Lethal Politics Read online

  "I don't understand," Toshiko admitted. As a doctor, she couldn't see how anyone stood to benefit from a death, especially one that could have been avoided.

  "Let's consider for a moment. The favored beneficiary was Mr. Marshall. He wanted to nail the missus as a consequence of their on-going dispute. From the note left at the body in his handwriting, something that has been verified, he had a considerable level of anger built up against Carol. But I think there are questions to consider."

  "Why did he wait so long to act? The two of them had been separated for a number of months, almost half a year I believe."

  "She wasn't around much, and he might not have even known when she was in town," the Vice President suggested.

  The detective nodded as if agreeing. "That's the official explanation in the summary report, but it seems a bit flimsy."

  "Another issue is why he killed her the way he did. Why didn't he simply shoot her in her rental house the way he did in the end? It would have been simpler, more certain, and given what I have learned about the man, probably would have given him a certain satisfaction to have her know what was about to happen."

  "Given that he went for the rifle shot from a distance, an approach that would have more likely fit someone not destined to kill themselves a short time later, why didn't he make certain of his kill? Why a single shot? He certainly wasn't concerned about collateral damage approaching the killing this way. I would have thought it would have made sense to empty the magazine of his semi-automatic rifle. Even when the two women dropped out of sight as the report documents, he would have known where they were located and could have easily sent the remaining rounds through the thin stucco walls and been confident of a couple more strikes. The fact he would have also hit Mrs. Marshall most likely wouldn't have concerned him."

  "Whoever wrote the summary report suggested the style of the execution reflected Marshall's personality," Toshiko noted. "He fancied himself a marksman, one shot - one kill, that sort of thing. To have to shoot more would have tarnished the image he had of himself. Apparently he made weekly trips to the range in the months prior to the killing to hone his skill."

  "Uh-huh, maybe," the detective said. Clearly he wasn't a believer of the official account.

  "Let's for a moment consider who else might benefit from the killing of Mrs. Marshall," Karl suggested. How about the citizens of the United States in general, at least in the mind of a discontented individual. The removal of the candidate would ensure her policies, which aren't shared by her fellow Democrats nor by the President, would be taken out contention. There are people out there who believe such matters are worth killing for."

  "I sense you don't believe your own proposal," Toshiko noted.

  "You are correct," the detective agreed. "It would be hard for a lone gunman to mount a careful attack plan like this one. There are no signs in any of the investigations that such a person was out there. More important there is no chatter, either before or after the killing, hinting at such a plan. The kinds of people that would act on this sort of belief are prone to bragging, even if anonymously, and that doesn't appear to be happening in this instance."

  "So?" Toshiko asked.

  "So, who else would benefit from the shootings? I would suggest that everyone in the current administration that would be expected to lose their position if Mrs. Craig won the election as most everyone expected her to do. That list would include a great many people in the administration, from the President on down."

  "This all seems farfetched," she said. But once again, why me?" she asked. "This was a shocking development, but I was here in Washington, while this all transpired three thousand miles away, and have little knowledge of the affair beyond what was on the news. I didn't even sit in on the formal briefing with the President."

  "I am aware of that," Karl said.

  "Wait!" Toshiko said before the detective could finish his thought. "You think I might know something. You are hoping that I can give you something, however small that might support your theory in someway and give you a direction to head with your investigation. I'm right, aren't I?" she added. "But what could make you believe I might know something that I wouldn't have already passed on to the FBI?"

  The detective smiled again, a Cheshire Cat type of grin, as if caught in the act of something.

  "It has become general knowledge the past couple of months that you are distancing yourself from the administration. The President has replaced you on the ticket, so even if your party wins this November, you will be out as Vice President. Yet, you have not complained in any way. I assume that something has soured you on the current administration, and that is at the heart of your disaffection with the administration.

  Toshiko was shaking her head as the detective finished speaking. "I'm sorry, but the two matters are unrelated. I became Vice President in order to coordinate the medical plan that the President promised and which I believe is essential to the country. Now, in my opinion, the President has lost interest in completing a meaningful plan, and therefore I see no reason to continue to be a party to his politics, especially as I dislike the Washington environment so much. This was a decision I had made before the killing of Mrs. Craig. I know nothing about what happened. I have heard nothing, I have seen nothing. I knew far less about the incident when you walked into my office than I do now. I believe you wasted a visit. I cannot help you."

  "I see," the detective said. "So you can think of nothing that you have seen or overheard that might make you suspicious that the killing was other than it seemed?"

  "My god!" Toshiko said, a realization dawning on her. "You think the President or his staff might somehow be involved."

  "I don't think anything as yet," the detective countered, holding up a hand as if to ward off he accusations, "but you have to admit, the President benefited immensely from the outcome."

  Toshiko was shocked. She'd never considered that the President might condone a murder to maintain his position.

