by Max Hudson
The doubters on the side of the steps clapped while the bulk of the crowd looked at Jack with growing confusion.
“As you can see, Senator Douglass is injured, and this injury occurred during an attack on his life last night. He was assaulted in his bed by a pair of cowardly assassins who sneaked in, crept up in the dead of night, overpowered and outnumbered him, ambushing him in his sleep. Luckily, Ty and I and our country’s great Secret Service forces were there in hiding, to protect the senator and to capture these villains once and for all. There is a trail of blood leading through the streets of this great city, ladies and gentlemen, and it led straight to these two men.”
The cameras zoomed in on Jack, some finding the increasingly nervous Senator Sommers on the side of the steps, surrounded by people and unable to bolt and run for it however much he clearly wanted to.
“These same two thugs personally attacked me several days before, when I was investigating the disappearance of my friend and colleague, Tabitha St. Cloud. Tabitha was ambitious and charming, but she got in over her head. The same two men have now claimed that they finally kidnapped and killed Tabitha, later that same day. And the same two tried to kill Senator Douglass last night! And why? It’s a complicated web of lies and betrayal, conspiracy, greed, and terror. And it begins with the suicide of our own Senator Vance Cafferty, on the Senate floor less than two weeks ago!”
Chapter Eighteen
The crowd murmured, the reporters fixed on Jack.
“Senator Cafferty took his own life and the family cited personal demons. Among speculation, it later came to light that the senator was being unfaithful to his wife, but the identity of his lover was undisclosed and, at the time perhaps, unknown.” Jack looked out over the crowd, certain that there was a gunman out there just waiting for the word to squeeze the trigger.
Jack cleared his throat and went on, “That person is now known. Our investigation has revealed, and this has been corroborated by eye-witness accounts, that it was my friend and colleague Miss St. Cloud who was carrying on an illicit, extra-marital affair with the senator. And it was she who was, in fact, blackmailing Senator Cafferty in a cowardly and dastardly plot. The price she was exacting amounted to every penny the senator had, and most of what he could possibly earn.”
The crowd shook their heads, gaping in shock. Jack continued, “But she wanted even more than that because there was much more to the story than simply an extra-marital affair and ensuing blackmail.”
Jack glanced at Senator Sommers, looking around with increasing nervousness. His eyes caught Jack’s and the two men locked wills, the senator sneering hatefully at Jack, who offered a subtle smile in return.
“Part of the blackmail price was that Senator Cafferty vote in favor of Senator Sommers' Fairness in Protection act, and that implicates my own former boss in this awful conspiracy. One can only wonder how many other dirty tricks my former boss has used to influence the voting of the Senate, the House, or how many tragic deaths they’ve caused.”
Senator Sommers shook his head and tried to push through the crowd, but a tide of angry citizens blocked his path, his staff frightened around him.
Jack leaned into the mic, his voice filling with righteous indignation.
“But there was another player in this grotesque charade,” Jack said into the mic, his voice echoing over the crowd amidst a bit of bleeding feedback. “Their identity was revealed by the men sent to kill Senator Douglass before he could reveal what he supposedly knew. Those two men, whose names are Doster and Dudley, were formerly on Senator Cafferty’s staff. And they remained loyal to, or should I say in the private employ of, the senator’s widow, Rachel Cafferty!”
The crowd nearly burst with shocked muttering.
“We picked up Mrs. Cafferty late last night, and she’s since revealed everything, given us a total confession!”
Jack explained, “Tabitha had originally been having an affair with Rachel Cafferty, not Senator Vance Cafferty. It wasn’t Rachel’s first indiscretion, however, and the Caffertys were on the cusp of divorce as a result. Rachel Cafferty’s Washington D.C. housewife lifestyle was all she had, she wasn't about to lose it in a messy divorce with her as the cheating spouse. So it was she who first enlisted Tabitha in the plot to seduce, and then blackmail, Senator Cafferty. It was a simple matter for Senator Sommers to have Tabitha influence Senator Cafferty’s vote. That's what convinced me that Senator Sommers had anything to do with this at all. But his involvement was much more intimate than merely that. Because Senator Sommers was also sleeping with Rachel Cafferty, and had been even before he sent Tabitha to sleep with her. That's right, Tabitha’s affair with Rachel Cafferty was originally orchestrated by Senator Sommers for his own devious ends!”
