Tom Kelly sat alone in his office, feeling his large, empty room crushing in on him. Where had things gone so wrong? He had cultivated a solid political organization, a strong power base. He wondered if Dalton and Crawford had aligned; they’d gone off to Rogers’s island together. It must have been Crawford who convinced the Pentagon to send in the Marines. He sat on the Armed Services Committee.
Harley Rogers had out-foxed everybody. The price of his company’s stock had risen fifteen percent solely on the rumor that the German drug could be his.
He wondered what Fred would do now. Pembroke was really a decent guy, but Stan had found his weak spot—wanting to give his kids the best. Stan was a master of playing on the good in people as much as he did the bad, maneuvering them into doing evil to embellish their goodness.
Pembroke’s stepping down would actually be a big plus for Stan, who always wanted Frank Harvey to chair HELP. Stan liked Harvey’s bulldog approach. That would help to get the committee back in line to block Szymanski and his cosponsored bill with Dalton.
That buoyed him up and made him feel less pessimistic. He stood and walked around the room, thinking. Harvey could also move Kelly’s pharmaceutical discount plan through committee. He’d have the guts to push for hearings on possible illegal activities by Rogers and keep his damn cancer drug out of the country.
He picked up his private phone, the one with no extensions, and punched in a number. He let it ring three times and hung up. Then he redialed it, waited four rings, and hung up. He waited. His phone rang.
“Hello,” he said dully.
“Is Mabel there?” Meaning, Is there a problem?
“There’s no Mabel here.” Meaning, I have something urgent.
“She gave me this number.” Meaning, Where do you want to meet?
“I don’t care if Thomas Jefferson gave it to you.” Meaning, Meet at the Jefferson Memorial.
“This is the second number I’ve been given for her. I’m sorry to have troubled you.” Meaning, I’ll be there in two hours. The phone went dead.
Kelly wouldn’t have to call his wife about being late, because she’d already gone back home earlier in the week. He changed into running shorts, shoes, a T-shirt, and a Nationals baseball cap that had been given to him by the team on opening day. After an hour going over boring paperwork, he went for a snack before heading off to his rendezvous.
He drove into the parking lot south of the monument memorializing the nation’s third president and took a pair of large, black rimmed eyeglasses from the glove compartment. Even in his dank mood, he was moved by the classic beauty of the memorial. The brightly lit Washington Monument’s reflection on the still waters of the Tidal Basin pointed directly at him. The water was placid with no paddle boats at night.
He jogged down to the water’s edge and along the Tidal Basin, passing the front of the memorial. There were a few people sitting on the steps taking in the view and inside getting an up-close look of Jefferson’s majestic statue, reading the many Jeffersonian quotes. Kelly jogged easily along the water toward a copse of trees on the far side. A jogger loped past him and went off the walkway at the trees. Kelly arrived there a moment later.
The jogger was waiting in the deep shadows. “What’s so urgent?”
“Fred resigned as chairman.”
“That wimp. I never knew why you wanted him on your team in the first place,” the wiry man spat out.
“Because people like him and because of his outstanding record. Let’s not rip up Fred; he’s doing enough of that to himself.”
“Guilty conscience? What reason did he give you?”
“Tutox, the German clinic, the public furor, the cosponsored bill, your prescription plan . . . maybe one of his kids didn’t get straight A’s. Take your pick. I thought you’d be happy . . . the timing is a plus. Frank Harvey’ll go in there and kick ass.”
“What’s Pembroke’s story going to be?”
“His health.” Kelly looked around, but saw no lurkers.
“We’ve got other problems,” the wiry man said tersely, while doing some stretching. “Your pal Crawford is getting too close to the beauty queen.
Going down to that island fiasco is gonna make them look like a couple of heroes.”
“I don’t like them being in tight with Rogers either,” Kelly added. “How come you didn’t know about his processing plant and the German hospital?”
“Who says I didn’t?” the pharma snapped. “How’d the Marines get involved?”
“Crawford, I assume. He’s on Armed Services, has good DOD contacts. Remember Reagan and Grenada? Plus the Carmayan government requested assistance and State got involved.
“That German hospital . . . the mood isn’t with us, Stan. The expedient thing is for me to hold off a few days before announcing Fred’s stepping down. Maybe we can get the FDA to rethink its decision on Tutoxtamen. We have to quell any panic—”
Horowitz erupted, “That drug cannot see the light of day. Why wait to announce your distraught friend’s—?”
“Distraught?”
“Yeah. Maybe he should resign from the Senate.”
“He can’t do that. We’d lose a seat.”
“He’s our scapegoat. Think, man! Put the focus on him, say you and the party relied on him concerning the drug and that’s why you rallied the party to show support of the FDA. We’ll cover that by making sure the FDA has sufficient fire power . . . solid reasons why that drug can’t come up for reconsideration.”
“Fred and Sally will be going away for a few days.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe he shouldn’t come back!” Horowitz growled and jogged away.
Kelly was chilled by the lobbyist’s words. He remembered Mort Stroble.