St Kilda Consulting 01 - Always Time to Die

photos.”
    Gus looked confused. “What are you talking about?”
    “The governor didn’t want any family history to be published until after the election in November,” Dan said.
    Carly took a final piece of paper from the envelope. Her eyes widened. “Looks like Melissa was right.”
    She passed the paper over to Dan.
    “What do you mean?” Gus asked.
    “Winifred finally lost it,” Carly said. “She demanded that the governor prove he’s a descendant of the Castillos.”
    Dan took the paper and read swiftly.
    “It’s in the public record,” Gus said. “No problem.”
    “It was for Winifred,” Dan said. “She’s demanding a special test to prove the governor was a Castillo.”
    “What—bring back three golden apples from Olympus?” Gus asked.
    “Nothing that mythic.” Carly picked up the receipt and waved it. “She sent in saliva samples of her own and Sylvia’s to Genedyne. That will give a comparison for the mtDNA.”
    “Translation please?” Gus asked.
    “MtDNA is passed to children only from the mother,” Carly said. “The father’s mtDNA never makes it into the female’s egg at conception. The mtDNA is carried in the part of the sperm’s tail that falls off outside the egg.”
    “And?” Gus asked. “Help me here. I barely got through biology.”
    “Bottom line,” Carly said, “is that any child of Sylvia Castillo Quintrell will carry her mtDNA, but only her female children will carry on the mtDNA to the next generation.”
    “So what? The governor has already inherited. What does Winifred think, that he was swapped in the nursery by passing aliens?”
    “I think she wants to make as much trouble as possible for the governor,” Carly said. “She was, um, real blunt on the subject of the Senator. Didn’t like him a bit.”
    “If what she says is true, she had reason,” Dan said.
    “Because he liked women?” Gus asked.
    “Because Sylvia tried to kill her husband and ended up a vegetable instead.”
    Gus stared at his brother. “You’re joking.”
    “Nope.” Dan stood up. “I’m going to talk to Mom.”
    “You’re either meaner or braver than I am,” Gus said.
    “Getting shot does that to you.” Dan dug his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Carly. “Here, you drive. I’ve got some people to call.”

ON THE ROAD TO TAOS
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
56
    THE GOVERNOR ’ S PHONE VIBRATED AGAINST HIS THIGH AS HE DROVE THE WINDING winter road.
    “Now what?” he muttered.
    The caller ID said Mark Rubin.
    Josh pulled over to the side of the road and answered. “Hello, Mark. I take it you saw Dykstra’s latest?”
    “The phone has been red hot since that show. Reporters clamoring for an interview with you, wanting a contact number for your aunt, wanting to interview everybody from grammar school friends to Vietnam buddies. What the hell is going on? When I asked you about possible land mines to be defused on the way to the presidency, you didn’t say anything about your family.”
    “What’s to say?” Josh asked wearily. “My aunt hated my father and transferred that hatred to me. End of story.”
    “Not this time. Everybody is saying if it’s all kosher with your bloodlines, why not have the test? No big deal.”
    “You don’t think it’s demeaning for a presidential contender to jump through hoops when a fifth-rate gossip queen snaps her fingers?”
    “Not getting a simple test gives her more ammo. Get in front of this story, Josh. Send in a sample. Spike that bitch’s guns.”
    The governor smiled thinly. As always, his campaign manager’s jugular instinct was on target. Josh fingered the thin, fresh scab on his neck. It galled him to give in to Dykstra.
    But he would.
    “Relax,” Josh said. “I cut myself shaving this morning and mailed the bandage to Genedyne, just like my aunt wanted. I should have the results in a day or two.”
    “Do you want me to make an announcement?”
    “To Dykstra?”
    “Yeah,” Rubin said.
    “Not one word.”
    “But—”
    “When the test results come in,” Josh interrupted, “I’m going to make her eat them in front of a live camera.”
    Rubin was still laughing when Josh disconnected.

TAOS
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
57
    CARLY ONLY MADE TWO WRONG TURNS BEFORE SHE FOUND HER WAY TO THE DURAN house. Dan hadn’t been much help. He’d been on the phone nonstop. She shut off the engine and waited for him to finish his conversation. From what she’d been able to figure out listening to one side of the