They started with a trip to where the attack had been.
Maria rode up front with the driver, Kenneth, and Patrick rode in the back. As they drove, Patrick was constantly on the phone, either texting or answering calls.
Maria asked if it was always like that, non-stop communication.
“You’d think he was a fifteen-year-old with how much time he spends on his phone,” Kenneth said.
“I heard that,” Patrick said.
Kenneth smiled. There was an ease between them. Kenneth was definitely much more than a driver.
When they reached the library, Kenneth took the same route he had taken the night before.
“Why did you go this way? The entrance to Summerlin Parkway is a couple of blocks away,” Maria said.
“I just got a little turned around and headed the wrong way, and the GPS automatically adjusted to a different route, so rather than popping a U-turn, I just kept straight,” Kenneth said.
“When did you notice the attackers?” Maria said.
Kenneth pushed a button on the dashboard, and a rear facing camera view showed up where the GPS had been. The imagery was high end. Maria could actually read the letters on a sign half a block behind them.
“I saw the car turn after us. A minivan. Shouldn’t have been a big deal, but I’d noticed them pull out after us at the library, so I hit the camera just to be sure. As you can see, the camera is very high quality. It even zooms, so I zoomed on the front seat, and as they passed a streetlight, I saw they were wearing masks,” Kenneth said.
“That’s generally a giveaway, huh?”
“Yeah, who wears ski masks while driving?” Kenneth said. “So, they pulled up to attack, and the side door opened. Once I saw that, I figured it for a hit, so I swerved into the front of their car and knocked them over the median. They crashed, and we took off,” Kenneth said.
“I didn’t see any damage to the SUV,” Maria said.
“We have two identical ones. The one from last night is in the shop,” Kenneth said.
“You let them get close. Was there a reason you didn’t just take off?” Maria said.
“This car has a powerful engine, but the acceleration isn’t all that great, and they drafted off of us and were pulling up,” Kenneth said.
“Drafted?” Maria said.
“Not a NASCAR fan, huh?” Kenneth said.
Patrick leaned forward, eyes still on his phone.
“Kenneth, we have a change of plans. It looks like I’m going to have to get on a plane for an out-of-town fundraiser. Maybe you should drop Maria off at the headquarters. Nick can accompany her, and we’ll head out,” Patrick said.
“Have you met Nick?” Kenneth said.
“Briefly. What was his role on the campaign?” Maria said.
“He’s head of security and general overall pain in the ass,” Kenneth said.
“Nick’s great,” Patrick said.
“Just don’t let him get to you,” Kenneth said.
“He’s just a little politically incorrect, is all,” Patrick said.
Kenneth rolled his eyes.
Nick was waiting for her outside the headquarters. He was all smiles and a freshly pressed suit. He shook her hand and said he was looking forward to working with such a highly regarded detective. Then he led her inside.
The headquarters was mostly empty. Helen, the campaign manager, was scrolling through something on her phone while a woman who looked to be in her early twenties was talking to her. Maybe Helen was an amazing multi-tasker, but Maria had the feeling Helen wasn’t listening to a word the young woman was saying.
“So, I was thinking we could start by accessing the traffic cameras,” Nick said.
“What traffic cameras?” Maria said.
“The cameras at the intersections. I figured you could get us the tape and then we could run the license plates. Surely the car was stolen, but we should be able to find out from where and when and then access the traffic cameras near where the car was stolen,” Nick said.
“You just got it all figured out. I can go home then,” Maria said.
“Well, we kind of need you to get into the system,” Nick said.
“The traffic cameras don’t record,” Maria said.
“What do you mean? I drove by and saw cameras at the intersection,” Nick said.
“Oh, they’re there all right, but they don’t record. They’re mostly just there to keep people from doing crazy things because they think they’re being watched, and they watch traffic patterns via algorithm, but there’s no recording,” Maria said.
Nick looked confused, like he couldn’t quite process what she was saying.
“And I’m sure the van was stolen, but I would need a reason to go poking around, and since you all don’t want anyone to find out about this little occurrence, perhaps it’s best if we just stick to investigating it the old-fashioned way,” Maria said.
“What way would that be?”
“Talk to people. See what they say. Think about it. Go talk to other people. Trust me, it works almost as good as a traffic camera,” Maria said.
Nick laughed.
“Where do you want to start?” Nick asked.
“I want to talk with Helen,” Maria said.
Nick motioned towards the office where Maria had been sent the first time she was here. Said he’d bring Helen to her.
Maria watched him walk over to Helen. Speak into her ear. She shook her head at whatever Nick was saying. When Nick came back, he told Maria that Helen would be with her in five minutes and then walked her to the office and left her there.
