Lindsay’s smile fades.
“Corning and Harry clashed – hard – over the years within the party, but Harry had no reason to believe Corning was capable of what he eventually ordered.” Marshall appears to fumble for words.
“You mean no one would have guessed he was evil enough to hire three of my friends to rape and torture Lindsay for political gain,” I clarify.
Monica’s eyes dart to me. Harry sighs.
Silas and Mark remain stone faced.
“You could put it that way,” Marshall says in a terse voice.
“I just did.”
Lindsay squeezes my hand. “But how did he do it? How did he get those three guys in particular? They went to school with Drew, he knew them much of his life,” Lindsay asks.
The ten-million-dollar question.
Why Lindsay? Why the gang rape on streaming video? Why such an outrageous act?
“Corning is sealed tight. However, some extraneous information -- ”
A euphemism for hacking.
“ -- reveals that the initial contact was with Blaine Maisri. We’ve found significant sums of money that were channeled through subsidiary accounts connected to Corning supporters and funneled into businesses owned by the Maisri family, but the forensic research on this will take a very long time to unravel.”
“Could you translate that into English?” Lindsay asks.
“Corning paid Maisri off,” Marshall says sourly, not looking at her.
“So those assholes got paid to rape me,” she replies.
Marshall, Harry and Monica flinch.
“Among other things,” I add. “The meteoric rise of Blaine, Stellan and John in their respective careers must have been part of the deal, too.”
Mark finally opens his mouth and says something, brow down with concentration. “How do you use connections to grab a major-league pitching slot? Doesn’t make sense.”
“I can answer that,” Marshall says, shaking his head with a look of admiration and disbelief. “John Gainsborough had natural aptitude, but he also had a good knuckleball. Other teams were already becoming suspicious. Looks like someone was tampering with the balls and Corning helped to get umpires to make calls in Gainsborough’s favor.”
“All we need to do is analyze the balls’ trajectories across enough game footage,” Silas interrupts. “You can pattern match pretty quickly and see how he did it.”
Marshall gives him a hard stare.
“I played in college,” Silas says with a shrug.
“The corruption goes that far?” Mark asks, a sick look on his face. “Tampering with major league baseball? All for a leg up in politics?”
Harry snorts. “Corning isn’t exactly known for his morality. But I never thought...”
“If the goal was to humiliate Daddy by using me, then...” Lindsay falters. “I don’t know.” She shakes her head.
“Say it,” Monica whispers. “Go ahead. Today is the day to just get all this shit out so we can move on.”
“Did they have to be so vicious about it? So sadistic?” Lindsay takes in a long, shaky breath. “And video it?”
“That was all part of the plan, according to some of the communication we’ve intercepted,” Marshall explains. “It needed to be such a scandal that it would dominate headlines. The specific goal was to paint you as an out-of-control slut -- ”
“But -- ”
“There’s more,” Marshall says, holding up his hand, pausing Lindsay. “And to distract the mainstream media while Corning shoved through a massive appropriations bill that contained ethically-questionable riders.”
Harry reels back. “He what?”
Monica’s eyes turn to angry slits. “He used Lindsay’s scandal to distract the country, and Harry, so he could push legislation through Congress?”
“Yes,” Marshall confirms. “It was a massive distraction.”
Harry lets out a colorful ribbon of expletives.
“What happened four years ago wasn’t enough, though,” says Marshall, his voice hard. “Harry persevered. Won re-election and dodged the scandal. So when it was time to declare for he was running for president and bring Lindsay home, Nolan Corning brought everyone back for Round Two.”
“And set me up for Lindsay’s murder,” I grind out.
“How did you get into the apartment next door?” Marshall asks, terse. His beady eyes hold a mixture of judgement and admiration.
“I manipulated the woman who lives next door,” I start to explain.
“Tiffany,” Lindsay says in a catty voice. She leans toward my ear and whispers, “You weren’t sleeping with her, right? Jon and Stellan tried to convince me you were.”
“You think I’d cheat on you?” I hiss, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Lindsay turns beet red. “No. It’s just they said -- ”
I give her a look that says nothing those dead bastards ever said is true.
She squeezes my hand and sighs. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for.” I kiss her cheek and return my attention to Marshall. “So Corning ‘reactivated’ Blaine, John and Stellan.”
“He had enough dirt on them,” Marshall says flatly.
Monica gives a bitter laugh. “Your father’s approval ratings have soared since the story came out about Nolan Corning!” Monica gushes, her voice a strange brew of over-the-top enthusiasm and stark fury. “This has been absolutely fabulous for his campaign.”
“Glad to be of help,” Lindsay mutters.
I explode.
Lindsay
I am not used to having my own cheering section 24/7. He’s holding my hand and screaming at my mother. No one ever mentioned that when you fall in love, this constant defender comes with the territory.
I like it.
“No matter how many times I tell myself you have more depth, you find a way to disprove it, Monica! Jesus Fucking Christ, no one cares about Harry’s approval ratings!” Drew shouts.
Daddy and Marshall interrupt him, saying, “Actually, we do,” both at the same time.
“Not at Lindsay’s expense!” Drew snaps.
Mom looks like he called her a bad name.