Killer Countdown (Man on a Mission 6)

He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “That might be true, but it doesn’t track. There were two assassination attempts before I went public with my opposition. So no one knew how I intended to vote.”

“No one?” She gave him a skeptical look. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Only my—” He stopped short.

“Only your...staff?”

“Oh God.” He closed his eyes, and Carly’s heart went out to him. When his eyes opened again, there was something cold and hard in their depths that hurt her, because she knew the potential betrayal of his trust devastated him.

She squeezed his hand in encouragement, and said, “Who knew? All your staff? Or just certain ones?” She turned to a clean page in her notebook, swiveled it around and gently pushed it in his direction. She held out the pen. “Write down their names.”

He took the pen from her, but didn’t start writing. “Not Dee-Dee,” he said, and the note of thankfulness in his voice wasn’t lost on her. “She probably guessed, but she didn’t know—not until I returned from Arizona.”

“Okay, that’s good. She’s probably in the clear. Who else?”

“Not Mike Adamson, my press secretary. There’s a lot I don’t tell him until I’m ready to go public. Not because I don’t trust him, but because he gets asked a lot of questions by the press, and I don’t like to put him in the position where he has to dissimilate. If he doesn’t know, he doesn’t know, and he can answer with a clear conscience.”

“That’s two who probably didn’t know and couldn’t betray you. Now tell me who for sure did know...because you discussed it with them.”

* * *

Shane stared over Carly’s shoulder, remembering the strategy session in his office two weeks before he’d flown out and checked himself into the Mayo Clinic. Then he glanced down at Carly’s notebook, clicked the pen in his hand and wrote six titles, followed by six names.

Chief of staff—Marie-Therese Guidry.

Deputy chief of staff—Bobby Vernon.

Chief counsel—LaWanda Jackson.

Legislative director—Hank Warren.

Senior legislative assistant—Miguel de Santos.

Legislative correspondent—Terry Chan.

“That’s it,” he said. “That’s everyone who knew for certain.” Then he grimaced. “Of course, any of these six could have mentioned it to someone else, either on my staff or off it. There’s no way to know for sure.”

“Let’s assume for now these six are an all-inclusive list,” Carly said with practical matter-of-factness, “because we have to start somewhere. Now of these six, who would you rule out?”

“The two women,” he replied immediately.

“Because they’re women?”

“No,” he said patiently. “Because Marie-Therese is an ardent environmentalist who opposes ANWR drilling,” he explained, referring to drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “So of course she’s against the proposed pipeline that will have such a devastating environmental impact. And LaWanda is the one who ferreted out the money men behind the pipeline bill. Half of what I know about the bill’s supporters and its egregious clauses comes from them.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that,” Carly said. “That leaves four. Are there any you would cross off the list?”

He thought long and hard, then shook his head with real regret. “No. I...no.”

She ran her pointer finger over her bottom teeth, then tapped them with a fingernail—a little habit she had when she was thinking hard, he realized suddenly. Then she said, “If you can’t rule any of them out, are there any you’d particularly rule in? And before you answer that,” she rushed to add, “ask yourself if any of them expressed dissatisfaction with the way you intended to vote, and tried to get you to change your mind. Put that on one side. On the other, have any of them shown signs of unexplained affluence? Money they shouldn’t have?”

“Miguel,” Shane said slowly, thinking back to the strategy session. “He kept emphasizing the jobs the pipeline would create, never mind the drawbacks. But that’s not unusual for him—that’s sort of the role he has taken on, playing devil’s advocate.” He thought some more. “Hank came into quite a bit of money recently, but it wasn’t unexplained. His father died, and Hank’s an only child.”