54
SORRY TO keep you waiting, Ms. Snow,” Leah said, extending her hand.
Candace, who’d been cooling her heels for nearly half an hour and didn’t appreciate it, made a point of hesitating an instant before shaking hands. “Thank you for seeing me, Ms. Roth,” Candace replied. “I know your family isn’t the biggest fan of my reporting.”
Leah feigned confusion as she gestured Candace to follow her back to her office. “I don’t think my family has any opinion of you at all, Ms. Snow.”
“Call me Candace.”
“Call me Ms. Roth,” Leah said. Candace turned to her, needing a second before it registered as some form of joke. “An old icebreaker of my father’s. Perhaps it works better among men.”
“Perhaps,” Candace said. “When I said your family wasn’t a fan of mine, I didn’t mean to imply your family paid that much attention to me, just the lawsuit.”
They’d reached Leah’s office, which offered a spectacular view of the park. Candace debated ignoring or complimenting it. Given the extent to which they’d already gotten off on the wrong foot, she decided to go for complimenting.
“Wow,” she said. “That’s quite a view.”
“Thanks,” Leah said. “I imagine you work out of a cubicle?”
“In the newsroom, sure,” Candace said, not rising to the bait.
“I’m sure it helps build a certain esprit de corps,” Leah said.
“Most of my work takes place out in the world,” Candace said. “You know, uncovering corruption, that sort of thing.”
Leah smiled thinly, signaling she was ready to move on from their initial round of territorial pissing. “So, Candace, I understand you were interested in some campaign contributions that were made to Speaker Markowitz?”
“Yes,” Candace said, pulling a piece of paper out of her shoulder bag. “I have a list of LLCs that have made donations to him, and I’m wondering if you can confirm whether they are owned by your family.”
Leah took the paper from Candace but didn’t so much as glance at it. “We do control a number of corporations that have made political contributions, including but not limited to contributions to Speaker Markowitz, who we believe has a very bright future in this city, and perhaps beyond. The limits on political contributions treat every corporation as a separate entity, regardless of who owns it. So there’s nothing illegal, or wrong, about various corporations in which we have an ownership stake making political contributions.”
“But isn’t this just a loophole for you to get around the contribution limits?”
Leah showed no reaction to the challenge. “As I said, under the law, each company is treated as a separate entity, like it was a separate person. So just like a big family can make more contributions than a small family, so can somebody who has an ownership in multiple companies.”
“Do these corporations actually conduct any business? As far as I can tell they’re just shells, other than the political donations they make.”
Leah looked like she was losing patience. “Our tax lawyers handle our various corporate entities,” she said. “I can tell you that all of these companies are properly registered with the state and are legitimate corporations.”
“Can you confirm for me, then, that all the companies on that list are owned or controlled by your family?”
“I wouldn’t know off the top of my head. I’ll have someone get back to you on the list. But I can confirm that we operate numerous LLCs that make political contributions. And I want to stress that Mr. Markowitz is by no means the only politician to whom we make such donations. Any article singling him out and implying wrongdoing on his part would be misinformed, if not libelous.”
Candace was now getting why Leah was meeting with her at all: this was a favor to Markowitz, to make sure he didn’t end up alone in the spotlight. “Could you furnish me with a list of who else you made donations to?”
Leah scoffed. “That’s not something I just have here on my desk. I don’t really see why it’s our obligation to get you that.”
Candace figured it was a waste of time to press the point. “There was one other thing I wanted to ask you about,” she said instead. “Sean Fowler.”
Leah appeared confused, though Candace thought it looked like acting. Interesting, she thought. Had Leah expected to be asked about this?
“What about him?”
“You know who he is?”
“He was working for us when he was murdered,” Leah replied tartly. “Of course I know who he was.”
“He also worked for you at the Aurora, correct?”
Leah looked slightly uncomfortable for the first time in the interview. “What does Mr. Fowler’s death have to do with the Aurora?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Candace shot back.
Leah laughed, or at least made the gesture of laughter. “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re getting at.”
“My understanding is that Mr. Fowler was involved in the embezzling from the Aurora,” Candace said. “Isn’t that your understanding as well?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Leah said. “The man’s dead, Candace. I hope you won’t slander his name with unsupported rumors.”
Candace decided to shift gears—she had no reason to think Leah knew anything about what Fowler had been up to. “Any comment on Jack Pellettieri’s imminent indictment?”
“The only thing I know about that is what I read in your newspaper,” Leah said. “I agreed to speak with you regarding our political donations, Candace, not the accident at the Aurora.”
“Putting the accident to one side, then, how about Pellettieri’s skimming from the project?”
“We’ve become aware of potential issues with some of the billing. Given that there’s litigation, as well as the DA’s investigation, I’m not going to comment further.”
“Are you concerned that your brother is going to be implicated in Pellettieri’s skimming?”
Leah’s gaze turned cold. “Of course not,” she said, the words quick and sharp.
“What I’m hearing is that your brother was actively involved in overbilling the construction costs, and that Sean Fowler was involved with it too. Of course, he’s not going to talk, is he?”
“Print anything like that and we’ll sue you,” Leah said. “You’ve got absolutely no support for that claim—no witness, no documents, nothing.”
Candace was puzzled by Leah’s confidence in that regard. But the most interesting thing was that she was virtually certain that Leah had seen this coming. “I’m not just making this up,” she said. “I do have sources. If you won’t comment, perhaps your brother would?”
“I really don’t think you do have sources. Tommy Nelson was pulling your chain. He’s got a funny sense of humor.”
Candace knew her composure had failed her. She remembered her call to the Aurora after the break-in, being told that Nelson was off the project. “I didn’t say anything about who my sources are,” she managed to say.
“And I didn’t ask,” Leah said. “I don’t ask people to tell me things I already know.”