Raven: A political thriller (10 page)

Chapter 16

 
After what
happened at the hospital and talking to the attending physician, it was clear
the Senator did not succumb to the bullet wound he sustained. Best that could
be determined was he was injected with an arterial air embolism which caused a
heart attack, but it wasn’t official and the best Don could hope for was Monday
morning for that report. Until then he would have to lay low. His only hope was
that no one had him on their radar and that Raven would be safe where she was.

Don hurried out of the hospital but got hung up in
heavy traffic. His biggest fear was that Raven would hear about the Senator’s
death on the radio and call her friend to offer her condolences. At this point
he didn’t know if anyone was listening in on the Senator’s home phone. He
didn’t need them tracing any calls to his phone.

Once Don got to Maggie’s house he quickly parked the
squad, and when he saw the front door slightly ajar, his heart raced thinking
about what just happened at the hospital. A part of him told him there was no
way for anyone to know Raven was here, but then his cop instinct took hold. A
cop posted outside the Senator’s hospital room door wasn’t enough to stop them
from going in after the Senator a third time to finish the job.

Don’s biggest fear was that whoever was behind this
might be going after everyone involved to clean up loose ends. He didn’t need
his mother getting caught up in this case.

Slowly, Don climbed up the steps while he
unholstered his gun. Once he got to the door he stood there for the longest
time listening. He slowly opened the door with his foot and then slid silently
in. The television was on, which made it difficult to focus on any other noise
in the house. Don’s heart was in overdrive throughout this whole process. The
perspiration dripped off his forehead, not knowing what he brought down on his
mother. He would never forgive himself if anything ever happened to her because
of a stupid case he was on. For an instant he regretted his actions of last
night, but it had seemed his only course of action at that point in time.

Don kept close to the wall as he slowly maneuvered
into the kitchen, and, when he turned the corner and looked in, he was relieved
there were no bodies on the floor. What puzzled him was that the backdoor was
wide open, something Maggie never did. He rushed over to the door and, as he
stood in the doorway, he came face-to-face with Maggie and Raven as they walked
up the porch steps.

Maggie was shocked to see Don with gun drawn. She
screamed and dropped the basket of tomatoes from the hothouse out back. Raven
just stared at Don in disbelief.

“Lord Jesus! What’s gotten into you?” Maggie yelled
at Don in disbelief.

All Don could do was lean against the house as he
also was in shock and out of breath by what he had just done. Slowly he lowered
his gun and struggled to breathe again. In all his years as a cop he’d never
once pulled a gun on his mother.

“The front door wasn’t closed. I thought?” Don
started to say but Maggie cut him off.

“The mailman came with a package. I must not have
closed it tight,” Maggie replied, curious why a simple thing like a door ajar
would prompt her son to draw his gun like that.

Maggie bent down to help Raven pick up the tomatoes,
then she turned back to Don.

“What’s this really about?” Maggie asked.

Don had a guilty look on his face as both women
stared up at him and waited for his answer. It took Don a while to say the
words.

“Senator Maxfield is dead.”

Raven collapsed on the steps as she put her hands to
her face. “Oh my God!” she cried.

Don reached down for her. “I’m taking you with me.
It’s the only way I’ll know you are safe from now on.”

Raven attempted to get up but then collapsed again.
She appeared somewhat white in the face. “Nothing makes sense. I have to talk
to Ellen. She needs me.”

Don reached down and grabbed Raven by the arm and
helped her up.

“There were already too many people who know you’re
still alive. We don’t need more.”

“But,” she tried to say.

Don cut her off quickly. “No buts about it. Get your
things. We’re leaving.”

Maggie said nothing. From the moment Don stepped
through the door with Raven at his side, she knew there was something special
about this woman. She did not know to what extent his concern for her was. It
might have had something to do with his recent breakup with Jackie. But somehow
she didn’t think it was that. There was something different about Raven. Maggie
liked her too. She seemed unlike the other woman that Don always brought home.
Raven seemed normal.

Slowly, Maggie put the last of the tomatoes in the
basket, and then she finally looked up at Don.

“We were going to make a batch of chili for you, the
way you like it,” Maggie said.

Don just laughed. “You two can play happy homemaker
another time.”

Maggie quickly turned to Raven. “Do promise to come
back.”

