So many problems in this city.
"I'll do my best," I tell her.
She smiles and then slips into the car waiting for her on the curb. The car drives away and into the night. I watch it disappear through the city, admiring the lights of the cars and buildings in the distance. Soon, another car comes to pick me up. And it's off to the senator's office at last.
Chapter 31:The Meeting
The car pulls up on the east side of the capitol building. The driver asks if I'll be okay in the cold. He notices that I'm only wearing a jacket. No hat, no gloves. I probably look like a tired mess with frizzy hair, dark circles under my eyes, the weight of the world shoving down on my shoulder. But I tell him I'll be fine. I've been here before. I've done this before.
I step out of the car into the night. It's bitterly cold and frigid. The wind moves like breath. It whips across my body and, for the briefest second, I feel like my body is going to turn to ice and shatter like glass. I move forward toward the steps and climb them to the top of the capitol building. My thighs burn as I ascend the stairs. When I'm at the top, I turn around and gaze back at the city beyond. The Washington Monument glows like the moon. It's a symbol of where we've been.
I walk to the door of the capitol and pull. The door creaks with age as it opens and allows me to enter. I slide inside and close it gently behind me. An exceptional amount of warmth washes over me. My flushed-red face is more noticeable now. I can't believe I was out there in the numbingly frigid weather. I'm glad we're doing this meeting here inside the capitol.
I take two steps into the main lobby with its checkered floor when I see Ben waiting there for me. He's wearing his gray slacks and a black North Face jacket. The statues that mark the outside of the floor watch us with concern. And they should. They have no idea where our country is now and where it's going. They have no clue that we're about to have a conversation that is much different than the world we originally imagined.
"It's so late," Ben says.
I shrug. "Or early, depending on how you look at it."
"Always the optimist."
I collide into him for a hug. We stand there holding each for a few seconds. It feels good to have him in my arms again. I miss the way we spent time together. I miss joking around with him in the early Sunday morning hours. I miss the way he nuzzled up beside me when we laid in bed after a deep sleep. I miss the way he cooked eggs. I miss the way he always tried to make my mornings better.
If we survive this, if we survive tonight, then we will find our way back. Or at least I hope we will. I hope we find a way to get our relationship back to where it was.
Life has been better with Ben. I hope he'll continue to follow me onto the ends of the earth. What we're about to do will change everything.
"Is she here?" I finally ask.
He nods. "She's here. But she wants to talk outside."
"Outside?"
"She doesn't want anyone to know this meeting happened. You know she can be."
"That's why she met me at my room and then at her headquarters."
"Yeah. Exactly."
I grunt heavily and sigh like a brat. I don't want to stand outside in the cold and deal with all of this crap. It just means my mind is going to be all kinds of frazzled now that I have to mind the harsh weather. Whatever. I've gone through a lot worse, right?
I turn around and head toward the door. Ben follows me. We walk outside into the night. I immediately walk to the edge of the staircase and look out at the shining Monument building so far away. Maybe we should go back over there. Finish all of this where it started just a few nights ago.
"She'll be out any second," he says. Ben shoves his hands in his pocket and hops up and down. "So Minny told you everything, huh?"
"She did."
"Crazy. I can't believe that would happen in our country."
"Ben, I should tell you something."
"Yeah?"
"Minny told me everything that happened to her. Well, almost everything. And she told me what really happened to Kayleigh. But I had my own theory for awhile. For the longest time, I thought it was the senator who killed Kayleigh."
"You what?"
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to get upset, you know? I just wanted you to be as away from this as possible. But then she threatened to have you fired, or killed, or thrown in jail if I didn't stay away."
He stands with his mouth agape, unsure of how to respond. This was probably the last moment in time to tell him about my original thoughts. He deserved to know at a better point in time. But we're way past that point now. So much has happened and so much is about to happen that all bets are off.
"So you thought it was the senator, and you didn't tell me?"
"Right."
"And then when the senator asked you to stay away so that I would be okay, you kept digging anyway?"
Shamefully, I nod.
Ben smirks and puts his arm around me. He pulls me in close and then kisses me on the top of the head. "Good. I wouldn't have it any other way."
I smile and nuzzle my nose into his shoulder. How good it feels to be with a man who cares for you just as much as you care for him. The road to recovery has unraveled before us. We can rebuild this relationship. We can start over fresh and begin anew. And I am as excited as ever to get to that point and bring us back to where we were before.
Footsteps clap against the marble floor of the capitol's walkway. We both turned around to see the senator walking toward us in a black peacoat. Her hair waves in the wind. Her hands are stuffed in her pockets. Her face is one of concern. She doesn't want to be out here anymore than I do. And yet here we are. Outdoors at a national cornerstone, talking about the fate of our country.
"This couldn't have waited until morning?" Simmons asks.
I shake my head. "No, I had to see you tonight before President Hicks gives her speech tomorrow about the shutdown."
