His face paled. “That’s—that’s ridiculous. I don’t have enemies. Who would hurt me? That makes no sense.” He paused. “The detective asked me if I had enemies, and I don’t. You can ask him. I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?”
“No, Mr. Huang,” Dean assured him. “But our crime lab has analyzed the crime scene, and we believe that the shooter was aiming at you, not Mr. Hart.”
“That—I—I don’t understand.”
“You’ve worked for Mr. Hart for the past year, correct?”
“Yes—since he was appointed as Mr. Goodman’s replacement. I worked for Mr. Goodman in the Senate, then stayed on with him when he was elected LG. Mr. Goodman was a great man. I’m still close to his family.”
“You’re Mr. Hart’s legislative consultant, correct?”
“Yes, but as I explained to the detective the other day, the LG doesn’t have much to do with legislation. I simply review pending legislation and give him a briefing, so he knows what’s happening, what he might want to write a press release on, things like that. But he doesn’t vote unless there’s a tie in the Senate. There hasn’t been a tie since he was elected.”
“Has Mr. Hart asked you to do anything that was different from what you did for Mr. Goodman?”
“I—I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Do you have added duties? Anything unrelated to legislation?”
“No.”
Matt spoke up. “In the last few months, has Mr. Hart acted out of character? Has he done or said anything that made you nervous?”
“Mr. Hart has always been the same.”
“Do you like him?”
“He’s a good boss.”
“Good how?”
“I do my job, he reads my reports, says thank you. I don’t interact with him much.”
“Then why were you at a campaign event?”
“It was my lunch hour.”
“So you wanted to be there? To support him?”
“No, he needed me to be available to answer questions about legislation. I keep up to date on all important bills, and because of Mr. Hart’s focus on criminal justice reform, I am particularly well-versed in all matters of public safety legislation. If a reporter asked something he might not know off the top of his head, I would be available to give him a quote.”
“So it was your idea.”
“No, of course not, I don’t work on campaigns, but I checked with our legal counsel and he said that as long as I was on my own time, I could assist. It’s legal. I have a letter confirming that.”
“Do you habitually run things by legal counsel?”
“Yes. Mr. Goodman never wanted anyone think he was crossing a line, so if he had any concerns, he’d ask me to draft a letter and get an opinion.”
“And Mr. Hart?”
“He’s a lawyer, he knows more about the law than Mr. Goodman did.”
“So he hasn’t asked you about getting legal opinions.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
Still, Huang frowned, as if assessing something.
Dean asked, “Have you witnessed Mr. Hart engaged in any activities that you considered borderline? Something that Mr. Goodman might have gotten a legal opinion for?”
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.” Huang sipped his water and stared at the untouched coffee.
Dean leaned forward until Huang raised his gaze to meet Dean. “I’m going to trust you, Eric. If I’m wrong, a three year investigation is going up in smoke. But I don’t think I’m wrong. I think that you’re a good legislative aide, that you believe in the system, that you do not cross lines, that you have never consciously broken the law.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong. I swear, Agent Hooper.”
“Good. Because your boss may not be as squeaky clean as you.”
Huang wasn’t an idiot. He immediately knew what Dean meant.
“You’ve been investigating Mr. Hart? Three years ... that’s from before he was even appointed.”
“We believe that Mr. Hart is associating with a known criminal who may have been using Hart for political favors. We have circumstantial evidence, but nothing that proves he’s been taking bribes. Because he doesn’t vote on legislation, we can’t pin much on him.”
“Oh my God,” Huang said.
Matt’s heart pounded.
“Is this about the contract? Except that was just last month.”
“Explain,” Matt said.
“The economic development committee that Mr. Hart chairs gave a contract to Star Consulting for a study. The committee put out bids, and Star came in lowest. Except, they didn’t. I found another bid had been submitted, but Mr. Hart said they’d pulled it. I didn’t think anything of it, but then a letter came in from the lower bid company demanding a freedom of information act request about the bidding process. I started putting it together, but Mr. Hart said he would take care if it. That was ... odd. When I asked about it a week later, he said that it had been a misunderstanding.”
Dean slid a piece of paper and pen to Huang. “Write it all down. The names of the people involved. Dates. Everything you can remember.”