Leslie presses the letter to her lips as the tears fall down her cheeks. The last bit of mistrust she had for John melted away. It still stings that John had kept so much of his life a secret from her, but she no longer doubted that he did it out of love. She struggles to her feet, Josephine butting her in the shins, and takes the letter into her bedroom so she can place it in her keepsake box. The last letter she’ll ever receive from John. And, it’s in his own hand. She will never throw it away. She opens her keepsake box and reverently places the letter inside, right on top of John’s smiling face. She touches the letter, briefly, before closing the box. Only when she is done does she remember that she has the packet John sent her. She pulls out a sheaf of papers, most of them computer print-outs, sits down on the bed, and begins reading.
She already knows the basics, of course, though John goes into greater detail. There are several pieces of paper that has his written commentary on the case. He reveals that Amy did, indeed, have evidence that her father embezzle money from his campaign. In addition, he was getting paid to play—meaning he accepted large sums of money to vote a certain way. Now, this wasn’t very surprising as many politicians take bribes. However, the shocking part was that Senator Robertson had conspired with other senators to vote en bloc. He refused to name the other senators, but sources said that Senator Bronson was one of them. John listed several deals that Senator Bronson had made that were questionable, but every time a case went to trial, and important witness would either clam up or suddenly disappear. Now, Senator Bronson had higher aspirations. He had tossed his name into next year’s gubernatorial race just to test the waters, but he was widely expected to be the front-runner in the 2016 election. All bets were off, of course, if he were found guilty of taking bribes. The voters might not mind, but the FBI surely would. The only other comment about Senator Bronson was that he’d been accused of molesting girls over the years. Leslie scowls. She pushes that thought to the back of her mind because she doesn’t want to deal with it at the moment.
I kept myself ramrod as I marched to my car because I knew better than to show fear. Once I had driven out of eyesight of the detectives, however, I allowed my body to sag. I cursed Kayla under her breath for running to Matt with her problems, Matt for beseeching me to help out, and me for being such a sucker than I couldn’t say no. Everything about this case felt wrong, not to mention icky, and I wished I’d never agreed to help out in the first place. This wasn’t like Without a Trace where the problem of a missing person was solved in an hour with everything falling into place. No, this was like a serial that got canceled before the finale was shown. I had a hunch that there would be many twists and turns before the truth to this sordid matter came out.
“Ok, you two,” my mother says firmly. “You need to rest. Go home.” Lyle and I begin to protest through our tears. The last thing I want to do is leave Paris. “Go! You need real sleep—not an hour here and there. Take Lyle’s truck and crash at Rainbow’s. I’ll stay with Catherine. I have my car if I need it.” When my mother decides on a course of action, the best thing to do is to follow it.
