by J. J. Franck
“Where does all the money go?”
“Most candidates hire an accounting firm to keep track of the contributions.”
“How many firms do this type of business?” Don asked, curious for some reason.
“I don’t know. I expect there is only a handful because it is such a complicated process, with all the government filings that have to be made because of the campaign financing laws.”
Both men seemed interested in what Raven had to say. Neither man really cared much for politics, and this was all new to them. Although they worked in the Capital it didn’t mean they had any special interest in how politicians handled their campaigns or their day-to-day operations. It was kind of taboo to even look twice at any of the politicians in town. Even for a simple speeding ticket, because in the end it would get pulled as if it never happened. So it was common practice not to waste your time or energy with the stop in the first place.
Don turned to Raven. “How would someone go about finding out what firm the candidates used?”
“At the end of the year it’s reported to the government’s accounting office. You could probably start there.”
Don thought for a moment. He looked at Charlie and then turned to Raven.
“Do you know if Senator Maxfield ordered this information for his project.”
“Through the Freedom of Information Act, I’m sure a formal request would have to have been made. There should be a paper trail somewhere.”
“And if anyone was curious about the direction his investigation was going, all they would have to do was look to see what he requested?”
Raven shrugged. “I guess so.”
Raven leaned over the computer screen and then used the mouse to open a file on the flash drive. She checked on the one that said GAO and then turned to Charlie with raised eyebrows. Once the documents came onscreen, all there was were garbled characters.
“This should be the list that you want.”
“Oh shit,” Charlie said looking at the mass of symbols and characters. “What am I supposed to do with this.”
“You have the code, you have to go and decipher all the characters.”
“Thanks a lot. Isn’t there an easier way?”
Raven just smiled. “There should be a macro on the flash drive. I’m not sure what it’s called but you load it into Excel, it should decode everything automatically, otherwise you do it manually.”
Don glanced over at Raven and then at Charlie.
“We’ll go get a cup of coffee while you work on it. Want a cup?” Don asked.
“Only if it comes in eighty proof!”
Don laughed as he took hold of Raven’s arm and walked off, allowing Charlie time to concentrate on the task at hand.
Raven didn’t mind. She needed a break from everything that was going on. She was getting a headache trying to relay all the information she knew. Raven never realized how critical the project Willie was working on was, in that people were being killed trying to cover it up.
She would have given anything to have her old life back. Spend her Saturday getting caught up on work around the house, having lunch with her friend Cathy. But if Cathy was the woman killed in her car, she would never see her friend again. It bothered her that once this case was over with, she would have to clean up the mess that was left at her house and her life. Raven would have loved to spend this weekend with her friend Tad, reminiscing on their college days and his upcoming trip to the Vatican in Rome. It all seemed so distant now.
Raven didn’t know if she had a job anymore or what she would do once the case was resolved. She knew for a fact once they caught the perpetrators there would be a trial, and to what extent would she be involved in testifying about what she knew, she wasn’t sure.
They took their time walking to the break room. Don stood there in silence drinking his cup of coffee. Raven was actually enjoying the peace and quiet because she knew if Don talked to her, it would be more to pump her for information.
Don and Raven sat quietly in the break room for a good twenty minutes. Neither really wanted to talk or discuss the case, as the more they talked the more Don realized how tangled Raven was in all of this. She was Senator Maxfield’s personal assistant and assisted him in the day-to-day operations at the Senate office building. He no longer suspected their relationship being more than just that.
Don finally glanced over at Raven. “I think we gave Charlie enough time.”
Raven just shook her head. “I just wish this was behind me. I want my life back,” she said as she got up and followed Don out of the room.
Don didn’t say anything. Actually, he really didn’t know what to say to assure her that in the end everything would be made right. Because he knew from past experience that things would never be the same for Raven. Senator Maxfield was dead, and, technically, her life as she knew it was over with. The one good factor was that Raven probably didn’t have to work for a living, but, after knowing her for that short period, she seemed like the type of person who had to have purpose. Raven would not be able to just sit back and do nothing.
They walked up to Charlie’s desk as he was busily scrolling through the document onscreen. Don and Raven walked in back of him to get a better look at the screen.
“Do you know Albright Enterprises?” Don asked Raven.
Raven looked surprised. “That was the firm Cathy worked for.”
“You never mentioned that,” he said.
“You didn’t ask. I think David Sinclair used to be affiliated with them before he started his own Super PAC.”
“You said Senator Maxfield was getting ready to report his findings,” Don said and then stared at the screen. Finally he turned to Raven. “Where would the report be?”
“On his laptop.”
“Do you know if he replaced his laptop?” Don asked.
“Sure. He couldn’t live without one. He had me pick one up for him at Best Buy.”
Don turned to Charlie. “Check to see if the laptop was in his possession when he was attacked.”
Raven turned to the two. “He had it when he walked into the restroom.”
Don picked Raven’s purse up off the desk and then handed it to her. He took her arm.
