Invisible Prey

GNACE’S STORY wasn’t huge, but even with a one-column head, and thirty inches of carefully worded text, it was big enough to do all the political damage that Kline had feared.
    Best of all, it featured an ambush photograph of Dakota County attorney Jim Cole, whose startled eyes made him look like a raccoon caught at night on the highway. Kline was now a Dakota County story.
    Ignace had gotten to Kathy Barth. Although she was identified only as a “source close to the investigation,” she spoke from the point of view of a victim, and Ignace was skilled enough to let that bleed through. “…the victim was described as devastated by the experience, and experts have told the family that she may need years of treatment if the allegations are true.”
     
    N EIL M ITFORD LED Lucas and Rose Marie Roux into the governor’s office and closed the door. The governor said, “We’re all clear, right? Nobody can get us on leaking the story?” He knew that Lucas had ties with the local media; that Lucas did, in fact, share a daughter with the leading Channel Three editorialist.
    “Ruffe called me yesterday and asked for a comment and I told him I couldn’t give him one,” Lucas said, doing his tap dance. “It’s pretty obvious that he got a lot of his information from the victim’s mother.”
    “Is Kathy Barth still trying to cut a deal with Burt?” Mitford asked Lucas.
    “They want money. That was the whole point of the exercise,” Lucas said. “But now, she’s stuck. She can’t cut a deal with the grand jury.”
    “And Burt’s guilty,” the governor said. “I mean, he did it, right? We’re not simply fucking him over?”
    “Yeah, he did it,” Lucas said. “I think he might’ve been doing the mother, too, but he definitely was doing the kid.”
    Rose Marie: “Screw their negotiations. They can file a civil suit later.”
    “Might be more money for the attorney,” Mitford said. “If he’s taking it on contingency.”
    “Lawyers got to eat, too,” the governor said with satisfaction. To Rose Marie and Lucas: “You two will be managing the BCA’s testimony before the grand jury? Is that all set?”
    “I talked to Jim Cole, he’ll be calling with a schedule,” Rose Marie said. “There’s a limited amount of testimony available—the Barths, Agent Flowers, Lucas, the technical people from the lab. Cole wants to move fast. If there’s enough evidence to indict, he wants to give Kline a chance to drop out of the election so another Republican can run.”
    “Burt might get stubborn…” the governor suggested.
    “I don’t think so,” Rose Marie said, shaking her head. “Cole won’t indict unless he can convict. He wants to nail down the mother, the girl, the physical evidence, and then make a decision. With this newspaper story, he’s got even more reason to push. If he tells Burt’s lawyer that Burt’s going down, and shows him the evidence, I think Burt’ll quit.”
    The governor nodded: “So. Lucas. Talk to your people. We don’t want any bleed-back, we don’t want anybody pointing fingers at us, saying there’s a political thing going on. We want this straightforward, absolutely professional. We regret this kind of thing as much as anybody. It’s a tragedy for everybody involved, including Burt Kline.”
    “And especially the child. We have to protect the children from predators,” Mitford said. “Any contacts with the press, we always hit that point.”
    “Of course, absolutely,” the governor said. “The children always come first. Especially when the predators are Republicans.”
    Nobody asked about the Bucher case, which was slipping off the front pages.
     
    W HEN THEY were finished, Lucas walked down the hall with Rose Marie, heading for the parking garage. “Wonder why with Republicans, it’s usually fucking somebody that gets them in trouble. And with the Democrats, it’s usually stealing?”
    “Republicans have money. Most of them don’t need more,” she suggested. “But they come from uptight, sexually repressed backgrounds, and sometimes, they just go off. Democrats are looser about sex, but half the time, they used to be teachers or government workers, and they’re desperate for cash. They see all that money up close, around the government, the lobbyists and the corporate guys, they can smell it, they can taste it, they see the rich guys flying to Paris for the weekend, and eating in all the good restaurants, and buying three-thousand-dollar