Silken Prey

you really believe he would do that?”
    “Even smart people—”
    “Oh, horseshit,” the governor said, waving him off.
    “Suicidal . . .”
    “Porter goes to the emergency room if the barber cuts his hair too short,” the governor said. “He wants and expects to live forever, preferably with a big-titted, big-assed blonde sitting on his face.”
    Lucas thought for a moment, then conceded the point: “That thing about the volunteer—it worries me.”
    “It should,” the governor said. He kicked his feet off the desktop and said, “I want you to look into this, Lucas. But quietly. I don’t want to disturb anybody without . . . without there being something worthwhile to disturb them with.”
    “One more question,” Lucas said. “This guy is a major pain in your party’s ass. Why . . . ?”
    “Because it’s the right thing to do, mostly,” the governor said. “There’s something else, too. This sort of shit is going too far. Way too far. Most Republicans aren’t nuts. They’re perfectly good people. So are most of us Democrats. But this kind of thing, if it’s deliberate—it’s a threat to everybody. All you have to do is
say
‘kiddie porn’ and a guy’s career is over. Doesn’t make any difference what he’s done, what his character is like, how hard he’s worked, it doesn’t even matter if there’s proof—once it gets out in the media, they’ll repeat it endlessly, and there’s no calling it back. You could have the Archbishop of Canterbury go on TV tomorrow and say he has absolute proof that Porter Smalls is innocent, and fifty other bloggers would be sneering at him in two minutes and CNN would be calling the bishop a liar. So we’re talking about dangerous, immoral, antidemocratic stuff.”
    “You’re saying the media is dangerous, immoral, and antidemocratic?”
    “Well . . . yes,” Henderson said. “They don’t recognize it in themselves, but they’re basically criminals. In the classic sense of that word.”
    “All right,” Lucas said.
    “And, of course, there’s the other thing,” the governor said. “The less righteous thing.”
    Lucas said, “Uh-oh.”
    Mitford said, “We’re already hearing rumors that he was framed. That there were hints
before
anyone found the porn that something was coming on Smalls. If it turns out that some overzealous young Democratic hacker did it, if this is a campaign dirty trick . . . then there could be a lot more trouble. If that’s what happened, we need to know it first. The election’s too close to be screwing around.”
    The governor added, “But the preliminary investigation has to be quiet. Invisible might be a better word.”
    Mitford said, “Totally quiet. That fuckin’ tool over in the attorney general’s office wants to move into this office. He thinks prosecuting Smalls is one way to do it. If he finds out that you’re digging around, he’ll paper your ass so fast you’d think you were a new country kitchen. You’ll be working for him.”
    “You don’t sound as
offended
as the governor,” Lucas said to Mitford. “About Smalls being framed.”
    “I’m paid to keep my eye on the ball, so that’s what I do,” Mitford said. “Short term, there’s no benefit to us, saving an asshole like Smalls. If we get a reward, it’s gonna have to be in heaven, because we sure as shit won’t get it now. If the party found out we were trying to help Smalls, then . . . well, you know, we’re thinking about the vice presidency. On the other hand, if
we
did this, meaning
we
in the all-inclusive sense, and if that comes out, say, the Friday before the election . . .”
    “I can’t afford to lose the state House,” Henderson said. He wasn’t running. He still had two years to go on his second term.
    “But Smalls is in the U.S. Senate,” Lucas said. “How could that affect the state House?”
    “Because our majority is too narrow. If it turns out that we tried to sabotage a U.S. Senate race, with child porn, Smalls will eat us alive in the last few days before the election. He could pump up the Republican turnout just enough that we could lose those extra three or four close-run seats. If we lose the House, and the Senate stays Republican, which it will, they’ll spend the next two years dreaming up ways to embarrass me.”
    “We can’t have that,” Mitford said. “I mean, really.”
    “But. If Smalls owes us, even under the rose, he’ll pay up,” the governor said. “He’s