Raven glanced up at Don. She noticed the concern on
his face and knew she better follow his orders, but it angered her that she
seemed to have no control anymore. She was caught up in a tidal wave of despair
ever since Willie confided in her about his investigation. Yet he didn’t share
pertinent details, which angered her now, because it might be all for naught in
the end. She was fuming that whoever did this might get away with it because of
his naivety in dealing with these people.

“I’ll come back,” she said, hoping that it was the
truth. And then she glanced up at Don. “I can’t keep going like this,” she
snapped.

“You have no choice. We’re leaving now.”

Don wasn’t so sure that what he was doing was best.
All he knew was that Raven had to be at his side. He was trusting no one to
keep her safe. It bothered him that he’d left her alone with his mother.
Because there was no telling what kind of danger he put his mother in because
of that.

Don might have to bring Raven back, but for now she
was not leaving his side.

Chapter 17

Don followed Raven out of the house. He stared at
her for the longest time and was so relieved she was okay he could hardly
control himself. Don couldn’t tell her that. It was his duty to keep his
distance. It was not appropriate for him to get involved in someone pertinent
to a case he was officially working on.

Suddenly Raven turned to Don. She looked up at him
with a look that he knew was not going to be good.

“That was rude of you—what you did back there with
your mother,” Raven snapped.

Don honestly felt guilty for what he said. He took a
deep breath and then frowned.

“I’m sorry, but there’s a whole lot of trouble
coming down. And I get a little edgy when people start shooting at me and I
haven’t a clue.”

“Well it’s not my fault,” Raven snapped.

She honestly didn’t know what Don’s problem was.
There was no reason for him to be mad at his mother, or her, for that matter.
She had no control over what happened to his partner or Willie. All she ever
did was her job. She was angry now that Willie wasn’t more upfront with her
about what he was checking into.

Don turned to her and pointed an accusing finger at
her. “You and Maxfield stirred up a hornets’ nest, for sure!”

“All he was looking into was campaign finances. Who
kills over that?”

Don seemed puzzled for a moment. “I thought that was
a dead issue.”

“Everyone would like to think it was,” Raven said.

She knew Willie would not be happy with her for
telling a cop what he was working on but, given he no longer was alive, it
didn’t matter anymore.

“So what was his angle to keep it alive?”

“He’d been tracking various senators,” Raven said as
she walked up to Don’s car, and then she looked over at him before he got in
the squad and quickly said, “Policing the Senate, so to speak.”

“That must have been well received.”

Raven got into the squad and then slammed the door
shut. “The president gave his blessing, that’s all I know.”

“So, basically, he was getting the dirt on the
opposition.”

“No, not really,” Raven said. “Names were put in a
hat, so the investigation was random. Willie had been working on it for almost
two years. He was putting together his final report.”

“Someone didn’t want it to surface.”

Raven shrugged as she buckled her seatbelt and then
turned to Don. “Looks that way.”

“Do you have a list of senators who were under
investigation?”

Raven just shook her head. “Willie had the list. All
I ever saw were numbers. I think the names are on the flash drive you have.”

“Is that what’s on it?” Don asked.

“You don’t understand the information on it, do
you?” Raven asked as she looked curiously at Don.

“It is in a cryptic code, that’s all I know,” Don
said as he pulled into traffic.

“Willie was into things like that,” Raven said as
she stared out the window at the house of Don’s mother. She liked Maggie and,
after listening to her talk about her son all morning, Raven knew that she
could trust him to do what was best for her. She continued to stare out the
window wondering where they were going now.

Don turned to Raven. “Were there any other copies?”
he asked.

“I’m not really sure, but I think so. I think he
might have left one at my father’s cottage. He made a few copies before his
laptop was destroyed. I think for safe-keeping he hid one in my father’s desk.”

“Sure seemed like a lot of cloak and dagger for a
few men dipping their hands in the kitty.”

Raven turned to Don and laughed, shaking her head.

“Those PAC funds run into the billions. It’s an
industry that isn’t very well regulated when you consider the number of
campaigns around the country,” Raven said but then stopped while she just shut
her eyes.

“Yeah, but you’re also talking about a lot of mom
and pop operations that are run on a shoestring.”

“Whenever you have money that flows free, you have
corruption,” Raven said with a voice of authority.

