“That was why those two reporters from the Associated Press and Reuters started asking you all of those questions at your press conference?”
“Right. Stephanie Mitchell must have thought that her sister was fooling with me rather than Crader, and she told those reporters so.”
“Or she chose to put it out there like that,” Gina suggested. “Like I said, the president cheating on the First Lady and having a child out of wedlock packs more of a punch than the vice president doing the same thing to his wife.”
“Right.”
“So you think Max sent Ally this clipping?” Gina asked this as she placed back on her glasses and started reading every word of the newspaper article. She was a trained attorney who practiced law for many years before she married Dutch. She knew how to sniff out clues.
“We’re trying to find Max now,” Dutch said as she read. “We figure he was the former White House aide who tipped off the reporters, there’s no doubt in our mind about that. But the only reason we could come up with for that tip-off, and sending us that clipping, was because he has pictures or video.”
Gina looked up at Dutch, a stunned look in her eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“When did you say that Vegas weekend occurred? Twelve years ago?”
“In 2000, yes. That’s right. Why?”
Gina stared at her husband. “Are you sure?”
“I’m certain. It was the millennium, the year 2000. There was all of that talk about the Y2K computer bug and how the world would be plunged into chaos at the turn of the century. And we attended the congressional committee meeting in early January of that year, just after the new year. I remember it well. Why, Gina?”
“Max wanted you and Crader to see this clipping all right, but not because of any videotape of you guys having sex with a woman.”
Dutch’s heart began to pound. “What have you found? What is it?”
“Max wanted you to see this clipping because of the age.”
Dutch frowned. “What age?”
“Elvelyn’s age.”
Dutch frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Her age, Dutch! According to this article, she was twenty-eight years old when she died in that plane crash. That would mean she right around sixteen when y’all had her twelve years ago.”
Dutch’s heart plunged through his shoe. He snatched the article from Gina. Searched and searched and then saw it for himself. How could they have missed it? He looked back up at his wife. “Good Lord,” he said. Looked back at her age in that article, looked back at his wife. Statutory rape, he thought. He and Crader committed statutory rape?
“How did you meet her?” Gina asked, her attorney background out in force right now.
“I didn’t,” Dutch said frowningly, attempting to remember that long ago weekend. “She was selected.”
“Who selected her? Who set it all up?”
Dutch didn’t have to even think about it. “Max,” he said, it all coming together clearly now. “Max said she was a college student he knew. Max handled the whole thing.”
Gina’s heart plunged too. Max Brennan was beyond a loose cannon. Max Brennan gave snakes a bad name.
“We’ve got to find Max,” she made clear.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The following week and Gina’s birthday celebration was being held in the festively decorated Rose Garden. Many staffers and their families, along with Gina’s numerous friends from Newark, were hobnobbing together to the sweet sounds of Motown. From Marvin Gaye to the Temptations to Martha and the Vandellas, every song was a delightful old school rhythm and blues.
Everybody were laughing, talking and waiting for the president and First Lady to make their appearance. LaLa and Christian were mainly hanging together, while Marcus and Sam seemed to be in deep conversation. Christian and LaLa joked that they had never seen Sam when she wasn’t in deep conversation, so it didn’t surprise them.
But then Crader made his appearance, and LaLa was not only surprised, but downright shocked.
Christian looked at Crader, and then looked back at LaLa.
“You’re okay?” he asked her.
As Crader began to approach her, her heart began to pound. She almost looked down at her form-fitting white and yellow dress, as if to ensure she was looking her best, but she caught herself. She was done pleasing others at the expense of her own happiness. She looked fine, whether he thought so or not.
“You’re okay, La?” Christian asked her again.
“Actually no,” she replied.
“Want me to stay by your side?”
“Yes,” she said. “Please.”
And Christian stayed when Crader approached.
“Hello, Chris,” he said.
“Hello, Crader.”
Crader wasn’t accustomed to Christian calling him by his first name, but he overlooked it. He, instead, looked at LaLa. “Hey,” he said.
He looked like death warmed over, she thought. Blood-shot eyes, rumpled suit. And for what, she wondered. An hour, tops, of pleasure. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” she admitted.
“I know. I wasn’t invited, if that’s what you mean. Gina is pretty upset with me right now. But I need to talk to Dutch.”
“A matter of national security?” LaLa asked, attempting to smile.
Crader looked into her mouth. He craved that bright white smile. He craved her beautiful, African lips. Her soft, sweet face. He’d give his right arm to have her and their daughter back home again. To take back what he had done. “Something like that,” he replied to her.
“The president and First Lady are still getting ready in the Residence,” Christian said. “Jade’s with them.”
Crader, however, continued to stare at LaLa. “You’ve been doing okay?” he asked her.
“I’ve been great,” LaLa said, although it was hardly true.
Crader, however, saw that sparkle in her eyes he always loved, and he believed it. She was better off without him. “Good,” he said, nodding his head. Regret was overwhelming him, and it felt like a knot in his throat. “I’m glad to know it.”
