Authors: Robert Ellis
“What about the mail room?” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t delivered yet.”
“It’s election day, Frank. Everything’s closed.”
* * *
Raymond entered the side entrance of the Russell Building two steps ahead of Jake and Norman. The lobby was set up like an airport. Bags went on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed. The only way to the elevators was through the metal detector before the archway.
Raymond eyed the guard carefully. He was an older man, working alone on an off day. When he noticed them, he got out of his chair and stretched his legs and back like he’d been sitting for a long time. He appeared sleepy, most likely bored and glad to have some company.
Raymond stepped through the metal detector and the alarm started buzzing. The guard’s face lit up with concern. Raymond smiled and shrugged, pointing his gun at the man and watching the concern change to horror and fear. He pulled the trigger and the muzzle flashed. It was fast and clean. Two quick shots to the head and the guard’s eyes went blank. Raymond watched as the old man took a step back and staggered, then did a belly flop onto the tiled floor.
It was over, the gate open and purged.
They rushed through the metal detector toward the body. Jake dug into the guard’s pockets, fishing his keys out and tossing them to Norman. As Norman pulled away the guard’s jacket, the elevator pinged and all three of them turned. The doors opened and a young woman stepped out. She was a blonde and looked pissed off and in a hurry. She glanced at them as she trotted through the archway. When she noticed the guard’s body on the floor and saw the blood shooting out of his forehead like a broken water fountain, she stopped dead in her tracks and tried to scream but nothing came out.
* * *
Frank dragged a wooden bench down the hall, picked it up and heaved it through the mail room door. The glass shattered and Linda and Helen cringed. Reaching inside, Frank found the lock, kicked the broken glass away and pushed the door open.
The room was dark, the layout so antiquated that it felt like a tomb. Frank leapt across the counter and rushed over to the mail slots. The names of each senator were posted above the slots, each slot overflowing with undelivered mail. When he spotted Helen’s, he grabbed the pile and threw it down on the counter. Most of the envelopes were oversized and he sorted through them quickly. It was the third envelope from the bottom and he almost dropped it as his eyes locked on Olson’s name and return address.
He had the evidence in his hands. He ripped open the envelope. There was a DVD inside a paper sleeve, and he read the label.
Meet Mel Merdock
.
They ran down the hall to the elevator, rushed inside and up to Helen’s office. As Frank moved around the desk and slipped the DVD into the computer, Linda and Helen pulled up chairs. The drive on the computer made a whirling sound. Within a few seconds an image appeared on the monitor without being cued.
It was a political spot, crudely modeled after the ad Frank had made against Olson. An image of Mel Merdock removing Beth Williams’s bra opened the piece. They were on a bed in their underwear, their faces so clear it almost looked as if they had been posing for Olson’s camera. As Frank watched, he couldn’t help noticing the woman’s obvious likeness to Juliana. Her hair was the same color and styled in exactly the same way. Their faces were almost a perfect match as well.
The image dissolved into another, the shots picking up speed to the point where Olson had achieved motion with still pictures. Merdock and Williams were naked now, grinding it out with Merdock on top. Only Merdock wasn’t kissing her or even holding her. Instead, he was pushing her and slapping her—then punching her with a closed fist. Merdock was assaulting the woman. Beating her.
Olson read the voice-over copy himself. The sound of his raspy drawl had a spooky feel about it, almost as if he was speaking to them from the other side.
OLSON’S VOICE:
Meet Mel Merdock, candidate for the U.S. Senate. This is where Merdock stands on women’s issues. Merdock says he SUPPORTS the Family Leave Act. He says he SUPPORTS laws barring sexual discrimination in the work place. He says he SUPPORTS stronger laws protecting women from spousal abuse and domestic violence. He even says he SUPPORTS a woman’s right to choose. Mel Merdock says that he supports women. Sure he does. Mel Merdock should NOT be elected to the U.S. Senate. On Tuesday, you can make the difference. Send Mel Merdock to jail.
As the spot ended, Merdock punched the girl in the face and her head snapped back. Frank realized that she had been wearing a wig for Merdock. Beneath the dark hair that mimicked Juliana was a blonde with a battered face. The girl looked back in terror as Merdock tossed the wig on the floor and struck her again. When Merdock seemed to have had enough, he climbed off the bed and started shouting at her, probably blaming her for the rape and beating. Miraculously, the girl lifted her head slightly and turned toward the door. And that’s the way Olson left it. A close-up of Beth Williams’s bruised face, a still life, fading to black.
No one said anything. No one moved.
Frank looked at Linda and Helen staring at the monitor, everyone stunned. As he turned away, he thought about what Randolph had said after Olson’s murder.
The motive usually matches the crime, Frank. The motive matches the crime
. Frank remembered Eddie and Mario telling him that Beth Williams couldn’t be located and had probably returned to Dallas to shoot another TV ad. But that didn’t seem very likely, not with all those bruises on her face. When he looked back at the monitor, the fog finally lifted and he felt another hard wave of anger roll through his gut.
Olson had thought that he’d taken photographs of Merdock beating up his girlfriend. He’d documented the motive for the murders without guessing what the pictures really meant.
Merdock had killed her. And the motive finally matched the crime.
Linda and Helen began to stir, perhaps guessing what Frank was thinking. Ejecting the DVD from the computer, he returned the disk to its paper sleeve and slipped it into his shirt pocket.
“The president called me yesterday,” Helen whispered. “It was after Merdock’s press conference, Frank. I want you to know that I didn’t take the call.”
He nodded at her quietly. Senator Helen Pryor was as elegant a person as Frank had ever met. Another moment passed before he turned back to Linda.
“Let’s go find Randolph,” he said.
