Chapter 6
Senator Paul Garnner picked Mary Tracker up at her hotel promptly at noon. She was wearing a bright print dress and he was clad in his normal, plain blue suit. He thought, watching her skip toward his car, that they could have made the traditional couple. Much more so than he and his wife. She always seemed so overdressed on any occasion and he more or less under-dressed alongside her.
The day was bright and cheery and at least made him feel somewhat better. He had returned early from the dinner the night before but of course his wife wasn't there when he got back. He decided to wait up for her and it was two in the morning before she got home.
By then he was half in the bag and really spoiling for an argument. They had one, the worst they had ever had. She had called him a fool and a loser and he accused her of being a cheap whore. By the end of the forty-five minute set-to they had retreated to then-rooms, hating each other's guts, determined never to speak to one another again.
Now, in the clear light of another day, Paul Garnner was still filled with bitterness toward his wife. The things Mary had said over and over for so many months ate at his insides and made him seethe with anger. He was slowly coming around to facing the fact that she was right.
He had given his wife every opportunity to live as she pleased, find her own place in life and the woman had rejected his every offering for spite and accusation. She had used him and defiled him, not only in private but in public as well. She was not even going to go to the dedication today, the ceremony lorded over on her erstwhile star Governor Wilbur T. Roper. She had begged off pleading a terrible hangover.
Not that Paul cared all that much. He would rather be seen with his trusted and kindly Mary than the shrew of a wife he had been foolish enough to many.
What had gone wrong? They were so good to each other when they first wed. He was a struggling student in law school, she a graduate student in English. She never seemed to care much for the trappings of wealth back then. What had happened? It seemed that the moment he decided that the local senator from his state wasn't doing enough for the people and that he, Paul Garnner might be able to do better, she had changed. The power and position that came with his being elected had turned her into an uncaring, unfeeling bitch and now, he scarcely knew her from the kind, gentle girl she had been.
He shook his head, he was tired of trying. Tired of working in congress only to come home to hatred and abuse. Perhaps he should just leave it this way. He would pay the bills but never have to see her. What the hell, Mary didn't need that ring around her finger, she'd said as much. But it still bothered him. If he was going to say he loved her, he ought to do something about it. But the fact that it could hurt his career held him back, stopped him from making that final step. He hated himself for his weakness, but was resigned to it. He would never divorce, they would have to live apart.
It didn't take them long to reach the small valley. He parked the car under a grove of newly planted trees and helped Mary out. He prided himself on always using his own transportation except in Washington. The people enjoyed seeing their senator driving himself around instead of lording his power about with a limo and a black-caped man behind the wheel.
A few people ran up to greet him and he shook hands all around, answering questions, trading small talk and gossip with the citizens of the small, planned .community.
He saw Roper striding toward him and he nodded, smiling through clenched teeth. The fat blob of a man was already sweating heavily in the mid-day sun and a stubby, half-chewed cigar clung to his lips.
"How ya doing, Senator?" Roper smiled and pumped his hand wildly, turning just right for the cameras to catch him shaking the Senator's hand.
"Fine, Governor, yourself?"
"Great, just great, come on and take a look at the dam!"
Roper pushed his way roughly through the crowd and led Paul and Mary to the base of the huge concrete structure. It was imposing and not a little frightening as it loomed hundreds of feet above them. Paul shivered to stare at such a thing, behind it tons of water that if unleashed could drive everything for miles around into dust.
"Ain't it beautiful?" Roper said, beaming.
"It's quite a sight," Paul admitted.
"Scares me to death just to be standing here," Mary admitted.
"Aw, now don't you worry, Miss, it's safe as a baby. Made sure of that myself. Wouldn't want anything to happen to the people that put me where I am."
Paul's stomach turned over at the sound of Roper's false sincerity but he said nothing. He ran his eyes up and down, left to right and shuddered. If Roper was lying just a little bit, he was thinking, the lives and property of thousands of people were in great danger. He made a mental note to get to work on an investigation of the project early Monday morning.
Roper led them over to a long table that stood in front of rows upon rows of shorter ones and after a few words to the people, everyone sat down to a well prepared lunch.
Paul was seated next to Mary, whom the Governor insisted sit next to him. He knew what the old bastard was up to and he admired the way Mary sat calmly while Roper was feeling her leg up all through the meal.
Jack Newman and Joan Brando had hid in the hallway of the Governor's office waiting for quite sometime until he and Sadick had left that morning. They sweated out being discovered twice and held their breath until the two men finally took the elevator down to the lobby.
They had made their plans carefully. Jack telling her that the only way they were going to find out what the true story was by breaking into the Governor's office and searching it. Joan didn't like the idea, she felt it was too dangerous, but she went along.
"Honey, it's the only way," Jack had told her.
They waited anxiously until they saw the dial on the elevator touch the lobby mark then they slipped out along the hallway and quickly Jack used a pair of burglar's keys to let them in. It was eerie inside the big office. Cold and quiet, a weird and unsettling feeling that Joan was not used to.
Jack laughed at her nervousness and made his way across to the Governor's chambers. He unlocked that door and hissed her to his side.
"Come on, don't be so scared, those two are on their way to the dedication. They won't be back for awhile."
"I hope you're right, I just have this feeling we're going to get caught."
"Jesus,- do you think I'd be standing here if we would? Man, that Sadick plays rough, I know him. I wouldn't come ten miles within him if I thought I'd have to tangle with him."
Jack began searching through the Governor's desk, rifling papers and trying to find perhaps a set of keys or something that might lead him to a source of further information. There was nothing there and he sighed and sat down at the desk, dejected.
Joan was picking at the bookcase behind him, looking for perhaps a safe or something but she too was coming up empty handed.
"Doesn't look like there is anything here at all," she groaned.
"I know, honey, a real dead end. Shit!"
Absently he began running his fingers under the desk when he felt a series of buttons. He pressed one and heard a tiny voice that sounded like the Governor's talking about the dedication. Joan turned around suddenly and they listened intently to Roper's and Sadick's conversation of the evening before. When they'd finished speaking the tape went silent and Joan and they stared at each other in horror.
Jack shook his head and gulped fighting down a sickness that welled up in his belly. He reached for the telephone and began calling the police when he heard a voice, calm and icy tell him to put down the telephone.
"Easy does it folks." They turned to see Sadick pointing a gun at them. "Figured somebody might be up here, I got a sixth sense about those things."
His smile was cold and nasty and he motioned them up with the gun. Jack put his hands over his head and they both began walking toward the man. When they reached Sadick Jack suddenly dropped his hands and grabbed the man's gun.
He yelled to Joan to run and wrestled with Sadick, but the bigger man was too much for him. Sadick threw him to the floor and he saw a glimpse of Joan struggling in the grip of another man in the outer office then he felt an explosion inside of his head, saw a brilliant flash of light then passed into blackness.