"No way," Shawn said, handing it back to me. "You know I'm not for changing the bid process for city contracts. The Union gets first and last dibs on bids. That isn't going to change any time soon."
I nodded. "I thought you'd say that. Fuck Shawn, you've seen the figures just like I have. The Union bid system is costing the city nearly a hundred million dollars a year. That's a hundred million dollars pissed away on second rate road repairs, shitty civic buildings, and a heating system that leaves me wearing wool socks to the office, and thinking of adding a damn hoodie to my typical work wear. I don't want to spend half the winter walking around City Hall looking like Bill Bellichek."
"I don't care about the fashion, Patrick. I'm not changing my position on the bid system. The Union has a long, strong history in the city, and I'm not going to...."
I sighed and looked at him, shaking my head. "Melinda."
Shawn's flow of words cut off like a speaker that suddenly had its power cord pulled, and he stared at me, open mouthed. "Melinda? What do you mean?"
I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the SD card, handing it over to him. "Don't worry, I have copies of it. You can pull it up if you want, but it shows you and a woman named Melinda Pressman, and another girl, and what looks like an impressive pile of either heroin or maybe cocaine. How old is she, the other girl, Shawn? Only reason I'm asking is because if she was over eighteen, I'll leave this between us. If I find out she was under eighteen, I'm taking it to Bennie Fernandez. City Council isn't as high profile as Deputy Mayor, but I'm sure there's someone in his office that's more than willing to add your scalp to the DOJ's wall."
In fact, I knew the girl was over eighteen, Mark had tracked her down. It was only her look that made her look like she was in junior high school, but I didn't know if Shawn knew that or not. His fingers trembled as he picked up the card. "I know that Roberta and Jack are going to support my proposal, they've been against the Union as much as I have. Mayor Joe will sign off if the council approves it, I know that too. That leaves me needing one more vote."
"And you came to me...." Shawn said, his voice quavering. “Asshole. Why me?"
I sat back, knowing I'd broken him. "Just bad luck, Shawn. I need just one more vote, and you were the first person I had leverage on. I couldn't let it wait any longer."
Shawn's hands still trembled, and I knew he had thought that 'Mary Sophie Collins' had actually been fourteen. I felt bile rise in my throat, and swallowed it down hard. Shawn looked at the card, and dropped it into his front shirt pocket. "You do this, and you're going to have very powerful enemies, Patrick. They'll eviscerate you come next election."
"They might," I agreed. "You know a lot of my skeletons. But I have an advantage on that. Most of the people in the city know my background. Hell, it was part of my campaign, remember? They know I ran in the streets, even if they don't know exactly what parts of the Confederation I was running with. They know that I worked in bars, and that I don't even have a college degree. What else do they have? There’s not a lot of dirt left out there on me.”
Sure, I had one large, very large skeleton in my closet, but that was not something to worry about. After all, I was doing this exactly for that reason. "So what do you say, Shawn? You going to tell Berkowitz to fuck off, or are you going to fall on your sword? You know this could be in Fernandez's inbox about thirty seconds ago, and I’m sure Channel Four would love to make something like this their lead story on tomorrow's five o'clock news."
Shawn blinked, and I saw tears in his eyes as he looked at the ceiling. "Her husband was your source, wasn't he?" he whispered, so low I could barely hear it. “Dammit. She told me she was leaving him, that we'd be able to be together once the lawsuit against MJT was over."
"And you believed her," I said quietly. "You believed her."
Shawn nodded, then looked at me. "We've been at cross purposes for the entire time we've known each other, you know that Patrick? I couldn't believe it, when you moved in with Williams. The one guy on the council I actually liked, and we were working at loggerheads."
I nodded. "Shawn, I actually like you, as a person. That is, until I saw that video. But we've all fucked up in life. Just think about it, and tomorrow, don't let what Melinda Pressman and Francine Berkowitz have on you stop you from voting your conscience."
I got up and left. As I was at the door, I heard Shawn clear his throat. "Patrick?"
"Yes, Shawn?"
"You realize they have the same dirt on me, of course."