“Aren’t laws in place to limit the contributions?”
Don asked.

“Willie wasn’t investigating that aspect.”

“What other aspect is there?” Don asked as he
stopped for a red light. He turned and stared at Raven.

He knew if he was going to get to the bottom of this
he would have to have a long talk with Raven, and being distracted by traffic
was annoying him. Once the light turned green, he pulled forward and then drove
to a neighborhood park where he used to play as a youth.

Once he parked the car, he turned to Raven. “Now
tell me about it.”

Raven looked nervous. She thought a moment and then
turned to Don. “He came across a trend where money was being transferred out of
campaign accounts. It had something to do with Super PACs. That’s as much as
he’d tell me.”

It was hard to trust anyone after the last
seventy-eight hours, but for some reason she felt Don could be trusted. He
seemed to care. Not just about the case, but he seemed to genuinely care about
what happened to her.

Raven glanced out the window at the people enjoying
a beautiful Saturday morning in the park with no worries about world events.
She wished desperately to be one of them but knew that was not to be. Raven
then opened her purse and took out her checkbook. From the back slot she pulled
out a sheet of paper and handed it to Don. It was time that a stop was put to
all of this, and if turning over all the information she had helped bring it to
a head, then so be it. Willie was not around to see this through. She only
hoped that there was enough information on the flash drive for someone to
decipher what he uncovered. It was her only way of making this right.

Don stared at the slip of paper and then looked over
at her. “What’s this?”

“Willie told me to hang on to this for him,” she
said and then took a deep breath before continuing, “In case the macro he
created didn’t work.”

Don whistled. “He knew what he was doing.”

“Willie was great at coding things.”

“Let me get his straight,” Don said, tapping his
fingers on the steering wheel. “He was investigating people from his own party
along with others.”

“Yes, it was nonpartisan. These were high-level
players in Washington who always seemed to fly under the radar. You don’t enter
politics poor with a lot of debt hanging over your head and leave a millionaire
without some eyebrows being raised.

“He must have been loved by his fellow senators.”

“Willie had a strong sense about right and wrong. He
didn’t care what they thought, especially if they were doing something
illegal.”

“My kind of guy,” Don said.

“From what he told me, there was a fine line in
what’s legal and what’s not legal up on the Hill.”

“That still doesn’t explain why they were after
you.” Don reached over and pulled out the tape from the glove box. He put it in
the tape player. “This is from your answering machine. Tell me if you recognize
any of these voices.”

They listened to the message from Raven’s mother.
All Raven did after listening to it was laugh. “That one is obvious,” she said,
rolling her eyes.

After listening to the second message left by her
mother, Raven just turned to Don and raised her eyebrows while she shrugged.
She then turned and glanced out the car window and listened to the next one.
“The work was under warranty, love the car. See you soon.”

Raven turned to Don. “That’s my friend Cathy. We
switched cars.” Before she could continue, Raven’s mother’s message started to
play. “Leave it to parents,” she said as an excuse for her overprotective
parents.

It was when the next message played that Raven
suddenly put her hand over her month. “If you don’t leave him alone, you’re
dead.” Raven’s eyes widened but she also seemed puzzled.

Don turned to Raven quickly and pressed the pause
button on the tape player for a moment.

“Do you recognize the voice?” Don asked in a way he
wasn’t sure he would like the answer.”

“I’m not sure. It almost sounds like David
Sinclair’s wife,” Raven said with a strange look on her face. “But that doesn’t
make sense.”

Don put his cop cap on now. A part of him wanted to
believe Raven, but then there was that side that told him not to trust anyone.
His partner was in the hospital and had almost been killed last night because
of this case. He stared at Raven for a hint she was playing him.

“Why would she want you to leave her husband alone?”
Don had to ask, and in the end feared what the answer would be because he had
this idealistic picture of who Raven was—and someone messing around with
another woman’s husband wasn’t what he had in mind.

“I don’t know,” Raven said, shaking her head. “Cathy
was having an affair with him. But I thought she broke it off, or at least she
was going to break it off.”

Don had no reason not to believe Raven and was
relieved by her explanation. Her image in his mind was intact, but that didn’t
explain why the message was on Raven’s answering machine. It might well have
been that it was known Cathy was watching Raven’s house. He would have to get
to the bottom of that, and soon.

