Chapter 4: Past Sins

Thursday afternoon

“WE NEED TO TALK TO his wife, Larry.”

He sighed. This wasn’t going to be fun. The late Senate minority leader’s wife was known for her so-called inability to suffer fools, Washington-speak for “jerk.”

Raptor was finishing a late lunch when her telephone chirped.

“Yes. In an hour, OK?”

Larry and Suzanne showed up at Raptor’s residence right on time. They nodded to Echo One and Echo Three. Echo Three opened the front door and announced them.

To their surprise, Raptor looked and acted more human than they expected. Clearly tired and drawn, nevertheless she stood as they entered and offered her hand. Equally surprising was the absence of Raptor’s attorney.

They declined her offer of coffee.

“Ma’am, do you wish to have your attorney present?”

Suzanne hoped the answer would be negative. Raptor’s attorney was famous for his “I’m not a potted plant” declaration to a Congressional subcommittee chairman who was being unusually obnoxious to Raptor during her appearance before the subcommittee a few years ago. Her attorney had followed his declaration with a series of vigorous objections that stalled the hearing for more than an hour.

“Do I need him here?”

Suzanne shrugged.

“Your call, ma’am. You’re not a person of interest in this investigation.”

“Very well.”

Raptor sat back in her chair.

“Ma’am, did your husband have enemies, anyone who would have wanted to harm him?”

Raptor burst out laughing, but her laughter had a bitter tone.

“You’re kidding, right, Detective? Half this town hated him. Half his constituents back home did, too.”

As she spoke, Raptor looked as though she had swallowed something sour.

“Ma’am?”

Suzanne waited for Raptor to continue.

“Look, Detectives, you know what state my husband represented, right?”

Raptor waited until Suzanne and Larry nodded.

“He had a long career. My husband had fixed principles by which he lived, but unlike some he also changed his mind when circumstances dictated.”

Raptor shook her head.

“I’ll say it straight out. When he entered politics, my husband shared the prevailing attitudes in his part of the world about race relations, you know what I mean?”

Larry and Suzanne nodded again.

“Right. Well, it wasn’t long before my husband changed his mind about a lot of it. Some of his early supporters were pretty unhappy about that. You can’t please everybody in this town. You can’t please everyone in our home state, either. My husband refused to toady to racists.”

Raptor laughed. The bitter note was still there.

“Some people can’t accept change, that’s what I think. That’s not all. He knew the end of coal was coming, not soon, but it was coming, and my husband wanted to encourage alternatives. You can imagine how popular that idea was back home.”

Suzanne nodded once more. “We’re already looking into that.” She turned to Larry and waited. He understood his cue.

“You were with your Secret Service detail, right, ma’am?”

“Right.”

“Where was your husband’s Capitol Police protection that afternoon?”

“He’d given it up. Said he didn’t want to have them hanging around all the time. We argued about it but he insisted. I wasn’t going to give up my protection. I’m no longer in the cabinet, but the president who appointed me, not this one, saw fit to continue it after I resigned and I intend to keep it as long as I can.”

She shuddered.

“Thank god for that.”

Suzanne looked at Larry. It was time to go.

“Thank you, ma’am. You’ve been very helpful.”

Raptor didn’t move for long minutes after the detectives left. Finally, she picked up her phone and tapped a contact.