Guilty Minds

59

I stood up, and then Mandy did. “You’re absolutely right,” I said. “I’m Nick Heller and this is Mandy Seeger.”

“So you’re the one who torched my website,” she said to me, wagging a finger, mock-stern. “I know who you are. You’re a real troublemaker. And of course I know who your father is.” She turned toward Mandy. “And you — aren’t you the reporter?”

“Until yesterday,” Mandy said, “I used to be an employee of yours. I wrote the piece on Jeremiah Claflin.”

“I thought so. Ash Norcross warned me someone might be coming. But he didn’t say they’d be crashing my party. Ballsy of you two to show up like this. I love it.” She flashed a bright smile. “All right, somehow you two figured out who owns Slander Sheet. Now you know my deep dark secret. So what the hell do you want?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” I said. “What the hell do you want?”

“Excuse me?”

“Either you or your people are covering up the death of a twenty-two-year-old girl. Whether you ordered it or not, it’s going to come back to bite you.”

Mandy stared at me. I could almost see the cartoon thought bubble above her head: So much for going in at a slant.

“I don’t know what on earth you’re referring to.” She seemed genuinely baffled.

“There was a call girl named Kayla Pitts, who was—”

“That poor girl killed herself!”

“I’m afraid not. Your people killed her because they were afraid she’d start telling the truth about the Claflin story.”

“My... people? What in God’s name—?”

“We know you hired the Centurions to eliminate a threat.”

“Oh, do you? I know who the Centurions are, and no, I certainly didn’t hire them.”

“Then someone did.”

She put out her hands, palms up, arms wide. “Well, then, you crashed the wrong party, because I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“You wanted to bring down Jeremiah Claflin by any means necessary.”

She pointed an index finger at me. “Oh, now, please. That’s an exaggeration. Did I want to bring Claflin down? Hell, yes! Guilty as charged!” She gave a long sigh. “Do you mind if we sit down? I’ve been on my feet for three hours. No, not on those chairs. I don’t have enough padding on my butt.” She waved toward a grouping of overstuffed lounge chairs in front of a tall fireplace.

We walked over there, waited for her to sit, and then I sat closest to her, because my instinct told me she was one of those women who just prefers men. My instinct on this was rarely wrong.

She shifted in her chair until she was facing me, and only me.

Now she spoke more quietly. “That girl — the little trollop Heidi or whatever her name was — how do you know it wasn’t a suicide?”

“I have sources inside the police.” That was about as close to the truth as I wanted to give her.

“But why in the world — who? — I don’t understand.”

I answered her question with a question. “How did you first get the Claflin story?” I already knew the answer to that question, but I wanted to see if she knew, too.

“I own the website; I don’t run it. I didn’t get it. Julian Gunn told me about it. The prostitute contacted” — she turned to look at Mandy, seeming surprised she was still there — “you! Right?”

“That’s right,” Mandy said.

“We didn’t search it out. It came to us. You didn’t make it up, right?”

Mandy said, “Right.”

“You didn’t know it was fake when you wrote the story, right?”

“Right.”

Satisfied, Ellen Wiley turned back to me. “You think I wanted Slander Sheet to run a story that would only end up making us look ridiculous? I mostly keep my hands off. I’m not an editor. I let Julian do his thing. Oh, sure, Julian knows certain stories make my heart beat faster. He caters to my sweet tooth. He knows I like making mischief.”

“Mischief,” I repeated. “Is that what Slander Sheet is?”

“When I was a little girl and my mother put me in these perfect little dresses and pinafores, the first thing I’d do was run outside and roll in the dirt, or play in the barn. I always loved getting messy and dirty and it drove my mother right up the wall. That’s why I had to buy Slander Sheet. Make a little mess. But you think if I knew the story was cooked up I’d let Julian run it?”

“If it forced Claflin off the court.”

She laughed, a deep laugh that came from her chest. “Oh ho, is that what you think? Honey, let me tell you something. I won’t deny I despise that man, Claflin. Ever since that ridiculous lawsuit in the nineties, with all those attorneys general going after the tobacco companies. When he was on the sixth circuit US Court of Appeals. Claflin’s one of those prim-and-proper types who like to tell people what vices they’re allowed to have. The nanny state and all.”

“Then again, the lung cancer thing is kind of a bummer.”