“Yep, I’m doing just fine. I have to. I’m doing great.”
“I understand you’ve moved back into your house in Georgetown.”
“For now, yes.”
LaLa would never know how painful that sounded to Crader. She had somewhere else to go. Somewhere else to stay. Something other than their life together. “I was wondering if I could get Nicole for the weekend. If that’s okay with you.”
LaLa nodded. “Of course it’s okay with me, Crader. You’re a wonderful father to our daughter.”
Crader’s heart squeezed when she said that. And he couldn’t take it anymore. “Please come back to me,” he begged, reaching for her hand.
But she snatched her hand away, causing a few people to glance over. She lowered her voice. “I told you I don’t know what I’m going to do right now, Cray, I told you that.”
“Okay. Okay,” Crader said equally lowly, glancing around. He didn’t want to make a spectacle of himself. At least, not more of a spectacle than he’d already made of himself. Especially with this new information they found out about Elvelyn. Info, if it became public, that could destroy any chance he had of taking over when Dutch’s term expired.
“I didn’t mean to . . .,” he started. “But I respect you, La. I’ll wait for you to decide. You have that right.” Then he exhaled, ashamed of himself. “I need to see Dutch, so I’d better get going.”
“Sure, Crader.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
Crader’s heart was in agony, and he wanted to beg her again. But he left LaLa’s side.
Christian placed his hand on LaLa’s back and rubbed it. “It’s okay, La,” he said.
Tears began to appear in her eyes. “This was a bad idea,” she said. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“You have to live your life, La,” Christian said. �
�He did this to you. He’s the one who has to pay. Not you.”
“Thanks for your support, Christian,” LaLa said with a smile that came no-where near her eyes. But she meant what she said. She was grateful for Christian’s support. She even leaned against him, still in need of that support.
Dutch stood in his room-sized, walk-in closet and tore open a brand new dress shirt. He was in trousers and a t-shirt as he began putting on the shirt. Jade was also in the closet, seated on the center island.
“Didn’t I tell you to get down from there?” Dutch said to her.
“You’re so busy I never get a chance to spend any real time with you. You’re either coming from a meeting or going to one and I hardly can say hello to you.”
“Move,” he said again and Jade rolled her eyes, but jumped down. She immediately grabbed the front of her father’s shirt. “Let me button it. You don’t let me do anything for you.”
But Dutch would have none of it. He removed her hands. “I think I can button my own shirt, little girl,” he said with a smile as he began walking out of the closet, buttoning his own shirt as he walked.
Jade didn’t like his stubbornness, but she followed him out of the closet all the same.
“Can the president go to the movies?” she asked as they walked over to the dressing table. “I mean the real movies. Not the movie theater in the White House.”
“He can go anywhere he wants to go,” Dutch replied. He stood at the dressing table and combed his hair. His groomer was on call, but Dutch didn’t bother to call him.
“Then take me to the movies, Daddy,” Jade said with a smile.
“Get your husband to take you,” Dutch replied. “Where’s Christian anyway?”
“He’s outside with everybody else. Where he’s supposed to be.”
Dutch glanced at her through the mirror. “Are you taking care of him the way you’re supposed to, Jade?”
Jade hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
Jade smiled. “He’s boring, Daddy.”
“He’s your husband.”
“He’s my boring husband.” She moved closer to Dutch, placed her hands on his chest. “Why can’t he be like you?” she asked, and Dutch looked at her. Then he removed her hands and stared at her.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, surprised by that odd look in his eyes.
“What are you doing?’’ Dutch asked with a frown now on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m your father.”
Jade laughed one of the phoniest laughs Dutch had ever heard. “I know you’re my father!”
“Why are you playing games with me? Why are you flirting with me?”
“Flirting with you?” Jade asked, her skin blushed with shame. She never dreamed he’d call her out like this. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m your father,” Dutch made clear again. “I know we didn’t know each other for almost all of your life. I know I’m new to you. But you do not play the little seductress with me. Am I making myself clear, young lady?”
Jade hated when he became like this. “Yes,” she said.
“You have a good man in Christian and you’d better not mess that up. I used to wonder if he was good enough for you. Kept me up nights wondering if any young man would ever be good enough for my little girl. Now I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not the other way around.”
Jade’s heart dropped when he said that. But she didn’t have time to respond. A voice was heard, a voice she hated.
“What are you two up to?” Gina’s voice said airily, and they turned to the sound. She was walking into the bedroom from the adjacent dressing room entrance.
Jade, however, was already upset with her father for going there, and now this?
“Why would you say something like that?” Jade responded in her nastiest of tones, a fixed frown on her narrow face. “It’s none of your business what we’re up to. What kind of question is that, anyway? I’m talking to my father, okay, if that’s all right with you. And it’s an A and B conversation. You need to C your way out of it!”
