Murder on K Street - Margaret Truman [56]
“Who else?” Marshalk asked.
“The one who’s leaving, Camelia. She’s gotten cozy, real cozy, with Jonell, and I’ve never trusted him, either.”
Marshalk, who’d been standing behind an elaborate bar in the living room, moved around it and approached Parish where he sat. “I agree about Camelia Watson,” he said. “She’s been warned. But Neil has been loyal, at least as far as I can tell. Hell, he knows what side his bread is buttered on.”
Parish looked up at his boss and smiled crookedly. “It wouldn’t take much to get him to say anything, Rick. Believe me, I know his type. I dealt with lots of them when I was MPD. He’s weak.”
Marshalk knew that his security chief was right. Bringing Neil Simmons on board hadn’t been motivated by wanting a strong presence in the firm’s presidency. It had been more pragmatic than that. Neil assured Marshalk of a strong pipeline to his father, one of the most powerful men in the U.S. Senate. Neil’s weakness was a plus as far as Marshalk was concerned. He was easily manipulated, not one to stir the pot and cause trouble. Potential clients responded favorably, even enthusiastically to having Lyle Simmons’s son working on their behalf in the halls of Congress, and in offices of top people in every government agency.
Marshalk turned to the others. “We tighten things up from now on. We bring people into the loop on a strictly need-to-know basis.”
“Right,” affirmed the two-man chorus.
“Okay, let’s get down to what we have to do to land the X-M Shipping account. Cirilli’s been telling X-M that we’re under investigation by Justice. That’s all they’ve got to offer, crap like that. We’ve got the people in Congress who can kill that new legislation requiring shipping companies to set up their own port security procedures. It’ll cost them a fortune. Homeland Security’s pushing it on the basis of national security. So what else is new? I want an all-out blitz on X-M and Cirilli. Get our writers to start grinding out op-ed pieces, and make sure they emphasize our experience in lobbying for shipping company interests. Feed info to the columnists and bloggers we’ve got in our pocket about a pending congressional hearing into Cirilli and its paying off of lawmakers. Get some of our House members to put it in the Congressional Record, tip off the press. Put Kelman from the National Security Committee together with X-M’s execs. Tell Kelman we’ll bankroll another fund-raiser for him if he’ll lean on X-M to come with us. He owes us plenty.” He turned to Jack Parish. “You’ve got the goods on Cirilli’s number one guy, Clauson. Right?”
“About the bimbo he’s got stashed away in Georgetown? Yeah, I’ve got it.”
“Leak it! X-M’s people won’t want to get in bed with a potential scandal.”
Marshalk’s minions took notes.
“Questions?” Marshalk asked.
There were none.
“Okay, let’s move.” He asked Parish to stay behind.
“Look, Jack,” Marshalk said when they were alone. “I had a conversation with Jonell about his being at the Simmons house the day of the murder. He’s wavering about going to the police. I think I convinced him to cool it for a few days, but he may need a stronger message than that.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Parish said.
• • •
When Rotondi left Marlene Boynton, he intended to go straight to Emma’s Foggy Bottom home to walk Homer. But he stopped on the way at Kinkead’s and nursed a drink at the sparsely populated downstairs bar.
His visit with Marlene, and her parting comments, had opened a torrent of memories of that senior year at the University of Illinois, memories he was almost always successful at blotting out. He recalled the conversation with Jeannette in Lyle’s Thunderbird as though it had happened the night before, and the knot in his gut was equally as fresh—and painful.
• • •
After dropping Jeannette at the sorority house, he’d driven aimlessly, the windows open, the radio loud as a local station spun the day’s hits. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” by the Bee Gees was