Chapter Fourteen
Gavin’s body language looked especially argumentative when he strolled into Jackson’s office for his meeting. Jackson himself felt the kind of mellow that only came the morning after really good sex, which was its own problem, but he decided he wouldn’t let Gavin harsh on his high too much.
“Can I get you some coffee or—” Jackson offered.
Gavin shook his headand sat in the spare chair. “So this Tucker guy.”
Jackson was happy enough to cut to the chase. He couldn’t blame Gavin for being angry. Gavin’s stubborn adherence to the wrong theory of the crime still pissed Jackson off, but he knew he’d crossed a line when he’d threatened to sue. Whether Gavin took that personally remained to be seen. “Listen, before we get into it, can I please apologizefor my yelling about a lawsuit?”
Gavin waved his hand. “You think it’s the first time someone’s threatened to sue me? I get how your occupation works.”
Jackson was also Gavin’s friend and he’d been out of line. He’d regretted yelling at Gavin as soon as he had, but some weird protective streak had developed when dealing with Park. “Still, it was an inappropriate thing to say. I know you’redoing your job.”
“Yeah. Well, I wanted to meet with you because I have to get a report to my boss by the end of today. He plans to release a statement to the press updating them on the investigation, probably tomorrow. But before I file the report, I wanted to go over a couple of things with you.”
“You tracked down Tucker?”
“Not exactly.” Gavin let out a breath. “You saw him at thehotel yesterday?”
“Yeah. He stopped me in the lobby when I went in to pick up Park for our appointment with you.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked if I’d be able to exonerate Park soon. Something like that. Said the RNC was anxious to get the campaign back up and running.”
“According to his neighbors, he hasn’t been home since Monday.”
It was now Saturday. Jackson didn’t love workingon weekends, but he wasn’t upset about being in his office, since he wanted something to keep his mind off Park—although indirectly talking about Park didn’t really help with that. “But he met with Park Wednesday night. And I saw him yesterday.”
Gavin raised his eyebrows. “I’ve got a car doing surveillance on his building, but he’s gone.”
“That’s...fishy.” If Tucker was in the city buthadn’t been home, who knew where he could be now. “Can we get more security at Park’s hotel?”
“Already taken care of. I’ve got a couple of plainclothes guys hanging out in the lobby right now. Livingston’s still got those goons guarding his room, right?”
“He does, yes.” And hadn’t Jackson felt sheepish sneaking out of the room at ten the night before. Maybe the arrival of food could haveconvinced them Park and Jackson were mostly talking and eating. He hoped so anyway. Jackson and Park did watch Martha dazzle a series of cable news hosts as she did the circuit, updating everyone on the case. She was brilliant, actually, persuasive and on-message. Even better, most of the hosts had wanted to ask her policy questions for when the campaign got going again, which was good to see.
Gavin nodded. “I ran a background check. Kenneth Tucker does indeed work for the RNC, but from what I can tell, he’s a low-level wonk, a guy who crunches numbers and writes reports. He lives in DC most of the year, but he grew up in the Bronx and still has an apartment a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. Which isn’t really important, except that I called a contact I have in DC, who checked outTucker’s apartment there. He hasn’t been there in three months.”
“We already know he’s in New York.” Jackson couldn’t quite make sense of this. “Wait, what does Tucker even want with Park?”
“I’m still working on the motive. And he could have been bouncing back and forth between New York and DC.”
“Not to point out the obvious, but this is not the behavior of an innocent man, is it?I mean, he’s shown up at Park’s hotel twice that we’re aware of, but he’s otherwise vanished. But if he’s a worker bee, he has no business acting as a spokesman for the RNC and he shouldn’t be, say, snagging the attention of Park’s lawyer in the lobby of his hotel.”
“Yeah. I’ve put a couple of guys on trying to find him. His photo is circulating and he’s officially wanted for questioning.I have to decide whether or not I want his photo to be a part of the statement we release to the press.” Gavin leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a moment. When he looked back at Jackson, he said, “I wish I had more time. And that it wasn’t the fucking weekend. Most of my regular staff is out today.”
“Any luck with the other unidentified people in the video?”
That wasprobably the wrong thing to ask. Gavin went from tired to angry with a snap of his head, surprising Jackson. “I’m working on it.”
There was a raw nerve here. What was Gavin being defensive about? “But you’ve been over the tape, right? You probably have a pretty solid theory of the crime now, right?”
“Yeah. I can’t definitively say Tucker is the killer, but his being in the building issuspicious. The other people in the building are reasonable doubt, though. A lawyer with half your talent could easily poke holes in the case I’ve got so far.”
“Can I help at all? I mean, maybe if we talk it out, we’ll arrive at something more concrete.”
Gavin smirked. “You like the investigative part of your job, I see.”
