Conspiracy

139

The McSweeney campaign made a bus available for the reporters covering the senator during his appearances. The bus tooled along at the end of a pro cession of vehicles that included the senator and his aides in a pair of Ford sedans, bodyguards in a Chevy SUV, and various hangers-on in a Chrysler minivan. While strictly speaking there were no assigned seats in the bus, a caste system generally dictated who sat where. The best seats were in the back, where the big dailies and newsmagazine people sat; smaller papers and freelancers got the middle; and newcomers got everything else. Karr found this out by accident, plopping down next to Theresa Seelbach, the Newsweek writer he’d met the day before. She smirked and started to laugh, then explained how it worked.

“It’s like junior high,” she told him.

Karr had skipped much of junior high, but he started to get up anyway.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “Sit down. You’re kind of cute, and so big I don’t think anyone will ask you to move.” Karr smiled, though he felt himself blushing.

“Got anything useful for your story yet?”

“Not much,” said Karr. “We don’t actually see McSweeney too much, do we?”

“Not really. Ten minutes here, five minutes there.”

“Maybe I can write about the food. Breakfast was OK.”

“God, I couldn’t stomach anything,” said Seelbach. “Going to be another boring day today. A million stops. We’ll hear the same speech and step over the same drunks.”

“Maybe somebody will take a shot at him again,” said the reporter sitting behind them.

“You think?” said Karr.

The others nearby laughed, but the reporter who had said it turned serious. “Gallows humor, son.”

“Who do you think shot at him?”

“One of his campaign people, I’d bet,” said Seelbach.

“Why do you think he started listening to them?” The others started making similar jokes. It was clear that the reporters had no serious theories, or at least weren’t sharing them.

“What about the Vietnamese thing?” asked Karr as the jokes petered out.

“Oh, that’s a crock,” said Seelbach. “The Secret Service and the FBI say there’s no evidence. McSweeney probably made the whole thing up to draw attention to the fact that he served there. He never does or says anything without an agenda.”

“Whoever did it, it was great for his campaign,” said the reporter behind Karr. “He was fading before then. Look at him now. He’s on top of the world. If I were him, I’d put that sniper on the payroll.”

“As long as he continues to miss,” said Karr.

This time, the others laughed with him, rather than at him.