“We have to take a little trip.”
When Don touched Raven’s arm a surge of electricity went through his body that startled him for a moment. He shook himself free of what that was and just stared at Raven for the longest time without saying a word.
“What is it?” Raven asked.
“Nothing,” was all he said.
He let go of her arm and then motioned for her in the direction he wanted her to go. If he was going to be objective in this case he would have to keep his distance from her. Don knew his mind was clouded when it came to Raven’s innocence. But he also knew one thing, she was directly in the middle of this, and until he could sort it out he would have to keep an open mind.
Chapter 19
Once they walked across the street where the squad was parked, Don quickly opened the passenger door for Raven. Before getting in she turned and looked up at him. She had a teasing smile on her face.
“Where are we going now, Sherlock?” she asked.
Don was startled for a moment because it was bothering him at that point, not knowing if he was being played. A part of him trusted that Raven didn’t have it in her to play him for a fool. But there was another part of him who had seen the worst in people, and he didn’t want to get caught off-guard.
After a long silence of thinking about Raven’s involvement in all of this, he finally replied, “To see your boss’s wife, if that’s okay with you.”
“I thought you didn’t want her knowing I was still alive,” she said with raised eyebrows.
“Under the circumstances, I have no choice.”
Raven got into the squad and, once in the squad, Don shut the door and just stared at her for the longest time. Normally, he could read people quite well, but it was different with Raven for s
ome reason.
The Senator’s house was a good hour’s drive through busy traffic. Weekend traffic always seemed worse than weekday traffic because it was all day long no matter what time it was. People were always on the move, shopping and getting caught up with their lives after a busy week.
Once they finally got to the Senator’s house, Don got out of the squad, followed by Raven. It was when they walked up to the front door and saw it open that Don motioned for Raven to stay back as he unholstered his gun.
Raven just glanced up at him and shook her head. “Christ, what is it with you and open doors?” she snapped.
Don just put his finger to his mouth and whispered, “Quiet!”
Don swiftly entered the house, looked around while listening. In his mind he tried to remember the layout of the house from his earlier visit.
They slowly moved through the downstairs of the house. The sun parlor was now empty, but in total disarray. There were no kids playing out back as there had been yesterday. Don could hear music coming from down the hall. He slowly maneuvered his way and listened as the music got louder. Raven followed close behind. Once they entered the kitchen, Don reached for the radio and turned it off. It was then he heard the car engine running in the garage. He quickly ran to the door at the opposite end of the long kitchen and, when he opened the door leading to the garage, he got hit by exhaust fumes. Don turned and coughed. When he finally gained control he pointed a finger at Raven.
“Stay put and call 911,” he said.
Don reached into the garage and pressed the automatic garage door opener and then grabbed a towel off the counter. Before rushing into the garage, he put the towel over his mouth and hurried over to the Mercedes. Ellen Maxfield was slumped over the wheel in a way that seemed unnatural. Luckily the person who did this didn’t have the fortitude to lock the car doors, so Don opened the door and turned the car engine off. He then grabbed the Senator’s wife, pulled her out of the Mercedes, and dragged her outside onto the driveway where he started CPR on the lifeless body.
Raven came running out of the kitchen and over to where he was working on her friend lying on the ground. Don quickly glanced up at Raven.
“I told you to stay inside,” he said between compressions, and then bent down for the breath of life.
Raven just ignored Don and held Ellen’s hand, rubbing it fiercely as if she could somehow will the life back into her friends body.
“I knew she’d take it hard about Willie. I never expected this,” Raven said as tears streamed down her cheek.
“She had help,” Don said.
Just then a car pulled into the driveway and came to a screeching halt. The kids in the backseat panicked at seeing their mother lying on the driveway pavement. The maid rushed up to Don working feverishly on Mrs. Maxfield. She tried pulling Don off her while Raven stopped her.
“What have you done,” the maid yelled.
Don was puzzled by her outburst. “Nothing, we found her like this!” he said and then continued working on Ellen.
Suddenly the maid collapsed into a weeping frenzy.
Raven just turned to Don and whispered. “Is she dead?”
Don shook his head, “No.”
In the distance sirens could be heard as they got closer. Don was thankful because he didn’t know how much longer he could keep up the CPR. The kids were crying in the maid’s car while Raven tried to assure them their mother would be okay.
Don for a moment was relieved, knowing that Raven wasn’t involved in the attempt on the Senator’s wife because she had been with him the whole morning. It angered him now that he even remotely suspected she was involved in any of this.
* * *
Once the ambulance got there and the Senator’s wife was stable, the maid took the children to her apartment for the day because no one was allowed inside the Senator’s house. It was now a possible crime scene.
Don still was not letting Raven out of his sight. They looked through the Senator’s house for a clue to what the perpetrators were looking for.
Don finally turned to Raven. “Did anyone else know about the Senator giving his wife his briefcase?”