  "Are you certain you aren't simply biased by Mr. Craig's hatred of the President? He never liked President Pilcher, and made it known during his wife's campaigning. After his wife's death he called for him to withdraw from the election given it was clear the country hadn't been planning on electing him again come November."

  The detective shook his head. "I am simply looking for that elusive thread we talked about. But when there is a crime, one always looks to who benefited the most, and while at this point I have no reason to believe the President had anything whatsoever to do with the unfortunate events, he, more than any other single person we have identified, stands to benefit most by the death of Mrs. Craig."

  For some reason the memory of the encounter between the President's girlfriend and the Secret Service agent came to mind. In the course of the investigation she'd learned that the agent was actually an old Texas friend of the President. Could that encounter have meant something other than what she'd suspected? She pushed it aside. Her thoughts were being subverted by the detective's obsession with the matter. It wasn't a thought to be sharing with this detective. It might send him off on a tangent after the President, which could somehow be a factor in how the election played out.

  The detective must have suspected she'd recalled something, as he tapped the card with his information on it which she had laid on the desktop with his name where she could refer to it during their conversation.

  "If anything comes to mind, could you contact me? I'll be looking into this for Mr. Craig until I can confirm the official story or at least put his mind at ease. Mine as well," he grinned.

  "What are you going to do?" she asked, uncertain why she cared. This wasn't something to concern herself with. She had a medical plan that still needed work.

  "Well, since Mr. Marshall is paying me, quite handsomely in fact, and the matter isn't closed to my satisfaction, I'll continue to poke around and see what develops. Maybe I'll sniff out something or find that thread."

  He flashed Toshiko another of his disc
oncerting grins as he stood and prepared to leave.

  "If you recall or hear of anything, anything at all, call me," he insisted, then turned and headed out her door.

  Chapter 19

  Mid October, 2024

  There was little doubt any longer. The election was his. The President grinned happily as he finished tying his tie in preparation for the television talk show appearance a bit later in the morning on which he would be the only guest. What a great opportunity to push his agenda! With less than a month before the citizenry officially cast the deciding ballots, it seemed there was no one that was going to be able to challenge him. They had done it! At least Earl had. The old buzzard was right when he'd said one could get away with murder if you went at it the right way. Their ignoble gamble had paid off, despite several worrisome weeks of appearing like a lost cause, but the eventual elimination of the only real credible threat to his second term was now buried and forgotten. Well, not forgotten, he admitted.

  What mattered most was that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the D.C. Police Department had all formally closed the case, claiming the evidence was clear and that the death of Nancy Craig had been an unfortunate mishap resulting from her secretary's husband murderous attempts on his estranged wife. They claimed there was no evidence of conspiracy or that the death was in any way politically motivated. This had all happened in record time mind you, clearly with the intent of putting down any rumors or conspiracy claims that might affect the smooth implementation of the November elections. Even he, with the incident several busy months behind them, seldom thought about it much any longer. It was happily in the past and best forgotten.

  Not everyone was as pleased with the situation as him. The Democratic leadership continued to complain that he had a moral obligation to step down and withdraw from the election. They pointed out that just a few short weeks ago it was apparent to everyone that he was not the country's choice to continue as President into a second term. Therefore, he should honor that sentiment, and allow the election to go forward to select the next president from candidates that hadn't been so judged by the people. The fact the Republicans had no meaningful running candidate other than himself didn't seem to sway their logic. Take the loss like a man they seemed to be saying. Despite being somewhat uncomfortable with the whole situation, the Republican leadership was hardly on-board for such a foolish action, and even those who hadn't been behind him before, were encouraging his rush to the finish line. Many didn't see him as the future of the party, but with an expected win in sight, they were somewhat unified behind him. After all, in most of their minds what mattered here was who took the prize, by whatever means. If the opposition's lead horse had broken a leg--well, too bad!

  Of course the Democratic string was in more than a little disarray itself. It had been clear before the unfortunate death of their primary candidate that the public was not enthusiastic about the majority of those being offered by the party as a choice. Leadership hadn't cared earlier, because they'd been certain they had a winner in Nancy Craig. Then the unthinkable had happened. With the convention mere weeks away, they had been forced to choose from their second string candidates, and had gone for who seemed like he had the best chance of winning, but the weeks of campaigning had shown the weakness of their expectations.

