Ashley followed Josh’s line of sight and grimaced. “That’s Charles.”
“He wasn’t on your list.”
“Charles is a colleague. I meant to tell you about him.”
“He doesn’t like you.”
“He resents me,” Ashley corrected. “The man covets what I have—my seat and now my position as leader.”
“I’ll check into his background. Anyone else you missed from your list? Pissed off colleagues?”
Ashley released a snort. “Right now, several of the Labor politicians have their noses out of joint. What they don’t realize is that if I don’t perform well, I’ll be out on my butt too.”
7 – Recalling The Past
The news began as he was driving past Awful Ashley’s house. His hands tightened on the steering wheel when the lead story mentionedher.
Huh.
She’d be in the public arena more. Harder to get at without one of her adoring fans seeing him, perhaps witnessing something they shouldn’t.
He replayed his plan, glanced at Awful Ashley’s driveway. She had a visitor.Bugger. No spray-painting this afternoon.
He considered his plan for Robert, his schedule, and his frown cleared.
Even better.
Given her position as the new opposition party leader, this brainwave would injure her chances of election, cast doubt on her suitability to run the country.
All he needed was to cause a diversion, get people talking, wondering.
The old story to surface to injure her reputation.
The truth.
And if that failed, he’d resort to Plan B.
Didn’t matter what happened to him afterward.
He’d died a long time ago.
* * * * *
The flight back to Auckland was half-full, which gave Josh the opportunity to speak with Ashley and question her regarding his discoveries.
This morning she’d slicked her hair into another ponytail. He cast his mind back to Summer’s instruction on hairstyles. Yeah, she’d called it a high ponytail. It gave Ashley the cute factor, but he preferred her hair loose. The tousled and just out-of-bed look did it for him.
“Tell me more of this envy thing with Charles.”
“My best guess is Charles Jamieson is pissed because the party chose me to be their new leader. He hasn’t forgiven me for winning the nomination to stand for the Manurewa electorate. He hated that. Charles coveted the seat. What you’re seeing is plain jealousy.”
“Enough to spiral into stalking you?”
“No, I…” She shook her head. “He might dislike me, but that doesn’t mean he’s the person sending me weird notes.”
“Did you date him?”
“Once. He didn’t ask me out again after I won the right to stand for the Manurewa seat.”