Senator Sommers looked nervously around, the crowd glaring at him, slowly closing in. “It’s not true,” he shouted, “these are all a bunch of lies!”
“After Senator Cafferty killed himself,” Jack explained into the mic, “Senator Sommers decided he needed to change their plan, protect himself and tie up some loose ends. So his conspirators, Rachel Cafferty and her two thugs, kidnapped and murdered Tabitha, while Rachel herself forged a fake diary and planted it in Tabitha’s apartment. This was the only way to make sure Tabitha wouldn't change her mind and betray both Rachel Cafferty and Carlton Sommers. There were reports that Tabitha was acting strangely, panting in the lobby of the Capitol Building, but we know now that the same two men who assaulted me and Senator Douglass had been chasing her through the bowels of the Capitol. We’re not yet certain, but the men confessed to having caught up to Tabitha later that day, knocking her out and drowning her nearby later that night. Authorities are trudging the Potomac River for her body even now. Currently registered as evidence, that diary incriminates me as a blackmail accomplice and as Tabitha’s likely murderer!”
Senator Sommers looked around, sweat pouring down from his bloodless face.
“At one point, Senator Sommers sent me out to investigate whether Senator Douglass or anybody on his team was blackmailing Senator Cafferty. Senator Sommers had terrible hopes that there was some illicit activity there that would compromise any objection to the Fairness in Protection Act. But I now know that this was just a rouse, a way to connect me to Tyler Johns and thereby incriminate Senator Douglass once this bogus diary revealed me to be a blackmailer and a murderer! But it was nothing more than a web of lies, of subterfuge and betrayal, woven by Senator Sommers himself!”
The crowd’s ire grew, some people shaking their heads while others started to glare at Senator Sommers, snarling.
Senator Sommers cried out, “This is a set-up! I don’t know anything about any of this! They’re trying to ruin me, just like I knew they would!”
Jack went on, “We’ve got Rachel Cafferty and both of her thugs in custody, and they’re all prepared to testify.” He turned to Senator Sommers. “You’re going to prison, Senator, for the rest of your unnatural life!”
But Senator Sommers shook his head, pointing an angry finger at the podium while he raged to the crowd. “See? That proves it! They’re all in on it! My God, can you all really be that stupid? It’s Jack, he’s the guilty one, Jack and his faggot accomplices; they’re cowards and punks, all of them, degenerate bastard thugs, each and every cocksucking one of them!”
The crowd fell completely silent for just a fraction of a second, then erupted in a clamor of hate and retribution.
The senator looked around and knew he was beaten. He hollered, “No!” but that was the crowd’s cue to rush him. He tried to push through, but citizens had closed in on him and people were ready to tackle him to prevent his escape.
Senator Sommers pulled a handgun out from behind his belt and aimed it into the crowd around him. He fired the gun, the crowd around him screaming and scrambling in every direction at once.
Senator Sommers shot again, one person already lying on the Capitol Building steps. But there was enough room for Senator Sommers to make a break for i
t, a desperate run across down the steps and across the lawn. He pointed his gun behind him and shot blindly, two more shots ringing out, the rest of the crowd screaming and running and ducking for cover.
Jack and Tyler were huddled over Senator Douglass to protect him from errant gunfire. The bravest among the reporters kept their cameras locked on the action as pandemonium broke out in front of the Capitol Building.
Senator Sommers kept running, but black-suited Secret Service officers, Hathaway and Sellars leading them, closed in on Senator Sommers from every angle.
The reeling senator managed to get one of the advancing special agents in the leg, but the others tackled him. Senator Sommers struggled and screamed out in a high-pitched wail, shaking his head and thrashing about, only his legs able to move.
They finally cuffed his ankles too and, with the help of some local uniformed police officers, managed to drag Senator Sommers away. The crowd held phones up to capture his humiliation on video, despite the news coverage that was certain to spread all the way around the world. Sirens got louder fast, police and ambulances already on their way.
