Southern Comfort - Fern Michaels [92]
Elizabeth placed her hand on her heart. “Blackmail? Why? Who would do this?”
Thurman took a deep breath. “Take a guess, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth racked her brain for anyone who would want to blackmail her son and why. Other than street people and drug addicts that she knew he sometimes used as sources, she couldn’t think of anyone who would want to blackmail Lawrence. “I haven’t a clue. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“Carlton Staggers.”
Elizabeth turned a pasty white. “Oh my God! He was sworn to silence. We’ve paid him handsomely for his . . . services! Why now? What does he hope to gain? He’ll destroy us and himself in the process.”
“That, my dear, is the reason I am breaking phones.”
Elizabeth took a few minutes to recover from her shock. “Let me get this straight. You’re having Lawrence electronically monitored and someone is having you electronically monitored as well?”
“That’s a good way of saying that while I’ve been spying on Lawrence, someone has been spying on me. I know this sounds like something out of a bad movie, but as governor of the state of Florida, I have to cover myself, and of course I was protecting Lawrence in the process, and now it’s become one huge convoluted cluster fuck, and I’m not asking you to excuse my language here.”
Elizabeth drained the rest of her wine. “Are you sure the blackmailer is Carlton?” She pursed her lips as though she had a bad taste in her mouth.
“Positive.”
“Does he know he’s being monitored?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m not sure. I would like to think not, which will give me some time to find out exactly what’s going on.”
“Thurman, this could ruin us, completely ruin us and any hope we have to secure you the nomination, much less win the election.”
“Those were my thoughts exactly.” The governor turned to his right-hand man.
“Jacob, you’ve been my right hand for eight years. I doubt there is anything about me or Elizabeth that you haven’t been privy to.” Thurman looked at Elizabeth, saw the nervous twitch in her right eye. She was upset and had every right to be.
Jacob took a sip of his cocktail. “What’s going on, Thurman? Who is this Carlton fellow? If this affects your career, it’s liable to affect mine as well,” Jacob said without a trace of anger. Anyone else would lose his cool, but not Jacob. He would make an excellent governor when Thurman left office.
Thurman looked at Elizabeth, seeking her permission to tell Jacob just exactly who Carlton was and the role he’d played in their lives.
“It’s all water under the bridge, dear, go ahead. You have my permission to tell Jacob. Like you, I trust him to keep this under wraps for as long as we’re able to.”
“This doesn’t sound good, Thurman,” Jacob said in his usual professional, smooth way. “But, whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. We’ve had issues before.”
“Yes, we have, haven’t we? Well, before I get off the topic at hand, let me tell you the story. When I finish, you might want to advise me what course to take.”
They settled themselves around the table. Thurman reached for Elizabeth’s hand. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes. It’s time, Thurman. And who knows, it just might garner a sympathy vote with female voters.”
He patted her hand. “That’s my dear Elizabeth. Always looking at the bright side.”
Elizabeth Jane Waldie felt out of place among her college classmates, felt as though she would never really belong as she dished up trays of lime green Jell-O with a dollop of whipped cream on top. After she finished with that, she had to work the cash register in the student lounge for two hours. Then she would hightail it back to her dorm, where she would spend the rest of the night studying to keep her grades up. She had a partial scholarship to Florida State University, and maintaining her grade point average was a requirement. To obtain the extra funds she needed to attend school, she worked three part-time jobs. Thank God she only had one on campus. Most of the students who attended were wealthy, their families taking care of their