Chapter Seventeen
Afew minutes later, Brant admitted Agents Robert Mercer, Olivia Jenson and Hank Reynolds, and introduced them to Sam and Freddie.
“Thanks for making the time to meet with us.” Sam gestured for them to have a seat on the sofa. “I understand that you were three of the agents on President Nelson’s detail during the campaign.”
“We were,” Jenson said.
“Were you aware that he was involved in an affair with Tara Weber?”
“We aren’t at liberty to speak about the president’s personal business,” Mercer said.
“I understand and respect your position, but what I’m looking for is a sense of whether this was a well-kept secret or something everyone was aware of.”
“We aren’t at liberty to discuss the president’s personal business,” Reynolds said.
Sam realized they weren’t going to budge on that, so she changed tactics. “What can you tell me about Ms. Weber and the role she played on the campaign?”
“She was a pollster and strategist,” Mercer said. “She was a central figure in the campaign.”
“Do you know of anyone related to the campaign who might’ve had a beef with her?”
“She tangled with Hanigan a lot,” Jenson said. “They often disagreed about the strategy. But it was all professional disagreement as far as I saw.”
“I concur,” Reynolds said. “They frequently disagreed, but it was always regarding the campaign. It wasn’t personal.”
“That’s very helpful,” Sam said. “Is there anything else you can tell me about her that might be helpful in determining who killed her?”
“I can’t think of anything,” Jenson said. “It wasn’t our job to pay attention to her as anything other than someone who was around the president during the campaign.”
Sam handed each of them a business card. “If you think of anything else that might be relevant, please get in touch. No detail is too small.” After they took the cards from her, she thanked them for their time.
They got up and left the room.
“Did I detect a chill in the air?” Sam asked Brant when the three of them were alone again.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Brant said.
“Could it be they think I should have a detail and are annoyed that I don’t?”
“That’s possible,” Brant said, “but I’ve never heard any of them come right out and say that.”
“Would they say it to you as Nick’s lead agent?”
“I honestly don’t know that, ma’am.”
Sam realized she was putting the agent on the spot and backed off. “Thank you for your help.”
“Anytime.”
After he left, she asked Lilia to ask Derek Kavanaugh to come see her. After the insight provided by the agents regarding Tara’s tumultuous relationship with Hanigan, Sam decided to see the two men separately.
Derek Kavanaugh arrived at her door ten minutes later. “You wanted to see me?”
“Hi there. Come in. Thanks for making the time.”
“Sure. What’s up?” He had light brown hair, warm brown eyes and a wiry but muscular build.
“We’re investigating Tara Weber’s murder.”
“Oh. Right.” His eyes held the haunted gaze of a man whose own life had been touched by murder.
“I know this strikes close to home for you,” Sam said gently to the man who was a close friend of Nick’s and thus hers as well. “But we’re looking for any insight you can give us about the relationship between Tara and the president during the campaign.”
“I didn’t travel with the campaign because I have Maeve and couldn’t leave her for that long.” His daughter had been a year old when his wife, Victoria, was murdered. They’d recently celebrated Maeve’s second birthday. “So I wasn’t there for whatever went on.”
“Did you hear about it from others who were there?”
He shrugged. “There were rumblings.”
“What sort of rumblings?”
“That they seemed cozy. That was the word Tom Hanigan used to describe it to me.”
“Was he concerned? Were you?”
“Yeah, we both were. We were concerned about the optics of him appearing cozy with one of his staffers and what would happen if the press noticed they were spending a lot of time together.”
“Were you aware that Mrs. Nelson was undergoing cancer treatment at that time?”
“We knew something was up with her, because she wasn’t available to campaign with him the way she’d been the first time.
We didn’t know what exactly until after the inauguration when he confided in us that she’d received good news.
He was elated, telling us she was cancer free.
Tom and I were stunned to hear that she’d had cancer in the first place.
We commented later that we were surprised they’d been able to keep something like that from us, but they’d pulled it off. ”
“How did they pull it off?”
“She sought treatment at MD Anderson in Houston. The hospital staff worked with the Secret Service to ensure her privacy was maintained. When she basically disappeared from public life for six months, it was explained as a family situation that no one questioned. All eyes were focused on the campaign at that time, so she was able to quietly disappear.”