She laughed, and this time it was the coquettish laugh of a sixteen-year-old debutante. “The fact is, people do die from lung cancer, and you know what? It gets you pretty quick. Eight months or so. After you’ve lived a useful life, too — in your sixties or seventies. Smokers die ten years earlier than nonsmokers. That’s ten years we all save on social security and Medicare and pensions. You want to know why our social security system is in such dire straits? It’s that people are giving up smoking.”

“Oh yeah?” I said.

“It’s all this fanaticism. I say, make your choices, live your life. Now, I don’t smoke. That’s a decision I made. Maybe you do smoke. That’s a decision you make.”

“So that’s why you own Slander Sheet — to advance the cause of smoking?”

“Oh, please. I was telling you why I hate Claflin and his ilk. You know, Nick, there was a time, not so long ago, when this country was in the hands of great men — men who believed in public service. They got us through the Depression and two world wars and the Cold War. Now look who’s running the show. The likes of... Gideon Parnell! A man who used to be a protester! Sit-ins and such!”

Also a black man, I thought, but I just listened.

“So much for the WASP establishment, right?” she went on. “All gone. Our country is being run by people who don’t really believe in America, do you know what I mean? Christ on a raft, they want to spell it with a k. They want to bring it low so we can all wallow in our sins. I’m about saving this republic of ours. Through tough love, if necessary. But when I see people who fundamentally deplore America’s historical role in the world? When I see people who doubt the decency of the American soul? And now they’re wandering around the corridors of power? Well, that’s the wrong kind of mischief, I say. My attitude is, Get out of the goddamn cockpit, you people — you are not flying this plane.”

I just smiled.

“Can we speak frankly, Nick?” She put a hand on my knee and lowered her voice to a confidential whisper. “People assume if you’re rich you automatically have power.” She gazed directly into my eyes and I could see what a minx she must have been in her prime. She was a very sexual woman. “Well, it sure doesn’t feel that way. Getting your voice out there is harder and harder. I’m sure you remember this from what happened to your father, Nick. The way the press just pilloried Victor Heller.”

“I didn’t have a problem with the press coverage,” I said. “The only one responsible for what happened to Victor is Victor.”

She sighed. “You know, there used to be a saying, ‘Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel.’ Now pixels are the thing, not ink. You want real power? You gotta control the flow of information. That’s why I bought Slander Sheet. Stick it to all those hypocrites. And I won’t deny I enjoy making a little mischief. But you ask me if I ‘ordered’ the death of this floozy, like I’m some... some mob boss? Why in heaven’s name would I want to do that? To what end — to cast suspicion on myself?”

“Then who did?”

She was silent for a while. “Damned if I know. Someone who detests Jeremiah Claflin as much as I do — but didn’t mind bringing down Slander Sheet in the process. Nick, how did you find out I’m the owner?”

“Norcross didn’t tell you?”

She shook her head.

Norcross must not have wanted to admit that his law firm’s vaunted security had been breached. He’d just warned her I was coming without telling her how I’d found out who she was.

I said, “I do my homework.”

She laughed.

“Why do you keep it a secret?” I asked.

“Oh, it would be socially a bit awkward for me if people knew I owned Slander Sheet. Anyway, secret pleasures are always the best, don’t you think? And I don’t like having my name in the paper. I don’t do interviews, and I don’t want to have my name dredged up every time Slander Sheet runs a scoop. And now what are you telling me — that I’m under suspicion for this call girl’s death? Nick, you strike me as a direct, honest, no-bullshit fellow. Plus, you’re cute. I like the cut of your jib. If you’re really trying to get to the bottom of all this, I’m willing to help you. Okay? In return, I ask that you keep the ownership of Slander Sheet a secret. Do we have a deal?”

I realized we really had the upper hand. She didn’t want her friends to know she owned such a disreputable rag. I looked at Mandy, and she just looked back.

When we didn’t reply, she went on, “I don’t like being in the dark. I don’t like not knowing. And I don’t like having Slander Sheet turned into a joke.” She turned to look at Mandy. “Now, I know Julian fired you because of this debacle. But I’m going to get Julian on the phone right now and tell him to hire you back.”

“Don’t bother,” Mandy said. “Not interested.”

“You don’t want to clear your name?”

A look of irritation crossed Mandy’s face. “Sure I do. But not for Slander Sheet.”

“Then I’ll pay you. Directly. You find out who did this to you, how this happened, I’ll double your severance package.”

Mandy barely hesitated. “Deal.”

Turning back to me, she put her hand on my knee again. She smiled, a seductive smile. “You, too. What do you charge, anyway?”