Maria settled down behind the desk. She knew a lot more about the campaign and the people working here than she’d known the last time, but she still felt like she didn’t know much at all. Motivations were still being hidden, but she hoped Helen would be able to help with that.
Helen took longer than five minutes to make it to the office, more like fifteen. And when she did come in, she had the petulant attitude of a teenager being sent to the principal’s office. She sat down in the chair in front of the desk and didn’t even look at Maria. Sat there ignoring her, more or less how she’d ignored the young woman outside the office.
“You don’t seem very interested in talking to me,” Maria said.
“I have a million different things on my plate right now, and for some reason, I have to sit in here with you when I should be working,” Helen said.
Maria wondered if this information mattered. She’d never investigated a crime where she already knew who did it before even beginning to ask questions. The whole process felt a little dishonest, but Maria was fairly sure whoever had killed Carla was involved with the campaign, or she could find something that would lead her to that person. Ariella working here and finding out the information about Patrick just before she was kidnapped couldn’t just be a coincidence, but Maria needed to know exactly what that information was. Getting Helen to give her more information about Patrick and his campaign was the best way Maria had for finding a pressure point to go after Patrick’s wife.
“You are aware of what happened last night,” Maria said.
“I am aware. I’m just unsure of why you are involved. Patrick has excellent security and dedicated trustworthy associates. Bringing you in doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to me,” Helen said. She looked up at Maria, forced a fake smile across her face, and returned her attention to her phone.
Maria reached out and grabbed the phone from her hands.
“What the hell?” Helen said.
Maria opened a drawer in the desk and dropped the phone in it.
“The sooner we get this interview over with, the sooner you can get back to your important tasks,” Maria said.
Helen leaned back in her chair. Crossed her arms. The look on her face was feigned boredom, but the anger was obvious in her eyes.
“When did you find out what happened last night?” Maria asked.
“I received a phone call from Patrick about an hour after the attack.”
“What did he say?” Maria said.
“What does it matter what he said?” Helen said.
“What did he say?”
“He said there’d been an incident, and he wanted me to meet him here so we could game plan how to deal with the press,” Helen said.
“So, you met with Patrick here at the campaign office last night?”
“Yes,” Helen said.
“How did he look?” Maria asked.
“How he always looks, stunningly handsome and well dressed.”
“So, he wasn’t nervous?” Maria said.
“Why would he be nervous?”
“Someone had just made an attempt on his life,” Maria said.
“He’s a decorated war veteran. This was far from the first time someone had tried to kill him. He was mostly just angry that his wife was in the car,” Helen said.
“Was there any discussion of who might be behind the attack?” Maria said.
Helen shook her head.
“That’s strange, isn’t it? You’d think figuring out who it was would be top of the list of topics,” Maria said.
“I’m a campaign manager, not a police officer. My job is to run a campaign. We were preparing to deal with the press fallout. We ended up being lucky in that respect, since the press hasn’t caught wind of it. But if they do, we’ll definitely know who to blame. I understand you have deep ties to certain reporters in Las Vegas,” Helen said.
“So, there was no discussion whatsoever about who might be responsible for the attack?” Maria said.
“Not that I recall,” Helen said.
Maria fixed her eyes on Helen, but she just stared right back at Maria. The imperviousness of the woman was alternately frustrating and admirable. Most people fell to pieces when interrogated by the police, but also most people were more willing to provide information when they weren’t involved.
“You handle Patrick’s schedule?” Maria said.
“I run the whole campaign. Patrick’s schedule is a significant part of that, but there are multiple people involved in planning his schedule,” Helen said.
“I understand the event last night was unplanned, last minute,” Maria said.
“A local councilman invited Patrick to his quarterly meeting. It was a good opportunity to do a small group setting with likely voters. Patrick is great in small groups. His authenticity really comes through,” Helen said.
“So the event wasn’t advertised. At what time was it set up?” Maria said.
“That afternoon, around three pm,” Helen said.
“Who knew about the event?” Maria asked.
Helen started to ask why Maria was asking any of this, but as her mouth was opening, she processed where Maria was going, and for the first time since entering the room, Helen lost the righteous indignation and really thought about what Maria was asking her.
“I hadn’t considered that someone from inside the campaign would have needed to be involved,” Helen said.
“It could have been the staff of the councilman, but let’s start closer to home,” Maria said.
“I’m going to need my phone, so I can check if we sent out a notification on the group chat,” Helen said.
