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ROOM SERVICE BROUGHT LUNCH for four to Cyril Berman’s suite at one o’clock that same Thursday. At first Berman thought it smarter to let Fiore go into the debate against Singer that night without the weight of the Herald ’s endorsement decision on his shoulders. Later that morning, he changed his mind and revealed the bad news to Fiore, Walsh and Karp at the same time. He solicited their input, wondering out loud whether there was any route of attack Doug could take that they hadn’t tried yet.

Karp was overjoyed at the events of the previous day. He was certain before then that his status and reputation were in free fall, hurtling toward the bottom of a pit. Suddenly, everything was made right again by the confessions from Baldacci and Arena. Karp could forget about the denials he composed and rehearsed many times in his head. Now he was only regretful that he possibly damaged the Fiore campaign by revealing information about its finances to Jenna Richardson.

“I think we’ve got to attack the Herald,” Karp told the group. “A preemptive strike. As long as we know they’re going to endorse Singer, Doug should make it sound like they were out to get him all along. He can find some way in the debate to give Richardson hell for raising all kinds of phony innuendos without any facts to support them. Then he could say that the Herald brass was obviously pressuring her to write those stories.”

“Lester’s absolutely right,” Walsh said. “Doug shouldn’t just let this thing die. He ought to take advantage of the fact that the whole State of Rhode Island may be watching on TV tonight. I say he should demand an apology from the paper to the Tarantino family, and a separate apology to the Fiore campaign for even hinting that we were aware of a plot to kill Cardella.”

“Good idea,” Karp said.

“There’s some danger in speaking up for the Tarantinos,” Walsh continued, “but the fact remains that Richardson dragged them into the gutter before Baldacci showed up. I think the people would respect Doug for taking their side in this thing. The point I’m trying to make is that we want to convince the voters the Herald ’s the one wearing the black hat for the way it handled this. If we can do that, there could be one hell of a backlash in our favor when they come out Sunday endorsing Singer.”

“Doug?” Berman’s voice indicated that he was open to any idea Fiore had. But silence followed, and he tried again. “It sounds to me like Lester and Russ are making a good argument,” he said. “What do you think?”

Fiore filled his coffee cup with French fries and ate them as he paced around the room. “I’ll say all that stuff if you guys want, but in my opinion it won’t make much of a difference. We need something we can hit Singer with that will stick to him and make him smell, like dogshit on the bottom of his shoes. We’re losing this fucking thing, and blaming it on Richardson and the Herald won’t help us. The only thing everyone will remember next Tuesday is that Singer got their endorsement. Unless we can come up with something on him that will shock the shit out of the voters, that endorsement will kill us.”

Fiore’s use of crude language no longer surprised the men on his team. He spoke that way more often as the election got closer. Berman realized that his candidate’s panic over the probability of losing the election was responsible for the way he spoke, but considered it wiser to simply ignore it than to make an issue of it. The bigger problem was that he knew there was nothing out there that would have the knockout effect Fiore was looking for. As he told Doug earlier, Singer came out “as pure as the driven snow” in everything they checked on him personally.

But he was concerned about what Fiore said and the anger in his voice when he talked to them. He had no doubt Doug had reached the point where he would use anything he could come up with, even if it was immoral or unethical (with the possibility of its also being illegal) to try and damage Singer in the eyes of the voters. Berman recalled Fiore’s earlier show of panic just before the primary. He was eager then, even after learning that Richie Cardella was shot by an assassin, to go ahead with a negative campaign against Cardella in an effort to reduce his opponent’s lead in the polls. He knew for certain now that where once Fiore set out and prided himself on running a campaign he could always be proud of, that objective was no longer in play. All he wanted at this stage was to win, at whatever cost to the truth or to his adversary. Cyril intended to tell Walsh and Karp what he thought and to warn them that Fiore could go off the deep end.

“Don’t forget that Warwick, Portsmouth, and Pascoag have already come out for you in their editorials,” Walsh was saying. “And we’ll probably pick up some others this week. So the Herald backing Singer might just even things out.” He knew how weak it sounded as soon as he said it.

Fiore stopped moving and looked at Walsh. “Tell me, Russell, would you trade Warwick, Portsmouth, Pascoag and a few maybes for the Herald ’s endorsement?” The question reeked with sarcasm. When Walsh didn’t answer, Fiore continued. “You’d give your left testicle to get it and so would I.” There was silence from the others. Doug saw the opportunity to try and relieve whatever resentment his tone of voice had caused. “In fact, if I was as old as you, Russell, I’d give both testicles if it would help.”

It worked, and everyone laughed.

“What about Singer’s wife?” Karp asked innocently. “She’s in your firm, Doug. Is there anything we can use against her that could rub off on him?”

Fiore paced halfway around the room before answering. “I don’t think so. The ironic part is that she’d probably volunteer it if she had something. I happen to know Carol Singer would give anything to see her husband lose this race.” Even as he spoke the words, the germ of an idea began taking hold, one that he soon believed could put him behind the governor’s desk at the Statehouse.