger memories of that bastard Larry Fillmore. I still held him responsible for driving Celeste Allard out of her D.C. apartment, forcing her to escape to a house on the Eastern Shore—only to die in a freakish accident.

  “You know … anytime I see Larry Fillmore interested in something, it gets my attention. I can’t help it. It’s a knee jerk response.”

  “I figured. That’s why I wanted to point it out. And you mentioned your niece Karen was researching the same topics. I wondered if maybe Jackson had assigned Karen a special project or something. Maybe Fillmore is following up on it for the congressman.”

  Everything Loretta said made sense. Logical. Yet, it didn’t resonate. “Funny, Karen never said Jackson asked her to research anything special, and she would have mentioned it. I recall her saying she was following her instincts and her late father’s personal notes. Her father, Eric Grayson, took over my husband’s seat in the House after his death in 1983, remember? Eric moved Karen and his wife, Cheryl, to Washington that same year.” Remnants of old memories crept to the edges of my mind, waiting to escape. I shifted the subject, and they slunk back to the bushes. “You may remember Eric Grayson.”

  “Yes, I do. He was a fine legislator and extremely thorough. I know because I remember him coming to the Library of Congress. I was researching there, and I remember seeing him sitting at the tables later at night, reading and making notes. Very studious.”

  That caught my attention. “Now you’ve made me curious. Karen said her dad’s notebooks had entries that indicated he was interested in that organization, the Epsilon Group. She checked into them and found they’re a think tank of sorts and seem to specialize in international financial policy and banking issues. That’s why I asked Celeste to check into them after Karen’s death.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I learned about them.”

  “Is there any way you could find out what other topics Eric Grayson was researching? I know it was years ago, and your records may have been purged of anything like research requests.”

  “True, but there may still be a way. Thank you, Molly. You’ve given me a puzzle to solve, and I dearly love puzzles,” Loretta said, amusement in her voice.

  “Happy to oblige. And thanks in advance. You may not find anything. I’m simply following my instincts like Karen was.”

  “That’s good enough for me. Our instincts always know something we don’t.” She paused. “Speaking of instincts, you remember hearing about that staffer who was found dead in Texas? The one who was providing those damn drugs to Congressman Wilson.”

  “I sure do. The news said he worked for the Congressional Research Service. Did you know him?”

  “Ohhhh, yeah. Gary Levitz was his name. I was his supervisor, and my instincts told me he was involved in something on the side. Had to be. His car was way too expensive for a staffer�
��s salary. Plus, I’d see him outside talking on his cell phone several times a day.” She gave a disgusted sniff. “I took Gary aside a few months ago and told him he’d better think twice about whatever he was doing in his spare time because it was affecting his job here. He didn’t pay attention, unfortunately.”

  I debated exactly what to say. “That was good of you to try and help him, Loretta. But it sounds like that guy was on his own path, and it led only one way—down.”

  “That’s the truth. I even saw him talking to Larry Fillmore last week. I was crossing the street and saw them outside the building. That’s when I knew Gary was headed for a bad end. Anyone who gets close to that cretin Fillmore regrets it. And sure enough, Gary went missing a few days later.”

  That got my attention, and my instincts gave a little buzz. “I wonder if Gary was supplying Fillmore with drugs.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Fillmore may be a manipulative bastard, but he’s not stupid. He’d never jeopardize his chief staffer position by getting involved in something like that.”

  “You’re right. Listen, my other phone is ringing. Call me if you find anything interesting.”

  “Don’t worry, I will. Talk to you later.”

  Her phone clicked off as I clicked on my office line. Samantha’s name and number were flashing. “I figured you’d be calling me this morning,” I said as I grabbed my coffee and leaned back in the desk chair.

  “Of course, sugar. I tried your personal line, but it was busy, so I thought I’d leave a message. Now that I’ve entered Mother Superior’s order, I’ll have to live vicariously through the sexual adventures of others.” Samantha’s drawl infused her words with a wickedly suggestive tone.

  I snickered. “Well, I won’t give you a detailed rundown.”

  “Sugar, I would never be so rude as to ask. Just tell me if it lived up to your expectations?”