“If you and Tom noticed the president and Ms. Weber were cozy, as you put it, surely others did, too. Is that the case?”
“People were definitely talking. Tom had a conversation with Tara. He told her she was being cut from the traveling staff.”
“What did she say?”
“You’d have to ask him for the specifics, but the president intervened and said she would continue to travel with the team. Basically, Tom was overruled.”
“And how did Tom take that?”
“He wasn’t happy. He felt the president’s behavior was foolish and risky and so far out of character as to be worrisome.”
“How so?”
“David Nelson isn’t a man who takes unnecessary risks, especially in his political career. He’s always played by the book, but in this case, he seemed to lose all perspective at the worst possible time.”
“Was he in love with her?”
“I guess he probably was since he risked everything to be with her.” Derek leaned in, his expression intense.
“I want to be clear—I didn’t approve of what he was doing and not only as his employee.
It disgusted me as a man and a husband. Or, well, a former husband.
Gloria deserved better than to be humiliated in this way.
It was infuriating to me that he would take chances not only with his political reputation but with his personal life, too.
A lot of people depend on him, and I felt like he was letting us all down.
” He sat back in his chair, slumping as if the fight had gone out of him. “I almost quit during the campaign.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“For the same reason I haven’t quit since the affair became public.
I need the job. I have a daughter to support.
During the campaign, I was still getting used to being a single parent.
The thought of starting over was more than I cared to take on at that time.
So I stayed, even though I was appalled. ”
“Did the relationship continue after the campaign?”
“I believe it did.”
“How?” Sam struggled to figure out the logistics of an affair with one of the most well-protected men on earth.
“One-on-one ‘strategy’ sessions.” Derek made air quotes around the word “strategy.” “The sessions continued well into the new administration.”
Sam wrinkled her nose. “They were fooling around in the Oval Office?”
“Obviously, I don’t know that for sure, but that’s the theory.”
“Ugh, this is so seedy.”
“Believe me, I know. The thing I never understood is why someone who had everything he does would risk his reputation, his legacy, his family, his marriage… I don’t get it.”
“It does seem rather insane for someone who has the eyes of the world on him to take such a chance.” Sam knew she had to ask, even if the possibility felt preposterous.
But a week ago, she would’ve said the idea of Nelson having an affair with a campaign staffer was equally preposterous.
“Let me ask you this… Is there any possibility he had something to do with her murder?”
“You know, I’ve asked myself that, and while I can’t picture him arranging a hit on his mistress, two years ago, I couldn’t imagine him having an affair in the first place.
But I keep coming back to what would he have to gain?
The news was already out about the affair and the baby.
How would killing her fix anything? It’s only made everything worse. The media is crucifying him.”
“Who would benefit from seeing him crucified?”
“His political enemies, for one.”
“Anyone in particular?”
“It’s no secret that there’s no love lost between him and Senator Stenhouse.”
“Ah, our old friend Senator Stenhouse. Remember him, Detective Cruz?”
“All too well,” Freddie said.
They had interviewed the senate minority leader during the O’Connor investigation. Suffice to say the man had not appreciated their visit. He was a pompous ass, and she’d love nothing more than to have cause to question him in another Homicide investigation. “Anyone else?”
“The list of people who hate Nelson is endless. You know how this town works. If you’re the one in power, people hate you. A lot of people are celebrating the fact that his dead mistress is causing trouble for him.”
Add that to the long list of reasons Sam hoped that Nick never ascended to the top job.
It was bad enough that people hated him simply because he was vice president.
That hatred would grow exponentially if he became president.
The thought of people hating him because of the office he held spiked her anxiety.
She forced herself to push those worries to the back burner to focus on the job at hand with the secondary goal of keeping him right where he was—in the number two job.
“If you can think of anyone specifically, we’d like to know. ”
“I’ll think about that.”
“What’s the theory on where the story about the affair came from?”
“We think it came from her.”
“Seriously?”
“That’s the theory. She was pissed that he’d cut things off with her, wasn’t returning her calls, etc. So she found a way to get his attention by leaking the story about the affair and the baby.”