  The media, at least the majority of which was clearly liberal, couldn't decide what to do. They, as much as everyone else, were aware that the victory they had been savoring, was now going to be ripped away from them. They couldn't stand it, and between chastising the conservatives and crying about the shortcomings of their own candidate, couldn't decide how to proceed. They supported the liberal call for the President to step away from the election, and spent untold time claiming the election should be delayed a year until the Democratic party could field an appropriate new batch of candidates. They had urged the Congress to pass some kind of law, anything that would delay the election for a year, in order to re-plan the election. The Republicans, of course, would have blocked any such effort. The conservative daily's were quick to remind them that they had had no such feelings when the Republican president/candidate had dropped dead just before the elections four short years earlier. Then they had pounced gleefully, seeing victory in their grasp. The New York Times and several other of the equally demented progressive rags had even tried to boost an idea for the aging has-been with a history of losing elections be returned from pasture and chosen as the standard bearer. Some sense of sanity prevailed within those controlling the DNC and they had turned that foolishness aside. Instead they had made a choice from the meager offerings left to them. A choice that was turning out to be very little threat to President Pilcher except in the rabidly blue states which he didn't care if he lost anyway.

  As for the voters? They had demonstrated a surprising apathy for the election. Those of liberal persuasion had, to a significant degree, lost interest in the coming election. With the candidate that had inspired them eliminated, many didn't see a choice they could support, or realized that the odds of winning were now lost, and simply dropped out, turning to other activities and thinking toward the future, four years from now when this president would be ineligible for another term. Those in his own party might be said to be mildly energized given his renewed chances of winning, but they were far from as enthusiastic as their party leadership. But, all reasons combined, it was enough that he had little chance of losing, although once again his election would reflect, percentagewise, one of the lowest turnouts in American history.

  While he pretty much had a lock on the Presidency, that wasn't the case with the Congress. Nancy Craig's popularity had been having a significant impact on the races being run in both the Senate and the House, and if anything those races had been leaning even more liberal after her death, as if the voters were saying they would see her wishes were fulfilled by those in the legislative branch. The polls that showed him doing so well in the coming election, showed that both houses were almost certainly forfeit to the opposition, which told him how poorly his favorite programs were likely to fare in the next two years.

  "Are we ready to face the voters?" an enthusiastic Joe Taylor asked when the President steeped into his greeting room a short time later. Taylor had watched the polls turn from impossibly negative to their current encouraging positive margins since the shootings, and could hardly contain himself.

  "Who would have thought?" the President asked his Chief of Staff and smiled broadly as they prepared to head to the Oval Office to deal with some preliminary business before he and his new running mate headed to the studio. Senator Chuck Sanders was proving to be less than the stalwart support he'd expected when he selected the Senator from the possible individuals to replace Toshiko Yano as he sought his second term. Joe had pointed out the loss of the popular physician had cost him in key areas, and it was fortunate they had the margins to absorb the defections resulting from her departure. He hadn't seen his former VP in weeks, aware that she spent most of her time as the term wound down in her Capital Building Office where she was less likely to encounter him. She had also politely declined to participate in any manner in the election campaigning. She had even ceased approaching the President about her medical legislation, knowing he wasn't going to support any of the new changes she had been fighting for over the past year. That alone showed how far they had drifted apart.

  "At least ten points!" Joe replied enthusiastically, waiving the latest stack of printouts to emphasize their winning status, his own thoughts far from the mental baggage that sometimes affected the President. "Ten points!"

  President Pilcher nodded, but in the back of his mind he couldn't help recalling that at one point a few months ago he'd been behind by more than twenty points, and that had been with the much larger voter base before many had been turned off to the coming fiasco. Ten points sounded like a lot, but he knew what it really told him.

  As the two men stepped out of the Presidential Quarters, the President noted that CC was on duty once again
as he fell silently in behind them as they headed toward the Oval Office. CC was a regular now, his other duties having been handed off to others. For a time he had been lead on the team assigned to watch over the new Vice Presidential candidate, but now that team had solidified into those who would continue with him if they won the election. CC had been present when the shooting range had been formally opened, and even shot a celebratory contest against the President for the media at the event, which had riled up the progressives who still dreamed of universal gun confiscation. It had been a close match, but the President had won, in part because CC had made it so, and in part because the President had snuck a couple of sessions in before the range was officially open to get used to his new firearms. Now he made a point of getting in an hour or two at least twice every week. His skill with the handguns was back up to where it used to be.

  Pilcher couldn't help wondering just what CC knew or suspected about the shooting of Mrs. Craig. He'd never said anything to him or even hinted he might suspect anything amiss. There was no mention of the encounter at Stanford, and they still didn't know if he'd recognized Bo or not. His demeanor toward him hadn't changed so far as he could tell. He'd asked Earl about the boy, who also had not been approached by his son. They had to assume that CC simply hadn't connected the dots to realize what the two men had conspired to do. Still, the President was a little uneasy around him these days, not sure if his intuition is telling him something he should pay attention to or whether it was just a bit of his own guilt causing the uncertainty. Whatever the reason, the situation was one of the reasons he wouldn't be returning the special phone to CC for delivery back to his father.

  Seeing CC caused the President's mind to recall the last time he'd seen the boy's father. They'd had a chance to talk privately and at length when the President spent the night at Earl's ranch when he made his campaign swing through the great state of Texas a few weeks back.