y
“A man can’t ask for more than that. So, you got any leads?”
Seth Frank shrugged. “Maybe. Might peter out, you never know. You know
how that goes.”
“Tell me about it.” Burton started to leave and then looked back. “Hey,
as some quid pro quo if you need any red tape cut during your
investigation, access to databases, stuff like that, you let me know and
your request gets a top priority. Here’s my number.”
Frank took the offered card. “I appreciate that, Bill.”
Two HOURS LATER SETH FRANK LIFTED UP HIS PHONE AND nothing happened. No
dial tone, no outside line. The phone company was called.
An hour later, Seth Frank again picked up his phone and the dial tone
was there. The system was fixed. The phone closet was kept locked at all
times, but even if someone had been able to look inside, the mass of
lines and other equipment would’have been indecipherable to the
layperson. Not that the police force ordinarily worried about someone
tapping their lines.
Bill Burton’s lines of communication were open now, a lot wider than
Seth Frank had ever dreamed they would be.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
TuNK rr’S A NusTAKE, ALAN. I TmNK we SHOULD BE DLstancing ourselves, not
tr*g to take over the investigation.”
Russell stood next to the President’s desk in the Oval Office.
Richmond was seated at the desk going over some recent health care
legislation; a quagmire to say the least and not one he planned to
expend much political capital on before the election.
“Gloria, get with the program, will you?” Richmond was preoccupied; well
ahead in the polls, he thought the gap should be even greater. His
anticipated opponent, Henry Jacobs, was short, and not particularly
good-looking or a great speaker. His sole claim to fame was thirty years
of toiling on behalf of the country’s indigent and less fortunate.
Consequently, he was a walking media disaster. In the age of sound bites
and photo ops, being able to look and talk a big game was an absolute
necessity. Jacobs was not even the best among a very weak group that had
seen its two leading candidates knocked out over assorted scandals,
sexually based and otherwise. All of which made Richmond wonder why his
thirty-two-point lead in the polls wasn’t fifty.
He finally turned to look at his Chief of Staff.
“Look, I promised Sullivan I’d keep on top of it. I said that to a
goddamned national audience that got me a dozen points in the polls that
apparently your well-oiled reelection team can’t improve upon. Do I need
to go out and start a war to get the polls where they should be?”
“Alan, th ‘ e election’s in the bag; we both know that. But we have to
play not to lose. We have to be careful. That person is still out there.
What if he’s caught?”
exasperated, Richmond stood up. “Will you forget him! If you’d stop to
think about’it for a second, the fact that I have closely associated
myself with the case takes away the only possi ible shred of credibility
the guy might have had. If I hadn’t publicly proclaimed my interest some
nosy reporter might have pricked up his ears at an allegation that the
President was somehow involved in the death of Christine Sullivan.
But now that I’ve told the nation that I’m mad and determined to bring
the perpetrator to justice, if the allegation is made, people will think
the guy saw me on TV and he’s a whacko.”
Russell sat down in a chair. The problem was Richmond didn’t have all
the facts. If he knew about the letter opener would he have taken these
same steps? If he knew about the note and photo Russell had received?
She was withholding information from her boss, information that could
ruin both of them, absolutely and completely.
As RussELL WALKED DOWN THE HALLWAY BACK TO HER OFfice, she didn’t notice
Bill Burton staring at her from a passageway. The look was not one of
affection, not anywhere close.
Stupid, stupid bitch. From where he was standing he could’ve popped
three slugs into the back of her head. No sweat. His talk with Collin