High Profile

19

Jay Wade had longish blond hair that he combed straight back. His eyes behind the aviator-style glasses were pale blue. His jaw was firm.

“You still see Jenn?” he said.

“Yes.”

“You two together again?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jay said.

Jesse nodded. Maybe Jay Wade had never slept with Jenn. Or maybe he had. He could feel the muscles in his shoulders and neck tighten. Calm down. She’s not my property. If I were him, I’d have slept with her, too. The muscles continued to bunch.

“Jenn thinks you can tell me about Walton Weeks,” Jesse said.

Jay Wade nodded and leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head.

“Actually,” Jay said, “I knew Walton a little. I was political editor for a station in Maryland when he was doing weather.”

“Tell me about him,” Jesse said.

Jay smiled.

“Well,” he said. “Walton always had a good voice. People liked his voice. It projected well. He sounded like a guy from your neighborhood, but smarter. Walton always sounded smart.”

“Was he?”

“You know,” Wade said, “I don’t know. When I knew him he was a damn weatherman, you know. I never thought much about him being smart or dumb. After I left Maryland, and he got to be a national figure — I mean, who knows who wrote that column or the little editorial set pieces on his TV show. He seemed quick enough on the call-ins and guest interviews.”

“So he has some staff support in all of this.”

“Sure.”

“You wouldn’t know any names?” Jesse said.

“No. I don’t want to mislead you. I once knew Weeks in a casual workplace way twenty years ago.”

Jesse nodded.

“Did he ruffle a lot of feathers?” Jesse said.

“You mean back when I knew him or in his national celebrity phase?”

“Either way.”

“When I knew him everybody liked him. He was pleasant,” Wade said. “Now that he is, or was, a national figure, yeah, he ruffled a lot of feathers.”

“Conservative or liberal?” Jesse said.

“God, didn’t you ever listen to him?” Wade said.

“No.”

“My God, what do you do with yourself.”

“Mostly I’m a cop,” Jesse said. “When I have free time I follow baseball.”

“Jenn told me you used to play,” Wade said.

“Yep.”

“And you got hurt.”

“Yep.”

“Tough,” Wade said.

Jesse nodded.

“What about Walton Weeks?” he said.

“Walton’s a libertarian,” Wade said. “That probably brings him more in line with the right than the left. But basically he believed that government which governs least governs best. He believed in what he called the Eleventh Commandment.”

“Leave everyone else the hell alone,” Jesse said.

“Yeah. Guy like Walton Weeks,” Wade said, “it often depends on who’s ox he’s goring, you know? When he was hammering the tax-and-spend big-government liberals, the conservatives loved him and the liberals hated him. Now we seem to have spend-and-no-tax big-government conservatives in power, and he’s been hammering them, and now they are hating him. Maybe worse, because they feel betrayed.”

“You agree with him?” Jesse said.

“Currently I’ve tended to. But the problem with Walton is that he puts principle ahead of results.”

“Like?”

“Civil rights,” Wade said. “He believed completely in integration but felt the government should not impose it.”

“And you disagree,” Jesse said.

“A lot of us disagree. You think integration would have happened without government imposition?”

“No,” Jesse said.

“Then you disagree with Walton, too.”

“Not enough to kill him,” Jesse said.

“You think he was killed for political reasons?” Wade said.

“Just rattling all the doorknobs,” Jesse said. “I heard he was a womanizer.”

Wade grinned.

“He was married several times,” Wade said. “Me too. Depends on your perspective. You, ah, interact with a lot of women and you could be a womanizer, or you could just be very popular.”

Jesse tried not to think about Jenn.

“Walton interacted,” Jesse said.

“Often. It was an open secret in the industry,” Wade said. “Not that there was anything especially hypocritical about it. It’s not like you preach against drugs and you’re a junkie, or you preach celibacy and there’s nudies of you on the Web.”

“So there could be a jealous husband,” Jesse said.

“Sure,” Wade said.

This is too close. Jesse could hear himself breathing. This is too close.