After the Darkness

The officer, a nerdy, pale young woman with short black hair and thick plastic-framed glasses, looked around the sumptuous apartment and thought, I'm in the wrong business.

"Sugar?"

"Oh. No, thank you. You have a beautiful place."

"Thanks. I've worked hard for it." Jasmine leaned back on the Ralph Lauren suede couch and crossed her long legs demurely. "So. You want to know about Senator Warner?"

When the female cop had showed up unannounced, asking questions about Jack and his relationship to Leonard Brookstein, Jasmine's first reaction was panic. Her second was loyalty. Jasmine loved Jack. She couldn't betray him. But it was her third reaction, self-interest, that eventually won the day. This could be her chance to pry Jack away from his wife at last. He only stayed with Honor because she was necessary to his political ambitions. It stood to reason that if those political ambitions were to die, then so would his marriage.

"How long have the two of you known each other?"

Jasmine took a sip of tea. "Socially, about five years. We've been lovers for three. Cookie?"

This girl's a piece of work.

"No, thank you. You say 'lovers.'"

"You're right. I should probably clarify. Senator Warner is a client of mine. He pays for my services." She spoke without a hint of shame. "Nevertheless, I would characterize our relationship as a love match. We adore each other."

"I see. So Senator Warner confides in you?"

"Absolutely."

"I wonder, did he ever talk to you about Lenny Brookstein?"

"He did. Lenny knew about us. He was the only one who knew."

"Jack told him?"

"No! God, no. He found out somehow. Lenny Brookstein was blackmailing Jack. He was a vicious, bullying man and he made Jack's life hell. When I heard he'd killed himself, I was pleased. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."

The policewoman sat up, startled by the girl's bluntness. Jasmine noticed the reaction.

"I'm sorry." She shrugged. "I could lie about it, but I don't see the point. I hated Lenny Brookstein. Jack and I both did. He was a manipulator and a fake."

"Ms. Delevigne, in your opinion, did Senator Warner hate Lenny Brookstein enough to want to have him killed? Or to kill him himself?"

Jasmine smiled. The policewoman thought, Even her teeth are perfect.

"Did he hate him enough? Absolutely. Lenny was threatening to destroy everything Jack had ever worked for. He would force Jack to swing votes in Quorum's favor, back when they were rewriting all that hedge fund legislation, you remember?" The policewoman nodded. "Every time Lenny would tell Jack, 'This is it, one more vote and you're off the hook.' But every time he would come back for more, squeezing and squeezing." Jasmine shook her head angrily. "Jack hated Lenny Brookstein with good reason. But he didn't kill him."

"You sound sure of that."

"I am sure. Jack was supposed to be out sailing that day, you see. The day of the storm, when Lenny Brookstein went missing."

The policewoman looked at her notes. "That's right. He did go sailing. The Nantucket coast guard rescued him, six miles off Sankaty Head. He returned to the Brookstein estate at around...six o'clock that night."

"The coast guard didn't rescue Jack. At least, not in the way you mean."

"I'm sorry?" The policewoman frowned. "I don't follow."

"Jack never took the boat out. He was with me all day, in a beachside cottage in Siasconset. The coast guard covered for him."

"You mean the coast guard helped Senator Warner to give a false alibi? They lied?"

Jasmine laughed, a low, sensual vibration that brought her whole body to life. "Don't look so shocked. It happens all the time. Senator Warner's a powerful man. People scratch Jack's back so that he'll scratch theirs. I'd have thought, in your profession, you'd be used to that sort of thing. I certainly am in mine."

Jasmine politely showed the officer to the door. As she left, Jasmine asked her, "So the police think Lenny Brookstein might have been murdered? I've been following the case but I hadn't heard anything about murder."

"It's a possibility we're considering."

"Do you think that means things will come out now? About me and Jack?" Jasmine cocked her head to one side, hopefully. The policewoman thought, So that's it. She wants people to know. She's hoping to force the senator's hand so he'll leave his wife.

"I don't know, Ms. Delevigne. That's not for me to say."

Jasmine leaned forward conspiratorially. "My money's on his mistress. That woman is as hard as nails."

The policewoman smiled. "I think you must be mistaken. Mr. Brookstein didn't have a mistress."

"Sure he did. Connie Gray, his sister-in-law. They were lovers till Lenny abandoned her and went crawling back to his wife. Didn't you know?"