by Alexa Davis
"I've been thinking about Russo," I said, testing the waters. "I have this feeling that he's connected to the dead shooter, but I can't figure out how."
"Well, that was out of left field," Linc said as he stared at his plate and pushed the food around. His silence told me that he had thoughts about Russo, too, but he wasn't sharing them.
"Look, let's be honest here, shall we?" I said plowing ahead. It had just occurred to me that Linc might be able to help me get more information on Russo. I was slowly coming to understand that with his vast resources, I could most likely get any information I needed. "I need information about Russo and you need to get Russo out of your way."
"And, your point is?" he asked warily.
"I'm just saying that we could work together to gather information that might illuminate his dealings." I tried to be as diplomatic as possible.
"So, in other words, you've got the brains, I've got the money," he said.
"Something like that," I nodded as I lifted a forkful of pasta to my lips.
"That's a pretty crappy thing to do to me, Ms. Moore," he said shaking his head in disgust.
"What?"
"You let me up here under the pretense of being on a date, and then you tell me you need help nabbing an interview and information for a story," he said, dropping his fork on his plate before he stood up. "I feel kind of used."
"What in the hell are you talking about, Redding?" I said as I looked up at him.
"I'm saying that I asked you out on a date, you said yes, then you ran me in circles about how I set up the date, so I backtracked and did it your way and now you're sitting here telling me that the entire thing was a pretense for getting information and/or money out of me so you can write a story for the Sentinel," he said as he walked to the end of the table and grabbed his coat off the back of the chair.
"I did not!" I protested. "This was not a pretense at all!"
"You really could have fooled me," he said as he slowly pulled on his coat.
"Linc, I did not invite you here to try and get you to foot the bill for my research on Russo or the shooting," I said as I pushed my chair back and stood up. I was furious with him for thinking I was using him, but I could see why he thought that might be the case. I walked toward him with my hands held out in peaceful surrender. "I didn't do anything with the intention of tricking you. Please, don't leave."
I stood in front of him looking up into his icy blue eyes wondering how I could make him understand that I had not tried to manipulate him. I stepped closer and rested my hands on his chest as I leaned up and kissed his lips softly. He stood like a statue, watching me as I brushed my lips across his a second time and slid my hands around to his sides and began pulling up on his shirt so that I could slip my hands under it and feel his skin. I could feel my blood racing through my veins and my breath coming more quickly. This wasn't just an attempt to reassure Linc that I hadn't been trying to trick him; this was me wanting this strong, handsome man standing in front of me. Suddenly, I knew that I wanted him more than I'd ever wanted anyone, and I knew that I wanted to feel his skin against mine again.
I stood on tiptoes and pressed my lips to his again hoping that he would feel my deep desire and kiss me back. Instead, he grabbed my wrists, pulled my arms out from under his coat, and said in a cold voice, "Nice try, Matahari, but I'm not buying the act."
With that, he pulled away and headed to the door. He opened it and then turned to look at me. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and simply shook his head before stepping out into the hallway and slamming the door shut behind him.
I stood staring at the door trying to will him to return for a long time before I gave up and cleared the dishes from the table. By the time I climbed into my bed, I still didn't have a clear understanding of what had happened, but I knew that I wasn't going to give up on my story or on Linc Redding – however, I wasn't sure if he would give up on me.
#
When I walked into the newsroom the next morning, I was determined to use the information given me to try and trace the shooter's identity back to Davis Russo. I knew that if the shooter had come from Richmond, it would be difficult for him to cover all of his tracks, so I was determined to start at the end and trace the shooter's path backwards to the beginning point.
Carl looked up from his computer when I tossed my purse on my desk and began rooting through the files I'd been accumulating in a box on the floor. I pulled out all of the clippings I'd saved over the past week and began spreading them out on my desk.
"Whatcha doing, Liv?" he asked.
"I've got an idea about how the shooter might be connected to Russo," I said as I began lining up the headlines in chronological order. Most were the same bits of news repeated over and over, but the Washington Post article had a little extra information in its summary that noted the shooter was wearing a jacket that had been connected to a group of survivalists who called themselves the Blacksburg American Revolutionaries. I made note of this information and pulled up what I could find on the group.
They'd been formed in 1974 when war protestors were rising up and calling on citizens to lay down their weapons in order to end the war in Vietnam once and for all. In Richmond, a group of concerned, white citizens had rallied to ensure that the "commie-lovers" and hippies wouldn't interfere with their right to own weapons. There had been some skirmishes, and several protestors had been involved in brawls, but mostly it had been peaceful protests until May of 1975 when protestors had marched to the Virginia Capitol and demanded that the governor call for a laying down of arms. Protestors and the BAR had clashed and three people had been shot. The shooter had been identified as Beau Danford, a college student from Blacksburg. The article went on to say that the charges had been lowered to accidental discharge of a weapon and that Danford had been released with a warning on his record. There was no further mention of Beau Danford in any of the BAR history, and when I searched for him online, it was as if he'd disappeared into thin air.
