The Mark of the Assassin

investment to go to
    waste. He telephoned Anne the next morning and asked to meet privately
    with her. That night over dinner, Anne took it all back and encouraged
    Beckwith to run for governor. He won, of course, and the rest, as they
    say, is history."
    Michael said, "What happened in that meeting between Anne Beckwith and
    Mitchell Elliott?"
    "Elliott assured Anne that if her husband remained in politics, they
    both would be well cared for financially. The first stage was simple
    stuff, and in the overall scheme of things it was chump change. Elliott
    got his powerful friends in the business community to place Anne on more
    than a dozen boards of directors. She earned money as a consultant, even
    though she had almost no business experience. She also invested very
    wisely, with help from Elliott, we suspect, and she made a killing in
    the financial markets. "Within three years, Anne had a substantial war
    chest, a few million dollars. She took almost all of that money and
    bought several hundred acres of what was then worthless desert south of
    San Diego. Two years later a developer announced plans to build a new
    community of condominiums, single family homes, and a strip mall right
    on Anne's land. Suddenly, her worthless land was worth a great deal of
    money."
    "Mitchell Elliott was behind it all?" Elizabeth asked. "We think so, but
    we can't prove it, and therefore we can't print it. Elliott needed help
    to devise all these schemes. He had big plans for Beckwith, and he
    didn't want him tarnished by scandal. He needed someone who understood
    Washington and, more importantly, understood how to circumvent campaign
    finance laws. He turned to a high-powered Washington lawyer."
    "Samuel Braxton," Elizabeth said. "That's right," Logan said. "And
    finally, after years of waiting, Elliott's investment paid off big this
    year. The national missile defense was dead in the water. But
    twenty-four hours after Flight Double-oh-two went down, Elliott was
    inside the White House for a meeting with Beckwith. Susanna saw it. She
    also saw Elliott and Vandenberg together later that same night. The next
    evening Beckwith goes before the nation, announces strikes against the
    Sword of Gaza, and proposes building a national missile defense. Capitol
    Hill is suddenly all for missile defense. Andrew Sterling is pinned to
    the wall because he's on record against it. Beckwith pulls out the
    election, and Elliott's Alatron Defense Systems is in line to earn
    several billion dollars."
    "So why haven't you gone with Susanna's story?" Michael asked. "Like I
    told your wife before, on a story like this we go over every fact, every
    quote, every piece of information, with the reporter before publication.
    In this case, the reporter is dead, and we had to start over, using her
    original copy as a road map. We've got most of it, but we're missing a
    very important piece of the puzzle. Somehow, Susanna got hold of
    original financial and real estate documents. We suspect she had a
    source inside Braxton, Allworth & Kettlemen who gave her the documents.
    We've been through Susanna's files, and we can't find them. We've tried
    to find our own source inside the firm, but we haven't been successful."
    Logan shivered and tied his scarf more tightly around his neck.
    "Elizabeth, obviously you can answer this question any way you see fit,
    but I have to ask it. Were you the source for those documents?"
    "No," Elizabeth said quickly. "Susanna asked me, and I told her I
    wouldn't do it. I told her it was unethical, and if it ever became known
    that I leaked the documents my career would be destroyed."
    Logan hesitated a moment, then said, "Will you do it now?"
    "No, I won't."
    "Elizabeth, Samuel Braxton is a dishonest lawyer and criminal who's
    about to be rewarded by being made secretary of state. I don't know
    about you, but that pisses me off, and as a journalist I'd like to do
    something about it. But I can't, not without your help. Now, if you're
    concerned about whether you'll be protected, I assure you we will do
    nothing that will endanger you in any way. You can trust me."
    "Tom, I've lived in Washington most of my life, and there's one thing
    I've learned. You can't trust anyone in this town."
    Logan stopped walking and turned to face Michael. "You don't work for a
    computer company that sells to overseas buyers. You work in the
    Counterterrorism Center at the Central Intelligence Agency. You were the
    hero in that attack at Heathrow