by Connie Black
Janet sighed and became lost in thought, as my career hung in the balance.
“Are they saying where these pictures came from? Who took them?”
She cleared her throat. “Nobody seems to know, but of course everyone is speculating. The talk radio people are blaming Charlie Garcia.”
My pulse quickened. If they already figured out it was Charlie, it was game over for me. The first thing Charlie would do was point the finger at me.
My voice cracked as I tried to get out my next question. “Has Garcia said anything?”
Janet didn’t know I had a relationship with Charlie either. I figured it would be best not to throw that fuel into the fire.
Just then Maria, another reporter that worked for Janet, stormed in.
“Quick guys, Kyle Swanson is giving a news briefing. Hurry!”
We ran into her office where there was a TV. Kyle was at the microphones speaking.
“While these photographs are an embarrassment, they are a vile intrusion into my private life. They captured a private sex act, at least one we thought was private, between consenting adults. The person that took these photos, and is now sharing them with all the major news organizations, has committed a serious crime. I have directed my staff to work with the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and we already have a pretty good idea who did this.”
We all stood there in rapt attention, as Kyle paused.
“It is my belief, that Charlie Garcia took these photographs and sent them to major news media organizations, in an effort to detail my candidacy. In the coming days we will be publicly disclosing evidence, in conjunction with the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”
Maria stormed over and shut off the television. We didn’t need to hear anymore.
And Janet came up with a brilliant idea that made me sick to my stomach.
“Diana, why don’t you write up that statement we talked about it and include it in your next column with a review of the press conference. Maria go and grab the transcript for Diana. If you get it done by 4 PM then we can have it in press tomorrow morning.”
A wave of sickness came over me. I thought I might start vomiting and pass out.
I nodded and told Janet I’d get it done in time. What choice did I have?
As I headed back to my office alone and shut the door, I sunk in my chair and started crying for real.
My mind was filled with horror. The bold personality of Kyle Swanson was on full display. No other politician would have come right out and accused their opponent like that, they’d let the cops handle it.
The big question was how was Charlie going to react. Charlie was definitely a different kind of man than Swanson, but he was equally driven. Charlie was more political, and used to greasing the skids to move up. The thing that concerned me the most is while Swanson had his business empire to fall back on, the Senate was Charlie’s entire life.
And now they were even talking about crimes being committed.
This wasn’t just about Charlie losing a Senate race, it was about him being humiliated for attempting to blackmail or smear an opposing candidate in a federal election, and possibly facing the wrath of federal prosecutors.
There was simply no telling how Charlie was going to react when cornered, facing the collapse of his entire world.
Maria gives a quick knock at the door and comes in with the transcripts.
“Hey babe, here they are. It’s a mind blowing read. Apparently Swanson got a note requesting a payment of $1 million to keep it quiet.”
“Oh my God, that’s crazy.” Charlie must have gone off the deep end. He was no billionaire but he didn’t have any financial problems I knew about.
Maria hesitated before leaving. “Hey Diana. I’ve known you a long time. I just wanted you to know that I’m not taking this, well what I mean to say is I’m not going to let this reflect badly on how I think about you.”
I got up and hugged Maria and thanked her for her compassion. Of course Maria might think differently if she had known I was in on it with Charlie, at least to a point. I never knew Charlie would take things so far.
She shuts the door and I sit down and get to writing, confessing to the world and summarizing Swanson’s statement.
Chapter 15 – Diana
A week later
Over the past few weeks I’ve felt myself growing closer to Kyle Swanson.
This was the man who I once despised, because I found his politics appalling. And I believed he was a silver spoon-fed blueblood. After all that had happened and my continued efforts to keep him at bay, he was now getting me to have sex with him almost daily.
Charlie was definitely under investigation but he was still in the race. Nobody knew how it could possibly turn out, this might have been the craziest thing to ever happen in California politics. So nobody had any idea.
Several people were begging Charlie to just get out. But he wouldn’t let go. I knew how he was, and as badly as he wanted to stay in the Senate, my feeling was he’d keep running even if he got arrested.
So all this time Charlie hadn’t contacted me. I wasn’t sure if he was doing that to be smart, like he thought it was best to lay low while the cops were looking into this, or if he had just been using me and didn’t care. In either case his behavior only drove me closer to Kyle Swanson.
With all this crazy shit going on they agreed to have another televised debate. It was certain to be the debate of the century. If I knew Kyle I was sure he would throw the controversy directly into Charlie’s face.
And part of me was looking forward to being able to see Charlie in person. It would be all business but I wanted to see his eyes, and read how his soul was feeling about me.