Raven shrugged. She tried to think back to that day, whom they saw. “I’m not sure. The whole thing seemed so insignificant at the time.
“Well, think. They trashed your place and now they came here looking for something.”
Don walked slowly through the house followed by Raven. They walked into the Senator’s study. Books, knick-knacks, and papers were strewed about. It was clear they searched other areas of the house, but this room took the brunt of the search. The computer tower lay on the floor smashed to pieces. They even took the time to open it up and take out the hard drive. The waste basket had charred remains of paper. Don turned to Raven.
“Always one step behind,” he snapped.
Raven walked over to the couch and collapsed. She started to cry as Don sat down beside her. Raven just turned and glanced up at him.
“When will it end?” she said between sobs.
“I wish I knew,” Don replied.
There was an anguish in her eyes that Don hadn’t seen before. Don put his arms around Raven to offer her comfort in the only way he knew how. It reminded him of the time his mother got the news about his father’s death. No matter how much comfort he could offer, he had no control in the end. Raven just sobbed uncontrollably for the longest time. Don knew she had to get it out of her system.
* * *
As they pulled up to Cathy Monroe’s apartment complex, Don whistled. He lived in the Capital long enough to know the price of apartments in this section of town. This one came with an indoor gym compound and two pools, one indoor and one outside. Don turned to Raven as they got out of the car.
“Where did you say your friend worked?” Don asked with raised eyebrows.
“Albright Enterprises,” Raven said in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Think they have an opening?”
Raven turned to Don and laughed. “These people would eat you alive.”
Don smiled. He knew Raven didn’t mean it in a mean way. She was just stating a fact that these people didn’t play nice. Not that his being a detective in the Capital made him unworthy of consideration for a job like that. It was just that Don upheld the law, and these people skirted around the law to get what they wanted.
Politics in general was a dirty business. No matter how upstanding you were, your opponent tended to see your strength and then come up with something dirty about it and used that strength to take you down. It was a vicious business. Don kept thinking about all the negative campaign ads he saw just before elections. It angered him that no one ever really talked about what they planned to do once they were elected. They would rather trash their opponent. And if you weren’t smart enough to research those ads for validity, you might just be buying into the lies being spewed and technically elect an unworthy candidate.
Don walked into the manager’s office. It took some doing to convince him to let them into Cathy’s apartment without a search warrant. The badge he carried didn’t intimidate the manager. If anything, it was a turn-off. The one factor in their favor was that he knew Raven as being a friend of Cathy’s, so that put credence on his letting them in.
As they walked up to the second floor apartment, the manager quickly pulled out his master key. Don turned to him.
“When was the last time you saw Ms. Monroe?”
The manager thought for a moment and then replied. “Last week one day. She locked herself out of her apartment. She did that quite a lot.”
Don turned to Raven and asked. “Was she a blonde?”
Raven just frowned, before she could give him a comeback, the door swung open and all they could see was the trashed living room. The couch was slashed, the lamps broken, while pictures were ripped off the walls and tossed on the floor. It was one thing to be looking for something, it was another to literally destroy everything in the process. There had to be a lot of
anger behind the person who did this. Don turned to the manager as he held out his hand.
“Don’t touch anything!”
Don slowly walked into the living room. He noticed the phone cord still hooked to the wall outlet. He bent down and picked up the cord and followed it to where the phone lay under a bunch of debris. Don took a hanky out of his pocket and picked up the receiver and then punched in some numbers with the tip of his pen.
Don waited until someone answered at the other end.
“Hey, it’s me,” Don said and then listened a moment. “Yeah, I still have her.”
Don went on to tell the person at the other end of the line to have the lab guys come out to Cathy’s apartment. This case was keeping the department busy. Once they got done at the Senator’s house, Cathy’s apartment would be the next crime scene to process. It would be interesting to see if fingerprints from both places matched up. More interestingly would be if they were in the system. Time would tell, and it would be early next week before he would get that information for sure.
Chapter 20
Don knew what he had to do next. It may have been the weekend but, when it came to crime, criminals never took time off. He had been behind the perpetrators from the start. Once they thought they killed the Senator, they spent their time cleaning up the mess they caused. Trashing Raven’s house looking for the material the Senator was working on, thinking she might have a copy. And when they didn’t find it there, they went to the source, the Senator’s house. Don felt fortunate that the maid had the kids on an outing to the gym. What didn’t make sense was trashing Cathy Monroe’s apartment, other than to throw off the investigation. Don’s mind was spinning trying to make sense of it all as Raven guided him through Washington, DC, to the subdivision where David Sinclair had his residency. All the mansions seemed to be on two-acre plots of land. Don turned to Raven with raised eyebrows.
“I think I’m in the wrong line of work,” he said.
“Everything in this town is for show. It doesn’t mean they own any of this,” Raven said as she laughed. “Hell, you could even live like this too.” She paused a moment and then quickly added, “Until the creditors caught up with you.”