"You've been ignoring me then," she says. "I asked you to stay away, and I asked you to stop digging. Sounds like you did more digging."
"I have."
"And what did you find? Please tell me you found more evidence to put against me. I mean, you've done a great job of that so far." Her words are snarky and sharp. Even at such a late hour she's stabbing with me words. Once again she tries to stab me from the front.
"For the longest time, I thought you were the killer. I swear I saw you that night, drowning Kayleigh in the national pool. And then you told me you did it. And then you told me why you did it. And I wad convinced, one hundred percent convinced, that you did this and you were trying to pass tech regulation through by any means necessary, and that you didn't want Kayleigh to testify in the court hearings."
"I know that. Keep it moving girl. It's too cold for your soliloquies."
"I know you didn't do it."
She doesn't respond and instead focuses her eyes intently on me. She wears the same look that a poker player might wear when they''re deciding if you're bluffing or not. Our eyes meet and we stare each other down. Neither of us will budge on this. And I know I won't. The evidence I have is too damning.
"What are you talking about?" Simmons asks at last.
"I know what happened, and I know how it happened. I know how it all went down. I connected everything. And I know you didn't kill Kayleigh."
"And what gives you that impression?"
"She was poisoned."
"I could have poisoned her," she says. "I could have served her a glass of poisoned juice and then dragged her out to the capitol and murdered her right there under the stars. I could have done that."
"But you didn't."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Senator, all due respect, but I don't believe your story anymore. I don't believe that you killed her. I don't buy your threats. None of it. I know the truth."
"And what truth do you know, Ms. Gardner?"
"I know that the president put you up to it."
Once a
gain she freezes right where she stands. She has nothing to add, nothing to say, because she knows what I know -- the truth. She knows that I have figured everything out, and that I know what really happened to her. But that means I also know what problems are going to unfold on us. It means I know the weight and gravity of the situation, which can't go unnoticed.
"Again, I don't know what you mean."
"Do I need to spell it out for you? I know what happened."
I reach down into my laptop bag and slip out the thin stack of papers that I threw in there before I left the hotel. It's the article we wrote. All 3,000 words of what really happened.
"I have it all right here."
"It's fiction," she says. "Fiction and fake news. All of this. None of this is true."
"Do you want to know what it says?"
"It's all false."
Ben steps forward, and I finally remember that he is here with us. "I'd love to know what it says."
"Thank you, Ben."
I clear my throat and open up the pages. I move back to the lede of the story and focus on that for now.
"Senator Joan Simmons is the victim of a conspiracy plot staged by President Hicks to reshape our government, the census bureau, and the tech industry in one full swoop, a recent investigation as learned."
When the words don't do the story enough justice, I hold the papers closer to the side of my legs and stare at her again.
"I know what happened to you," I say. "I know what happened and how it all happened."
"Explain," Ben says. The way he says it tells me that he's worried now, and he genuinely wants to know what I know. He wants to know about the woman he's been working for and what mess he's been thrown into. Heck, he was thrown into jail for this very sort. This is as much a confession and report on what happened to the senator and what happened to Ben.
"President Hicks was thinking ahead to the 2020 election a few months ago. She was thinking about ways where she could get a leg up on her competition because the new competition would be fierce. I mean, she was our first-ever woman president, and so she knew there'd be more women in the field, more diversity. You name it, she knew it would come for her office. So she thought the best way was to corral a bunch of data on everyone and everything. She wanted data on who the typical voter was so that she could target them, which isn't unheard of. Politicians use data all of the time for this stuff. Politicians are always looking at poll numbers and information to help them gain a leg up on their competition."
I begin to walk back and forth along the top of the steps, finding the groove of the story. I need to keep warm. My face is already beginning to numb from the cold temperatures.
"So the president, wielding a strong amount of power that few others can hold, reached out to Up Sync and New Surge, two groups who had been underground lobbyists for the longest time. They had previously owned partisan fake news websites that aimed to put certain people in power. They were always looking for ways to influence politics. So she set up a meeting between UpSync and members of the U.S. Government. And you, Senator Simmons, were among them, weren't you?"
Her silence tells me I'm right. She looks away toward the distance.
"I heard that someone of your frame and your build was there, and it turns out you were. But you didn't know what the president was doing. You thought the meeting was to help settle some tech regulation bureaucracy because you were trying to get that stuff passed through. And most of that meeting was about all of that stuff, right?"
The senator shakes her head. She doesn't deny what I'm saying. She shakes her head because she hates what I'm telling her. She hated that she's reliving this entire experience again.
"Come on, senator. You know what I'm talking about. You were fine with everything and then the CEO of the company told you that he would agree to work with the government on all capacities. You two shook hands. And, in the eyes of the president, the deal was made."
"I didn't know," she finally says. "I don't know that's what they were doing. I didn't know she had set something up behind my back."