The reporters turned on Jack, Tyler, and Senator Douglass. But their questions came so fast, so many all at once, that none of the three knew just what to say.
Jack said, “I’m not sure how much more I can tell you, folks. I’m glad justice has been served, of course, but it saddens me that a man of Senator Sommers' qualities of character could be bent to such ugly and lowly purposes. It’s a good reminder for us all that, even if one man or a group of men try to manipulate the system, to make it their own, to serve their own agendas and ideas, they can never succeed for long. This government, this democracy, serves the people, is run of and by and for the people, first and foremost. And that government which serves the people best protects them the most, serves them the most, nurtures them the most; not just some of the people, not just the rich or the white or the straight or the pretty or the powerful, but all people from all corners of society. People may differ, but we are all still people, and we are all still Americans!”
The crowd applauded, Senator Douglass and Tyler tapping Jack reassuringly on the shoulders. They led him away as authorities came pouring in, ushering them to safety and to a litany of questions and processing. But Jack knew he was leaving almost everything behind on those Capitol steps, that his life had been changed forever. And he was grateful for that change and to still have a life and career to enjoy.
Chapter Nineteen
A week later, Tabitha’s body was found at the bottom of the Potomac River, nylon cord securing a pair of ten-pound dumbbells to her ankles. Her death had robbed Jack of any sense of pleasure or achievement he might have derived from uncovering the truth about Senator Cafferty’s suicide. Even seeing Senator Sommers' Fairness in Protection Act resoundingly voted down by both the Senate and the House of Representatives did nothing to bring Jack any satisfaction. But little by little he was able to console himself with the knowledge that Tabitha had voluntarily involved herself in those criminal activities, that she was no innocent and that her death had not been in vain.
Jack and Tyler and Senator Douglass traveled together to Phoenix to appear at Tabitha’s funeral and the three were greeted as heroes despite the conservative atmosphere of Arizona in general. It was as if the whole state shared their former senator’s shame, as if they all were also complicit in the death of their lovely Tabitha St. Cloud, now a fallen hero, an innocent victim in the eyes of the people.
After the funeral, local press collected around Jack, Tyler, and Senator Douglass.
“Any thoughts on the events here today, Senator Douglass?”
The senator wore a grim expression. “Miss St. Cloud’s death was tragic and unnecessary. Hopefully the lesson of her unfortunate corruption, and the price it extracted, won’t be lost on other young, ambitious people who hope to make Washington D.C. their home.”
There was a cluster of other questions, but the senator said, “I’ve said all I have to say. Anything else, I’ll direct you to my new press secretary, Mr. Ballen.”
Tyler turned to Jack with a proud smile. “What about you, Mr. Ballen? You and Miss St. Cloud were intimately involved.”
Jack nodded. “I was blessed for the time I got to spend with Tabitha. Despite the sad choices she made, I’ll always think of her fondly and I hope she’s found peace.”
“And what have you found, Mr. Ballen?”
Jack glanced at Tyler, then looked over the reporters. “I’ve found everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“And what are your plans for the future?”
“Staying right where I am. I plan to go on working for Senator Douglass, to pursue his honorable goals of equality and liberty for all Americans, for as long as he feels that I have a contribution to make to his team. But no matter what, this is a crusade I dedicate my career to, and my life. It’s a matter of realizing our real promise as a country, the only way our national experiment can ever truly succeed. And that success is my goal, and should be the only goal of any public servant – man or woman, gay or straight. That will never change, nor should it. We have a duty as Americans to rebel against any government that fails us, that turns against us, that tries to rob us of our liberty, of our freedom. And those men and women are in our government even now, on every level, in secret and out in the open. They’d turn our nation into a dictatorship, into a totalitarian dystopia where their ideas are the only ideas; where dissent and freedom of thought, freedom of speech, are criminalized. But we’re not the kind of people to stand for that, rather we stand against it, and we always will.” Jack and Tyler shared another secret smile. “And we’ll stand together, side-by-side, until the battle is lost or won.”
Tyler said to him, very quietly, “If we fight them together, we can’t lose.”
Jack smiled. Nothing more needed to be said.
*THE END*
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