A God in Ruins - Leon Uris [172]
“Call me if you need me,” Mal said, and left the studio.
Rita hedged. She’d give no further resistance. She would come to his side. Only, it was shaky knowing what was ahead. Greer saw through it. She took Rita’s arm and spun her around.
“Here’s truth,” Greer snapped. “Quinn Patrick O’Connell cannot and will not walk away from this fight. Never has, never will.”
“I know,” Rita said with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I know.”
“What will you say to the voters, Quinn?” Greer asked.
“Straight up and down, I think. I won’t plead or defend. I won’t grovel. It’s going to be up to the people.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Greer sighed. “Ben, come with me. We have to sequence your story correctly for the press.”
“My nieces and nephews, Duncan and Rae?” Ben asked excitedly. “Isn’t Duncan’s wife due?”
“Their dad will tell them. You’ll be able to meet them in an hour. Excuse me, we’ve got work to do,” Greer said. She and Rita exchanged hard glances.
Breaking News Breaking News Breaking News
“This is Lou Luenberger, MSNBC Denver. We are in Troublesome, Colorado, the home of Democratic candidate, Governor O’Connell. The air around his travelling headquarters has been rife with rumors. The O’Connell people have kept a lid on things, skipping the daily afternoon press briefing. The center of this appears to be a new player on the stage, who flew in from New York this morning. He has been tentatively identified as Detective Lieutenant Ben Horowitz, also a professor of criminology. The governor will make a statement at eleven Eastern, eight Pacific Coast time.”
Quinn sat, naked to the world. No notes, open collar, no flags, no mantel filled with photographs, no busts of Lincoln or statues by Remington.
“My fellow Americans,” Quinn said, “today I experienced one of the most joyous events of my life. As you are aware, I was orphaned at about the age of one year and was raised in a convent until I was three. I do not remember the names of any of the nuns, and I do not know the name of the convent or its location.
“At the age of three I was adopted by my mother and father, Dan and Siobhan O’Connell, ranchers near Troublesome, Colorado.
“My family and I were no more or no less dysfunctional than the average American family. Being Irish, we got into our Eugene O’Neill mode from time to time. In the end, we came back to a most loving relationship. Dan is gone. Siobhan is very ill. I am the most fortunate person in the world to have been their son.
“Yet for every orphan there is a dual life of fantasy. You cannot separate the orphan from this dream. The need to know your biological parents is a need to know yourself. Who am I, really? Where did I come from? God puts you on a relentless search. You are never a complete person if you do not find your roots.
“Today, I met my brother, Ben Horowitz, who has been searching for me for nearly half a century.”
Quinn briefly told the tale of David Horowitz, Marina Geller, and Yuri Sokolov.
“Herein lies the rub,” Quinn said. “I believe the American civilization has reached a challenging moral plateau. We have made a powerful attempt to rid ourselves of bigotry. We still have a long way to go to rid our nation of racism. If I had been Alexander Horowitz, I believe I would have been elected governor of Colorado. I also believe that Governor Alexander Horowitz could have won the Democratic Party nomination. And I also believe that Alexander Horowitz could win the presidency.
“I am the same man I was yesterday. I have not changed. I will carry on with the same issues I had yesterday. Along with my other commitments, I will fight for the repeal of the Second Amendment.
“I was raised as a Catholic. I will remain in the Church. Yet I cannot help but inquire into my Jewish heritage. Where this will take me, I cannot predict.
“The human race has had a checkered existence, from the beginning unto this very day, of blood and evil. Yet we come to moral imperatives, like slavery, where we must rise and create a new norm. The issue of guns, I believe, is such a moral imperative. I also believe that