Nick was waiting for her outside. He was looking across the parking lot at a pizza place.
“How’d it go with Helen?” Nick asked.
“I’m going to need to talk with Wanda,” Maria said.
“I’ll set up a call for you,” Nick said.
“I prefer face to face,” Maria said.
“It’ll have to wait until tomorrow, then. She’s with Patrick on a trip,” Nick said.
“Fair enough. Why don’t you run down your role with the campaign for me?” Maria said.
“Other than being devastatingly handsome and fantastic to be around?” Nick said. He smiled. He had one of those winning smiles, bright white teeth. Wide smile.
“More or less,” Maria said.
“I’m in charge of security,” Nick said.
“So, where were you last night?” Maria asked.
“Being in charge doesn’t mean actively guarding at all times,” Nick said.
“What does it mean?” Maria asked.
Nick sighed like he was trying to figure out how to explain something to someone who wasn’t going to understand anyway. Maria kept her face blank, but she was beginning to understand what Kenneth had meant by not letting Nick get to her.
“I approve routes and plans. I verify locations. I drive when Kenneth isn’t available. I vet staff. A lot of it is administrative crap, but the evaluation of locations, planning for eventualities, thinking about extraction routes, that stuff is enjoyable. The reality, of course, is that we’re in the United States and most people don’t attack politicians in this country,” Nick said.
“Until last night,” Maria said.
“Until last night,” Nick said.
“Walk me through your vetting process,” Maria said.
“You think someone in the campaign tipped the attackers off that Patrick would be at the library last night,” Nick said.
“I’m mostly curious how you vet the volunteers,” Maria said.
“We don’t, really. We just assume some of them are plants, and we don’t talk about anything important around them,” Nick said.
“Doesn’t seem very secure,” Maria said.
“We don’t exactly have an unlimited budget, and background checks take time, a commodity political campaigns don’t have much of,” Nick said.
“So basically, you write schedules and look at diagrams of buildings,” Maria said.
A flash of irritation crossed Nick’s face, but he hid it behind a smile. He laughed.
“I guess you could say that,” Nick said.
“Did you serve with Patrick?” Maria asked.
“Sure did. I was his spotter,” Nick said.
“I could pretend to know what that means, but I’d be lying,” Maria said.
“We were a team. I found the targets. He took the shots. I made sure he hit,” Nick said.
“So, you go back with Patrick a long way,” Maria said.
“Being on a team like that, surviving life and death situations, it’s something outsiders can’t understand. I had a spot picked out in Costa Rica, just me and waves and rum drinks and the advancing years, but Patrick wanted to be a politician, and he asked me to move to the desert to watch his back. Anyone else, I’d a told them to stuff it, but for Patrick, well, Costa Rica will still be there in a few years,” Nick said.
“What’s the matter? You don’t like bright lights and the desert?” Maria said.
“Hell no. I won’t even stay down here. I live on Mount Charleston,” Nick said.
“That’s a hell of a commute,” Maria said.
“I have an apartment here in the same place Patrick does, but every chance I get, I head up to the house on the mountain. I need green in my life and green is something that Las Vegas doesn’t have much of,” Nick said.
“I need a ride,” Maria said.
“Where to?” Nick said.
“To pick up my car,” Maria said.
“I’m happy to drive you around all day,” Nick said.
“I need to hit the streets, Nick. You won’t be any help to me there. Shooters needed to be hired, and I have to go talk to some informants. So, you’ll just have to drop me off,” Maria said.
Nick was mostly quiet as he drove. Something was bothering him, but he didn’t feel like sharing whatever it was, and Maria was relieved to have some silence.
The line about hitting the streets was nonsense, of course. If she wanted to know how they’d known where Patrick was going to be last night, she could just go lean on Pedro, and he’d tell her. All the questions had just been an attempt to see where the pressure points were. Try to find out something that she could use to get Patrick to open up when he came back from his fundraising trip. She doubted Nick knew much about policies. He didn’t really seem like a guy who was all that into politics. But movements. He definitely knew a lot about the candidate’s movements.
“Does Patrick do a lot of travel to meet donors?” Maria asked.
“Donors usually come to town. Vegas is a place that people with money like to visit, but sometimes there are bigger events that candidates go off to,” Nick said.
“I wouldn’t think a candidate for governor of a little state like Nevada would get so much attention,” Maria said.
“It’s the profile. Donors see him and see a man who could be president. They want to get their hooks in while they still have relatively early access,” Nick said.
“So, you don’t like the donors?” Maria said.
“What’s to like? Half of them were born rich and want to spend all their time telling you how amazing they are. The other half are a mix of sociopaths or grifters. Kind of men who’d sell out their mother if it made them an extra nickel,” Nick said.
“I can see why Patrick left you here instead of bringing you with him,” Maria said.
Nick laughed.
“There’s a big get together in Palm Beach that we leave for tomorrow night. It’s like a four-day deal. Wanda can’t wait to go because the hotel has an amazing spa. I have to go to that one. Someone needs to be around to give Kenneth breaks,” Nick said.
“You don’t want to go to Florida?” Maria said.
“You ever been to Palm Beach? Bunch of white-haired blue bloods who never saw a buffet they didn’t want to visit three times. Miss me with that one. The last time I had to go, this one donor, guy’s family owns some type of manufacturing business, piping or some such shit, guy spent his whole life in prep schools and yacht clubs, but he kept telling us how much he loved getting his hands dirty and working in the factory. Told us a man needed to be on the line to understand how things worked. What a load of crap. Guy had the hands of a newborn. He’d never worked a day in his life,” Nick said.
Nick went on like that for a while, talking about donors and their ridiculous ego driven sensibilities, but while Maria was nodding along and acting interested, she was really thinking about the trip Patrick was going to go on and how it was complicating her timeline. She needed to find whatever she could use to press Patrick, and she needed to know it by tomorrow because she was only going to have one day to use it.
Nick pulled into Maria’s apartment complex and pulled to a stop in front of her building.
“You know, I heard about the heroism you displayed trying to save that woman in California and also about what happened to your girlfriend. I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’ve lost people I cared about, so I know how hard it is. The fact that you’re out here working so soon afterwards is a testament to your innate toughness,” Nick said.
Maria didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded her head and stepped out of the car.
Nick handed her a business card. It just had his name and a phone number.
“You talk to your informants or do whatever it is that you do, and we’ll meet later today to compare notes,” Nick said.
“Notes? You going to be out investigating, too?” Maria said.
“They tried to kill my best friend in this whole world. You think I’m going to be sitting on my hands? Hell no,” Nick said.
Nick drove off.
As he went, Maria wasn’t thinking about anything he’d said or Patrick’s upcoming trip. She was wondering how he knew where she lived because she hadn’t once given him any directions, and he’d driven her right to her front door. Perhaps he remembered where she lived because of Patrick’s visit to her house, or perhaps he’d done some looking into her last night. She couldn’t be sure. There were several reasons why he might know where she lived. Also, when he’d spoken about Carla dying, he’d looked very sincere. If he was lying, he was damn good at it. But she doubted she could trust him.
Maria called Nancy, told her she wanted to meet her.
“We must be connected psychically because I was just about to call you,” Nancy said.