"What's the theory, Liv?" Carl asked as he got up from his chair and walked over to my desk. When he didn't get a response, he put his hand on my shoulder and prompted, "Liv?"
"Jesus, Carl!" I shouted as I jumped in my chair.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, but you weren't responding," he said as he patted my arm.
"Carl, I think there is something fishy going on here," I said as I pointed to the computer screen where I'd enlarged a black and white picture from the 1970s taken from the BAR organization’s homepage and made note of a man who looked an awful lot like a young Larry Bangor stood holding a gun as he raised a fist in the air. "Who does that look like to you?"
"Hmmm, I wouldn't swear to it in court, but it looks kind of like Senator Bangor, just with hair," he said as he leaned in to get a better look. "Any names on the picture?"
"No, but I think you're right," I said as I enlarged the picture again. "Can you tell who is standing to his right?"
"Nope, the face is obscured," he said shaking his head. "But the guy on his left looks like one of those snake-oil salesmen from Western movies, doesn't he?"
"It does," I nodded as I quickly did an image search in the Blacksburg newspaper archives in an attempt to try and identify the pictures. The search yielded two blurry photos, one of which was definitely a picture of the same group of men standing on a stage with a sign behind them that read, “BAR: Promoting Second Amendment Rights of All Citizens.”
Again, the man to the right of what we thought was Bangor, was looking away from the camera, so he wasn't immediately identifiable. However, in this photo, all of the men were holding guns and the mystery man held a gun that had what looked like a mark made by a branding iron in the shape of a circle on the stock. I couldn't read what it said because the picture was too blurry, but there was no question that the distinct mark was on that gun.
"Carl, can you read that?" I asked as I pulled the sheet of paper off the printer and handed it to him.
"No
pe, but it looks like a circle with a star in the center or something sort of similar to a star," he said.
As I took the paper back from Carl, I heard a reporter across the room say, "Oh, crap," then yell, "Someone turn up the volume on the television!"
As the sound came up, we heard a local reporter saying, "Here at the D.C. Police Department Headquarters, detectives are stumped by their inability to identify the man who, one week ago, went on a shooting spree at the Capitol, killing three senators and wounding two others. Today, investigators say that they've been joined by the FBI as they work around the clock to identify the shooter, but have come up empty handed since there are no identifying fingerprints or DNA in the local or national systems. They are putting out a call to local communities to step forth and identify this man seen on your screen. He is believed to be in his late fifties or early sixties, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a small tattoo on his upper calf in the shape of a star inside a circle. Anyone with any information is urged to call the number at the bottom of your screen and give the police any information, no matter how trivial you think it might be. Reporting live from the Washington D.C., this is Mandy Banks live with Action News."
Carl and I looked at each other, and then back at the piece of paper I held in my hand.
"I'd better start calling around and finding out what the BAR was all about and whether their logo was a star inside a circle, don't you think?" I said with a grin.
"If I were you, I'd call the D.C. police and clue them in on the information, too," Carl said, giving me a stern look.
"If I do that, then we won't get the scoop, and Frank will be pissed that I gave away a chance to save the paper," I said, returning his stern look with one of my own.
"I'm just saying, it's not good for you to inhibit a murder investigation, Liv," he said, shaking his head, knowing that I was going to do whatever it was I was going to do, the police be damned.
"I’ll let them know, but I'm going to make darn sure that the story is solid before I do," I said, turning back to my desk and typing in the information I had. I'd search our archives and those of the Post to see what I could come up with on the BAR.
"Liv, you've been down this road before," Carl warned. "Don't you think you should learn from your mistakes?"
"Forty-eight hours, Carl," I said holding up my hand to stop him from saying anything else. "Forty-eight hours and then I'll go to the police."
"All right, but don't come crying to me when you find yourself in hot water," he sighed, shaking his head.
"I won't, I promise," I said as I turned my attention to my computer screen and began searching for Beau Danford.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Linc
I was incredibly angry with Olivia when I left her place, but I was also frustrated with myself, because no matter how I felt about what she was doing, it was clear that I still wanted her. I wasn't sure how I was going to find a way to make peace with that, but by the next morning, I'd decided that turnabout was fair play and that if she was going to ask me for favors regarding Russo, then I'd ask her for help ensuring that HR 8212 got enough attention to have a fighting chance of being passed.
I called Mo on my way into the office, but got her voicemail, so I left a message asking if she would be free for dinner and left her a time and place to meet if she was. When I got to the office, I found out that Brant hadn't yet arrived, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and got to work making calls to senators who I thought might support the gun safety bill. We still had three days before the bill came up for a vote, so I wanted to use every moment possible to garner votes.
After the fifth call, I started feeling discouraged as senator after senator either indicated that they weren't going to support the bill or outright refused to take my call. I got up to see if Brant had arrived and found him sitting at his desk staring off into space, looking unlike himself.
"What's up, Pace?" I said as I walked in and sat down.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," he said shaking his head as if clearing a thought from his mind. "Nothing, what?"
"What's going on? You look like you were miles away," I said as I propped my feet up on his desk and leaned back. This habit had always irritated him, but today he acted like he hadn't noticed.