I arrived in San Francisco for the Senate debate happening tomorrow and found myself a reasonable hotel. In public, Kyle and I had to keep up the façade, even with the pictures that came out.
Kyle of course, acting supremely confident, just told people it wasn’t any of their business and he’d fuck who he wanted when he wanted. Even so we didn’t want to be out in public together given all the controversy.
If anyone knew we were still sleeping together that would be the end of his campaign or my journalism career, or possibly both. It would probably lead to suspicions that Charlie had been setup, when Charlie was the one who hatched and carried out this devious scheme.
Secretly I wished for that to happen. Kyle had billions, if he was forced out of the Senate race we could just move to a private estate somewhere, maybe on that island he talked about, and quietly raise a family.
He had all the money we could possibly need so he could quit working too.
Of course I knew that would never happen. If there was one fundamental truth about Kyle Swanson, it was that he was power hungry and was determined to be president of the United States, in addition to continuing to build his five companies. Even after our time together and all that had happened, he hadn’t lost an ounce of desire for rising to the top. That meant we had to keep our relationship under wraps, to minimize the chance of any damage to his ambitions.
So while I had the same access to him for interviews and dinners that we could pretend were business, when he was out of town we had to make separate arrangements, and only get together when we were sure nobody was watching. But what a couple of months it had been.
Kyle had opened up more about his life over the past two weeks. I’d come to respect him, learning about the pressures of growing up with driven parents who expected him to rise to the top. And then losing both of his parents at a relatively young age, something that made me shudder.
I learned how even now, he’s driven by his unrelenting desire to please them, especially his father, and that’s helped him reach the heights in business that he had. I was touched by his raw emotion when he cried, telling me how much he wished his father was here, seeing his only son about to win a U.S. Senate seat for the state of California.
Despite how much we’d grown closer together, K
yle seemed to keep the vulgar aspects of his personality and I constantly saw him eyeing other women. He continually talked about women to his friends and I often wondered who else was sharing his bed.
I knew that despite my feelings for him, I simply couldn’t give him all of my trust. My life seemed like such a mess. Are all powerful men this way? As I thought about it my sense was Charlie and Kyle were nothing other than two sides of the same coin.
Kyle wouldn’t be in town until the following morning, so I figured I’d settle in for a quiet night of relaxation alone. My plan was to go over my notes, check my press credentials and then settle down for some good room service food, a bottle of wine and a movie.
They had free WIFI so I flipped open my laptop and began catching up on the news. Then my phone starts vibrating.
Who would be calling me now? It was already 8 PM. Kyle was in debate prep so it couldn’t be him.
Feeling half annoyed and wanting to decompress from the last two weeks with Kyle, I’m temped to ignore it and let it go to voicemail.
But I look down and see it’s my boss, Janet, so I pick up.
“Hey, what’s up?” I ask.
“Where the fuck are you?” she yells in my ear.
“Damn, take it easy girl. I’m up here in San Francisco, getting ready for the debate tomorrow. I got a motel room for the night. Why?”
Janet then dropped a bombshell.
“Swanson’s wife has been found murdered, and his nine year old daughter is missing!”
“Wife? What the fuck are you talking about? Swanson’s married?”
I felt my face go pale and my head starts spinning with dizziness. I had a sudden urge to just hide under the bed.
“Here’s the deal, you need to get down to Santa Barbara right now. This is going to be a huge story and you’re our reporter on Swanson. This throws another huge wrench into things. Since Charlie tried to blackmail Swanson he’ll be a suspect, but Swanson will too since he’s the husband of the woman who got murdered. You need to get down there and find out what the fuck is going on. And do it before anybody else does.”
“Yeah OK,” I say as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, “but how could Kyle be married? After all this time being the public womanizer? Nine year old daughter? He’s never mentioned that!”
“No shit! Well nobody knew about it until this came over the police wire. Its odd he was keeping a wife and child, trying to maintain a secret, running for Senate, you think? It’s going to be up to you to get over there and dig up the details.”
Janet thought about my involvement with Kyle. “Diana, I’m really sorry”.
It suddenly felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. On top of everything else Kyle was married. And now his wife has been killed. He could even be a murderer.
“OK Janet, I’ll get the first flight available, and be in touch once I get there.”
As I hung up the phone my entire body trembled. I just sat on the bed in a state of stunned disbelief, feeling like I’d vomit and pass out at the same time.
It was shocking enough to find out Swanson had a wife and a daughter. The guy was constantly out in public talking about womanizing. And he’d fooled me again, I’d slept with him a dozen times over the past month, thinking we were growing closer and developing a real relationship.
And now his wife was dead.
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