Chapter 75
As they left Helen’s office, Frank heard the senator close the door behind them and turn the lock. He looked at Linda walking beside him and could tell that she wasn’t taking it very well. She seemed dazed, numb, lost inside herself. When they turned the corner, Frank looked ahead and noticed an old man pushing a squeaky cart past the elevator. Buckets of ice were stacked on his cart, and the old man was humming a tune. They finally reached the elevator and Frank hit the button. While they waited, he watched the old man unlock a door and vanish inside a senator’s office with a bucket of ice. The office was dark. No one was there or would be until tomorrow.
The elevator arrived. Frank followed Linda inside, pressing the button to the ground floor just as doors closed. Watching ice being delivered to empty offices seemed so odd. Almost eerie.
They reached the first floor and the doors sprung open. As they passed through the lobby, Frank looked for the guard but didn’t see him. When he gave the door a push, it wouldn’t budge. Linda met his eyes and appeared spooked. He tried the door again. They were locked in.
“We need to get out of here,” she said quietly.
Frank turned back to the lobby. He could hear a noise. A clicking sound that seemed to be coming from the x-ray machine. The conveyor belt would move an inch forward, then reset with a click and move an inch back. The machine was jammed. Frank’s eyes rose to the monitor, then froze as he struggled to get a grip on what he was seeing. Two human skeletons were embracing each other on the monitor. He stepped closer in a rush just to make sure, spotting a man’s foot caught in the mouth of the x-ray machine. When he freed it, the conveyor belt started moving again.
He heard Linda gasp and felt his body shudder as the two dead bodies rolled out. He could see Helen Pryor’s chief of staff lying on top of the guard with her legs straddling the man’s thighs. Blood was oozing out of the holes in her head and dripping onto the guard’s haggard face. Their eyes were open and bulging out of their sockets. Their skin looked discolored, like they’d been burned or even cooked by too many x-rays.
Frank grabbed Linda’s hand and started running down the hall. As they hit the stairway heading for the basement, he heard a door slam above them and saw Raymond and Jake leaping down the steps two at a time. Both of them were carrying guns.
Frank tightened his grip on Linda as they skidded into the basement hall. They passed the cafeteria, the news stand. No one was around, everything closed. Beneath Capitol Hill, the government had literally dug its heels into the ground. There were miles of tunnels running from one building to the next. Frank knew that they were in a corridor below street level, the subway station to the Capitol just ahead. But as they reached the escalators, a series of gunshots rang out from behind them and the wall of glass doors evaporated before their eyes. Frank shielded Linda’s face as best he could, the shattered glass exploding in the air and raining down on them like hail. But they couldn’t stop, couldn’t wait, rushing through the storm and down the escalator to the platform below.
A subway car sat before them with its lights out. It was an open car that looked more like a tour ride at Universal Studios. It ran for all of about fifty yards to the Capitol at the other end of the tracks. It looked ridiculous and embarrassing and must have cost a fortune to build. To the right, a wide corridor followed the path of the tracks for those in government who had the strength to walk and talk at the same time.
Frank and Linda bolted down the corridor. As they rounded the curve and hit the steps on the other side, Frank could hear the faraway sound of Raymond and Jake slipping on the shattered glass. Gunshots echoed through the tunnel, louder than before, the rounds knocking out chunks of the wall and spraying them with debris.
Frank and Linda pushed through another set of doors, hitting the main artery beneath the building. It was darker here, and the path swept in a huge arc in both directions. Paintings hung from the walls like an art gallery. If this had been a normal working day, hundreds of people would have been walking back and forth between the Capitol and their offices.
They sprinted to the left, side by side, with Frank listening to the sound of Linda breathing. She had a steady rhythm going. When they hit the stairs, they raced to the top, made a sharp right and found themselves in a narrow passageway. They were running past walls of polished granite now. The lights were out and it was hard to see. Slowing down, Frank could feel his heart thumping in his chest, the heat catching up to him in waves. His eyes stung and he tried to wipe the sweat away. Then the passageway came to a sudden end.
“I made a mistake,” he said between deep breaths. “We should’ve turned the other way.”
There were three doors set into the far wall, each of them locked as Linda checked them. Then Frank spotted a small elevator behind a series of columns and hit the button. Nothing happened at first and he pressed his ear to the doors.
He looked at Linda as he listened. Her eyes were bright and alive and he could see the terror in them. He hammered his fist into the button again. Ten seconds later, he heard the sound of the cables snap into motion. They were moving slowly, casually, stretching quietly at their own speed as the sound of footsteps could be heard racing up the steps and starting down the passageway.
They were closing in on them. The elevator wouldn’t make it in time.
He looked around. The base of the columns stepped up to a ledge ten feet off the ground. Plants adorned each step, including the ledge. As Frank and Linda climbed up, shielding themselves behind the column, Frank gazed down at the lobby below. It wasn’t much of a hiding place, and the footsteps were on top of them now.
Frank inched forward and saw Raymond slinking into the lobby with his gun up and ready. He was alone. He and Jake had probably split up when they found the tunnel running in both directions.
Raymond turned, carefully scanning the entire lobby. He tried the doors first, found them locked and moved toward the columns silently. He was right below them when he noticed the elevator and stopped. The button on the wall remained lighted. Frank could see him staring at it and thinking it over. Obviously, someone had been here and pressed the button. A bead of sweat dripped down Frank’s cheek and off his chin onto the floor beside Raymond’s shoe.
He glanced over at Linda. They were in a bad place. This wasn’t working anymore.
He leapt into the air, dropping onto Raymond with all his weight. The gun fired, the noise deafening, then skidded across the tiles. Raymond scrambled to his feet, his eyes locked on Frank’s with the gun on the floor between them. The elevator finally arrived. The doors opened, polluting the moment with Muzak.