Dutch looked at his daughter as if he could hardly believe her nerve, and then he slapped her hard across her face.
Jade stumbled back, grabbing the side of her now stinging face.
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Dutch asked her, his own face unable to shield his anger.
Jade held her face and stared at her father, tears forming in her eyes. “I was just telling her to stay out of my conversation,” she said in a now bratty tone. “I was telling her it was none of her business.”
“You don’t tell her shit!” Dutch yelled. “Not like that! And my business is her business and don’t you ever forget that, Jade.”
Jade just stared at her father. There was anger, hurt, and embarrassment all rolled into one. He was always putting her in her place, and she was getting tired of it. And that Gina, she thought as her eyes looked angrily at Gina. She couldn’t stand Gina! She was the reason. She was always the reason. There wasn’t a human being she hated more than that smug-ass Gina Harber! She just knew Gina loved when Dutch slapped her. Gina just loved it, Jade would bet any amount of money. And it was too much for Jade. Too damn much. Of all the people who had to witness her humiliation. She fled from the room.
Gina looked at Dutch, amazed. Although Jade would never believe it, she actually cared about her stepdaughter. “What’s wrong with her?” she asked, concern in her voice.
Dutch just stood there, upset that he laid a hand on his daughter in anger, but not regretting it, either. He exhaled. “More than we can we will ever know, I’m afraid,” he said. But before he could say more, there was a knock at the door. Which was all he needed.
“Yes?” he said.
The vice president stepped inside.
“Crader?” Dutch asked, surprised.
“Sorry to disturb you.”
“What is it?”
He glanced at Gina. He hadn’t seen her since she met with both he and the president and explained what it all meant that they had slept with a sixteen-year old that weekend in Vegas. Because the age of consent in Vegas was sixteen, they were just legal, and just barely given Elvelyn’s birthdate, which Gina also looked into. They had not committed a legal crime, she made clear, although he could tell she believed they had committed a moral one. And for Crader to have cheated on LaLa on top of that moral lapse only served to place him, he knew, at the top of Gina’ shit list. A spot he also knew he rightly deserved.
Crader looked at Dutch. His old friend was still hanging in there with him, but only by a thread. But nowadays Crader would take whatever support he could get.
“What is it, Cray?” Dutch asked him again.
And Crader exhaled. Onward and upward, he thought. “We’ve found Max,” he finally said.
Max Brennan looked at the newspaper clipping and then he looked at Crader. Crader and Dutch were seated on the sofa inside the modest home. Max was seated in a wing chair. He had been found in Ohio, and was transported, immediately on discover, to this safe house in DC.
“It’s some article, so what?” he said, tossing the clipping back to Crader. “Some female and her hubby dies. So what?”
“Ah, cut the bullshit, Max,” Crader said impatiently. “It’s too damn late. Did you or did you not mail that to Ally?”
Max looked at Dutch. Dutch was in a light-brown suit, his legs crossed. His intense green eyes were so focused on Max that it was making Max uncomfortable.
“Is that what you think, too, Dutch?” Max asked his former friend. “Do you think I sent some newspaper clipping to Allison?”
Dutch didn’t say anything. He continued to stare at Max.
Max had a hurt look in his eyes that Dutch thought was sincere. Until Max smiled that disgusting reptilian smile of his. “So you remember her, after all?” he said. “I’m impressed.”
“Why did you send it?” Crader asked.
&
nbsp; “Admiration,” Max said. “You two gentlemen, if I can use the word loosely, are so admired the world over. The President and Vice President of the United States. And neither one of you are worth a good gotdamn! Used to love and leave every woman that crossed your path. Used to bang everything that moved.”
“Apparently not everything,” Crader said. “We as hell never banged you.”
Max moved toward Crader, causing Crader to move toward him, but Dutch pulled Crader back. “Come on guys,” he said with a frown on his face. “Let’s have it, Max,” he then said. “What do you want?”
“Who says I want anything?”
“I don’t have all night.”
“No,” Max said sadly. “Certainly not for the likes of me.”
“What do you want, Max? I won’t ask again.”
Max stared at Dutch. Then he stood up. “Would you care for something to drink?” he asked.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Crader said angrily and stood too, and began pacing.
“I’m sorry if it upsets you,” Max said, “but I can’t concentrate without a little pick-me-up.”
“From what I hear that’s all you’ve been doing,” Crader said snidely. “Getting picked up. Or, rather, picking up young men and treating them to a night of romance in that palace of a place in Akron.”
“Would you care for something to drink, Dutch?” Max asked, ignoring Crader.
Dutch had heard about it too. Max had been a closet gay for years, and although they were close friends, Dutch didn’t have a clue. Or, at least, he ignored the clues and took Max at his word when he talked about loving women and wanting them. It wasn’t until he lied on Gina did their friendship end. Dutch literally kicked Max out of the White House when he falsely accused Gina of unfaithfulness.
DUTCH AND GINA: THE SINS OF THE FATHERS Page 13