"Just thinking about something." He looked at me and smiled a weary smile before he said, "Get your damn feet off my desk, Linc."
"Ah, good, you're not completely gone," I grinned as I removed my feet and sat up. "I'm not getting support for the bill. Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Yeah, I think I do," he nodded as he pulled out a copy of the Washington Post and pointed to a small article on the front page below the fold. The headline read, "Gun Safety Senator Caught in Political Wedge: Support for Bill Weakens."
"What the hell is this?" I shouted. "Who wrote this?"
"It's Bangor; he's in trouble with the party, but the article doesn't say why. It just hints at the possibility that he's going to be ousted from the top seat because of party disagreements," he said as he slapped the paper on the desk. "If he's pushed out, then we're screwed for sure, and if that happens, then the Chinese are definitely not going to sign the deal with us."
"Dammit, Brant!" I shouted as I slammed my fist against the desk. "We cannot lose this bill because Bangor is a moron!"
"Linc, I hate to tell you this, but I think we lost the bill when that anonymous guy shot our support to death outside the Capitol," Brant said running a hand over his chin and then rubbing his eyes. "We're not going to win this one, buddy."
"We can’t lose!" I yelled as I paced the floor running my hand through my hair and trying to think of a way to save this sinking ship. "We have not spent all this time developing technology that could save people's lives only to lose the chance to implement it because of some moron who shot up the Capitol!"
"Linc, calm down, would you?" he said as he stood up and came around from behind his desk. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. "We're going to get enough votes to pass the bill, trust me."
"You don't know that!" I shouted as I wrenched myself out of his grasp and stormed over to the window. I slammed my fists into the glass, shaking it in its frame. "Dammit, Pace, we've worked too hard on this project for too long to let it die now! I'm not going to let it die!"
"Linc, we're going to be fine," he said as he stood next to me and rested a hand on my shoulder. "I know how important this is to you. It's important to me, too."
Unable to speak, I simply nodded and then turned and walked out of the room. I knew Brant was more than well aware of the reasons why this setback was so upsetting, and I trusted him when he said we'd find a way to keep the bill from dying in the Senate. I knew that he understood that if the bill died, I'd feel like I'd failed my parents, and after fifteen years of trying to avenge their deaths, I wasn't ready to fail at the last moment.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Olivia
Linc's secretary led me into his office and asked me if I'd like something to drink. I declined, and she quickly left to go find her boss. I looked around the office while I waited and it dawned on me that this environment, as beautiful as it was, was also rather sterile. There were no mementoes or pictures of family and friends anywhere in the office. I thought that rather strange, and as I looked out of the window that overlooked the Potomac, I wondered why that was.
"Ms. Moore, it's good of you to drop by," Linc said as he walked into the office. I turned and inhaled sharply as I saw him walking toward me. He was more handsome than I remembered, and every time I saw him anew, I was surprised by his good looks. "What can I do for you?"
"Linc, listen to me," I said as I turned and met him half way across the floor. "I've found evidence that I think proves Bangor and Russo were part of a group that, at one time, were aiming to overthrow the government."
"That's insane," he said with a dismissive nod. "Bangor is a senator who has been in Congress for over twenty years and Russo, although an idiot, is hell bent on preserving c
onstitutional rights. I don't see either one of them as rebels plotting to over throw the government. Try again."
I knew he was mad at me for hurting his feelings the night before and I also knew that if I was going to be able to help him and help the paper, I was going to have to swallow my pride and meet him more than half way.
"Linc, listen to me," I said as I moved closer and reached out to rest a hand on his chest. "I'm sorry about last night. I know you had good intentions and I know you thought that I was just trying to use you, but I wasn't."
"Humph." He looked at me, then looked away.
"I'm not using you, I'm trying to help," I said softly. "I'm also struggling mightily with what to do with all the things I'm feeling."
"What do you mean?" he asked as he looked down at me. The veil of defense in his eyes lowered a little bit as he stared at me.
"I mean, I don't know what to do with you," I said as I moved closer and rested both palms on his chest. "I've got a job to do, but I also have feelings for you. And you make it so difficult for me any time you're anywhere near me..."
"I make it difficult for you?" he asked as though he hadn't heard me properly.
"You make it hard for me to breathe," I said as I leaned against him running my hands up to cup his face. "I don't know what to do with all of the things I feel when I'm near you. I want you more than I've ever wanted anyone, and yet I also feel afraid of what that means, so I feel it and then I feel like I need to run away. It's confusing."
"You can say that again," he muttered as I stroked his cheeks and then tilted his face down so I could look him in the eye.
"I want you; you can believe me when I say that," I whispered as I felt him wrapping his arms around my waist. "I want to feel you pressed against me, kissing me, inside of me as we move against one another-"
Linc bent his head and cut me off with his lips. I could feel the need in his kiss and I reciprocated as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me. I trailed my tongue across his lips as I teased his mouth open and then felt his tongue pressing against mine while his hands gripped my bottom and pulled me tightly against his body.