Don reached over and pressed the play button. They
listened to the next message. Don smirked and then said, “We thought it was the
fly boy who did that to the woman in your car.”

“Tad?” was all Raven said.

“We know now he’s a priest.”

When Raven’s mother came on again, Raven just shook
her head. “Mothers can be so protective.”

“Tell me about it,” Don remarked as he smiled.

“Ever since I moved out, if I don’t call my parents
every day they go in panic mode. Cathy was watching my house. It was my
impression she was going out of town this weekend, I think to finally break it
off with David.”

Don looked puzzled. “So if your friend Cathy was
going out of town with David...” Don started to say but then was interrupted by
the next message. “I warned you.”

Raven appeared puzzled by that message.

Don quickly added, “Why would she think it was you
having the affair with her husband?”

Raven stared at Don for the longest time before
responding. “Cathy was using my car. Maybe Lydia saw Cathy driving my car and
assumed David was having an affair with me,” she said, because she honestly
didn’t know the reason behind the warning.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the calls to your
employer before last week.”

Raven thought a while and then it hit her. Three
weeks ago, when she was supposed to go to that conference with Willie. She
didn’t want to go, so Cathy went in her place. Willie wasn’t happy, but there
wasn’t much for her to do there so he went along with it. Now it all made
sense. Cathy was going to meet up with David Sinclair at the conference. She
had used Raven’s name tag at the conference, and in all actuality people
thought Cathy was her.

She looked at Don. “Cathy did go to a conference in
my place a while back.”

“Did this Lydia know what you looked like?” Don
asked.

Raven thought for a moment and then shrugged. “I
don’t know.”

“So, if David’s wife got wind of what happened at
the conference and saw Cathy in your car, she might feasibly think it was you?”
Don said and then started the engine and sped off down the road.

Raven just shrugged and thought for a moment. “You
put it that way, yeah. But David’s wife hardly seemed the type to get her hands
dirty.”

“It was a shotgun that killed the woman,” Don said.

“Oh my God, what a horrible way to go.”

“So you don’t think David’s wife was capable?” Don
asked.

“I don’t know about that. I do know David and Lydia
shoot skeet, but that’s a far cry from killing a person.”

Don turned to her and snickered. “Can you be certain
she isn’t the type of woman to do what it takes to keep her man?”

He didn’t want to disillusion Raven, but he’d seen
the worst in people through the years. He had seen kindly grandmas poison their
grandchildren, or mothers drown their infants in the bathtub, all in the name
of love. There was a side to human nature that even he couldn’t understand. So
he was hardened to the fact that a woman such as Lydia wouldn’t be capable of
such a horrendous crime.

Raven just shrugged. “She’s high society.”

“So what makes them so special?”

“You’d have to see her to understand what I mean.
Now, David would be another story.”

“You don’t like him?” Don asked.

“Willie hired him, he ran an accounting firm. He’s
what you’d call a mover. He makes things happen.” She said that in a way that
indicated she wasn’t impressed with the guy or his business.

“Sounds like a real jerk,” Don said and then looked
at Raven for her reaction. Don was still a little unsure of Raven. But there
was a side of him that wanted to trust what she said explicitly.

“He always gave me the creeps. I could never see
what Cathy saw in him.”

Raven seemed to clam up after that. She was
digesting the information on the tape, fearing it was a clue as to who killed
her friend. Because, although it was not official, she knew there could only be
one person who it could be, and that was Cathy. She did not want to say it out
loud, but she feared that the cause of her death was her ill-fated affair with
a married man.

 
Don didn’t
actually come out and say it, but it made sense now because Cathy was using
Raven’s car. Was it Raven the murderer was after, or did Cathy get caught up in
some domestic dispute because of her affair with David Sinclair? He was unsure
who the actual target could be. Cathy was staying at Raven’s house, so Lydia
could have gotten the two mixed up and Raven was just caught up in the mess. It
still didn’t explain the Senator’s involvement in all of this.

Don, on the other hand, just let Raven stew on what
they just listened to. He was angry at her attitude toward her friend’s affair
and how nonchalant she was about corruption in politics. He wished she was more
passionate about what was right and what was wrong. He would then have a
clearer picture of who she was.