"Bingo. See, Ben, since you're probably a little confused at this point, the president had sent UpSync a secure email with the plans of the entire operation. She would send representatives, the CEO would shake their hands, and, by proxy, a deal would be made between them. We have the evidence right here."
I sift through the stack of papers and pull it out to show them both. It's the same paper that Minny showed me inside the Starbucks earlier today. Jeez. That was still today? Ugh. This might be the longest day of my life.
"From there, everything seemed fine. The president was going to get away with it, wasn't she? She would go on her merry way, UpSync and New Surge would send all of the data they had, and she would coast to a new election. But one person did know about ti. Kayleigh."
"Kayleigh?" Ben asks.
"Yep. See, the CEO of UpSync needed a way to make sure the deal happened quietly. So he asked Kayleigh to help set it up. She organized it so that there were backup servers and backup folders that connected to the government's servers. Basically, she helped create a funnel from one side to the other. And because the government deals with secure codes, she learned soon enough it was the government she was working with."
"But how?" Ben asks. "How did she learn about all of this but never say anything about it."
The senator steps in. "They threatened her. They told her that if she spoke anything about this, then she would wind up swimming in the Potomac and that would be the end of it. I'm not sure if they were being serious, but it's what they thought."
"Exactly," I say. "And everything was fine because Kayleigh didn't want to talk. Well, until she did start talking to her sister Tiffany. She told Tiffany everything. But still, it's just her sister right? What can be so bad about that? Well, then, suddenly, Kayleigh's name gets added to the Senate Intelligence Committee's list of interviews. Suddenly they want to talk to her. So reporters start sniffing around for information. And it's a Scribe reporter named Minny Swensen who hears about it. She confronts Kayleigh. And eventually Kayleigh opens up. She explains everything that happened. On the record."
I lift up another paper. It's the transcript of Kayleigh's words. It's not perfect since we used an AI program that alleges it can hear the words spoken in an audio file, but it's good enough for now. It's more of a prop than anything else.
"I'm so confused," Ben says. "Did they murder her because she started talking?"
"That's part of it."
"But how did that happen?"
My eyes tick over to the senator. She's lost in thought. Two or three tears have drifted down her cheeks. She's nowhere near sane after everything I've described. But she hasn't flat-out denied any of it, which means our reporting is true and accurate. She shoves her hands into her pocket and begins to walk around again.
"I thought for the longest time that I saw you there at the monument. Your tall, lanky build. All of it. It just made too much sense. And I was supposed to think that, wasn't I? The president did that, didn't she? The president made it so that if anyone saw you, then they would think it was you."
She nods. It's a subtle and gentle nod, but a nod nonetheless. Bingo.
But her confirmation terrifies me. It means that the president organized the murder and death of Kayleigh Donnowho and then framed a U.S. Senator for it. It means that the president was so obsessed with winning her reelection that she would go as far as to blame a senator to keep them out of trouble.
I shake my head in dismay at what we all just learned here. This isn't the country I thought it was. Technology has pushed people to the point where they're willing to rig elections in their favor. The government is willing to cut deals with companies that can make them win their competitions and stay in power.
All of this is sickening, and it makes me so mad. These are problems that could plague the country forever. Not just this week. Not just for a shutdown or a tech regulations bill. But for everything. All the time
and work and effort we put into building this democratic nation is undone within minutes from one president's decision.
Ben clears his throat. "But, why did you go along with it?" He walks closer to his boss. "And why send me to jail over it."
I want to answer for her, but I know I can't. I've done enough on my end to get us to this point. I've done enough to put us in a place where she can feel open to talk about it. Only after we expose the president for what happened can this all go away. And we need the senator on our side to get to that point.
She shakes her head. And, fighting back tears, she decides to answer. "I don't know," she says. "I wanted this new tech bill passed so much, but they wouldn't do it, they would sign it, unless I helped them with this."
Ben runs his hands through his curly hair and paces away from us. "This is crazy."
"But it's true, Ben," I say. "It's true. And we need to act on it now. Because we're running out of time. Soon, it'll be too late to do anything about it."
Chapter 32: The Agreement
Ben, the senator and I stand on the capitol's top step. We're about ten feet away from the door. The night is airy and cold. The faintest hints of the sun have poked their way up from beyond the horizon. We're drifting closer and closer towards the morning time. I could fall asleep so easily right now if I could find myself a bed. Really that's all I want right now. Just somewhere to sleep, somewhere to nod off, somewhere to reset.
It'll be nice to wake up when all of this is over and I no longer have to report not his crap and dig around for more info. I just want it all to stop so I can get back to doing what I really love.
Sometimes reporting on true crime brings you down some weird roads. I have a boatload of stories you can read about that. Sometimes talking about murder and death and blood can be horrific and gross. But it's what I love to do. This kind of true crime, with senators and presidents and tech deals, isn't something I want to involve myself in anymore. I did what I had to do. I found my way to the end of this story.
But now I want to move on.
Into the Night Page 23