marriage. But Dan had insisted that she should get in with a more prestigious firm.
“One that can get me into a governorship,” he laughingly had told her.
Secretly she didn’t find that so funny. But in the end, she had acquiesced and started looking for another firm.
But for some strange reason, she was not accepted, and Jenene began to believe it was not because she was relatively inexperienced in the field, but rather because Senator Vincent was her father. She began a slow fume that grew hotter and hotter each time she was not accepted, and she vowed this was not going to happen to her. She took an extended leave of absence from her present job to determine just what course of action would be best.
She checked her mirror. Yes, she was beautiful, that she knew, and yes, she was smart, that she knew too. Yes, she had enough money in the trust to see her through life.
“But that isn’t enough,” she told her mirror. “I want my parents’ murderers. I want to see them suffer, long and hard, and I will do whatever it takes to do it!”
As she began dressing, the phone rang. It was her office, informing her that the postman had tried to deliver a certified letter addressed to her, but no one could sign for it as it was marked restricted to addressee only. Jenene told her to hold on to the postal slip and she would be down to pick it up later that afternoon. She finished dressing with some anxiety penetrating her thoughts. Why would someone send her a certified letter restricted to addressee only, and why to her office and not at her home?
I have been concentrating on my parents too much, she thought, and I am too quick to get jittery.
Nevertheless, she skipped breakfast, grabbed her purse, headed to the office, and got the slip, and although quite anxious to find out about the letter, she decided to check it out later in the afternoon after finishing with the appointments she had scheduled. The afternoon became late, and Jenene was finally able to go to the post office. It took some time to get the letter, and Jenene found her heart pounding.
Why am I feeling this way? she thought. I will know in a few minutes who the letter is from.
When she finally got the letter, she tore the envelope open immediately and felt herself go faint as she read the six words on the letter: “I know who killed your parents.”
Chapter 3
The Meeting
Dan glanced at the clock again. Tara was still there, and it was long past her quitting time.
“Take the rest of the night off, Tara,” he said to her in what he hoped was a joking manner. “I can manage without you until morning.”
She countered with “Cheating on the little wife tonight, Dan?” in her most joking manner, grabbed her purse, and with an “I’m out of here,” left him to himself, and Dan found himself thinking strongly of “his green-eyed Cheri.”
Dan sat there for some time contemplating the meeting with Arnie. He was rapidly becoming nervous, and he considered not even going. Curiosity finally won out over trepidation, and he picked up his briefcase and headed out.
As he reached the street, he heard the boom of thunder and the crackling of lightning. A summer thunderstorm was in the making, and just as he hailed a cab, the deluge started.
I hope this isn’t some kind of omen, he thought, but I won’t turn back now.
The rain poured steadily and hard, and the streets were running deep in water. Dan had seen this kind of rain many times in Nevada, and he began to wonder if they would make it to Louie’s.
But the driver, too, had experienced these storms, and they pulled up to the restaurant only slightly late.
The maître d’ escorted him to the booth where Arnie was, and drew the drapes. Dan introduced himself, somehow feeling awkward, still feeling apprehensive about this clandestine meeting.
“Okay,” said Dan, “let’s hear it.”
“Well,” said Arnie, “you may recall several years ago when Senator Vincent was accused of accepting a bribe to vote no on a proposed tax bill to increase corporate income taxes on the casinos? What you don’t know is that although Senator Vincent did vote no on the proposed bill, he did not take any bribe, but it was rigged with enough evidence to make it look that way. Vincent did some investigating on his own and had found out that Senator Patrick, then only a congressman, was the one who had set him up, and Vincent evidently had some good proof of that. I can tell this as fact because I was aware of all of this. When Senator Patrick became aware of the proof that Vincent had, and further knew that Vincent was going to go public with that information, I was called in to ‘take care’ of the matter.”
My lord, Dan thought, he doesn’t realize I am married to Vincent’s daughter.
“Before we go any further,” Dan said, “it sounds to me you are about to confess to murder. Be sure you know what you are doing here.”
“I am sure,” Arnie whispered, “my whole life depends on you helping me.”
“You want then to tell me just how you ‘took care’ of it?”
“Well, everyone knew that the Vincents were avid horse riders. It didn’t take much effort to find out their riding schedules and to give their horses enough drugs at the right time to make them go completely crazy—and they did, with a little help from me, and that ‘took care of the matter.’ The community wept, but no one even suggested a blood test on the horses for drugs. I got paid handsomely. Congressman Patrick threw his hat in the ring for the open spot for senator and, of course, won hands down.”
“This is the charge you want me to defend you on?” asked Dan. “Why is this being brought up now? If you haven’t been charged with this after all these years, why are you telling me this? What are you leaving out? I need to know it all, Arnie, or I won’t be able to defend you.”
Arnie began to sweat profusely.
God, thought Dan, do I really want to know?
“The governor knows,” said Arnie. “Don’t ask me how, but he knows, and he plans to use it when he starts campaigning against Patrick.”
“Where does that leave you, Arnie?” asked Dan.
Again, Arnie began to sweat profusely. “You’ve got to know, Dan, what I am expected to do now. I have a second job. I have to ‘take care of the matter’ again. He’s got to be a dead man, Dan, and soon.”
“You are talking about for Jenesen, aren’t you?” Dan asked as his heart began hammering louder and louder.
Arnie nodded vigorously, and he began babbling almost incoherently.
“Slow down,” Dan said to him, “I can’t understand you.”
“I just can’t do it,” Arnie babbled on. “I just can’t do it. They will kill me too. This is not an ordinary hit. I’m up to my eyeballs in this one. If I do it, they’ll get me because I would stop Jenesen, but I wouldn’t be safe to leave around for Patrick’s campaign. If I don’t do it, they will figure I know too much to live.”
“Then how come