Maria gave Helen back her phone. Scrolling through all the notifications and emails took a lot longer than Maria expected, but eventually Helen confirmed that no notification had been sent out to the group chat, nor had there been any group emails. The information had been closely held. The only people who had been notified were the candidate, his wife, his driver, Nick, and Helen.
“That seems a little strange to me. It’s not a very important meeting. Why be so secretive?” Maria said.
“Lowering the odds that the opposing campaign would send someone with a video camera. Look, nowadays there are cameras everywhere, but just because something gets recorded, doesn’t mean it gets used, right? So many videos and images out there, a person really needs to have a platform to be heard. But campaigns know how to be heard, that’s our whole purpose, make the candidate heard, and Patrick doesn’t like to be scripted. He likes to say what he thinks. He’s constantly rebelling against teleprompters or poll tested messaging, so we try to keep small meetings like this unscripted, so he can be him, but also, we try to lower the probability that anyone would be there who could use Patrick’s authenticity against him,” Helen said.
“Could anyone have overhead you all talking about the meeting in the office?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Helen said. She turned around and looked through the glass at the half empty office.
Volunteers were calling voters at a table against the far wall. A youngish-looking man with long hair pulled back in a ponytail was standing by the front window eating an apple.
“I’d hate to think one of them could be a plant,” Helen said.
“I assume it’s something you’ve considered before,” Maria said.
“Spies? I worry about it every day,” Helen said.
“So, the candidate has secrets,” Maria said.
“I never said that,” Helen said.
“I’m not here to screw up his candidacy. I’m here to figure out who might have a motive to go after him,” Maria said.
“Motive? Money. Power. That’s the motive of politics. Most people think it's the money, but it’s really the power, the status. That’s what most politicians crave, and Patrick is a threat to them,” Helen said.
“Why?”
“Because he hates dealing with wealthy people, and they despise him for it. There’s nothing a donor wants to hear more than how intelligent and worldly they are, and Patrick just can’t do it,” Helen said.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t find that a convincing motive for murder,” Maria said.
Helen waved her hand as if she hadn’t expected Maria to understand, anyway.
“Talk to me about Patrick’s shift from being pro-development to anti-development,” Maria said.
Helen shifted in her seat. Sat there considering her words. Her obvious discomfort was a little surprising. This woman was so well put together that the slightest unease was probably a sign of something very serious.
“The news always considered him more pro-development than he actually was,” Helen said.
“Not surprising, the news often mischaracterizes things,” Maria said.
“Exactly, so that’s what that was. A mischaracterization, but there were some donors who considered the mischaracterization to be accurate, and perhaps, Patrick could have been clearer about his views, but at least now, there are no doubts. Patrick is not anti-development, but he believes that single-family homes have value for building community and maintaining people’s social ties, but of course, that message is too nuanced for today’s media landscape,” Helen said. She smiled. Looked down at her phone, not to start texting again but as a means of averting Maria’s gaze.
“So this change-”
“There was no change. There was, as you called it, a mischaracterization,” Helen said.
“Uh huh, look, Helen, I have to tell you something. Just between women, I really admire how well put together you are. I mean, politics, especially state level politics, can be a nasty, nasty business, but you are here making sure everything runs like a smoothly oiled machine. I can’t imagine how late you were up last night, but I can’t even tell from looking at you,” Maria said.
“If you want to know what concealer I use, you don’t have to butter me up first,” Helen said.
“You’re a genuinely impressive woman, but you are also completely full of shit when it comes to Patrick’s shifting position on development,” Maria said.
Helen started to object, but Maria didn’t even let her get started.
“Most of what you’ve told me has been genuinely true. Some of it was the best kind of lie, the kind based on the truth. Patrick probably is really genuine around here, but I’ve seen his speeches. He’s as scripted as any other politician, but the minute we started talking about Patrick’s shifting position on development, you started lying. In my experience, the most corrupt people are developers. Most of them got into development to wash money and ended up finding out that developing property was more profitable than whatever illicit activity they were previously involved in. So, if Patrick had ties to developers and those developers felt like he had betrayed them, that would be a possible motive that could lead me to whoever did this. So, I need you to stop bullshitting me and start being honest about even the dirty stuff,” Maria said.
Helen laughed.
“Great speech, but an idiot, I’m not. You’ll have to save that one for someone else. Whatever issues there were with previous donors were smoothed over. And with the incumbent not exactly being their favorite candidate, it's not like they had a lot of options as it was. Not all people go right to criminality just because they don’t get their way. Most people at this level have a bit more sophistication and patience,” Helen said.
“Yet someone tried to kill your candidate last night,” Maria said.
“And I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do,” Helen said.