Living Lies (11 page)

He knows,
she gasped,
I was right! They are responsible
! It was then that she began to realize the scope of their power.
I should be angry – why aren’t I angry?

Collins’ stare was unyielding. Was there anything to lose at this point?

“When do I start?”

She was scheduled to report July 1st to Washington D.C. receiving a cover story, an address and some cash to get her across the country.

“What do I tell people?” she asked, wondering if she’d be able to lie effectively.

“The trick…” Collins told her, “is to be just on the edge of confusing. Keep it simple and no one will admit that they just don’t know what the hell you do.”

She nodded, numbly.

“Welcome aboard, Ms. Ward. I’m glad you accepted.”

“Was there ever a doubt?”

Collins laughed and shook her hand.

Spy Melanie
, she thought, a nervous excitement filling up the empty spaces in her body.

From the hotel Melanie raced to Danny’s apartment. She even rang the bell before she remembered that he wasn’t there anymore.

Danny’s roommate answered the door. “Melanie? Hi, but you missed Dan.”

“I’m sorry,” she turned, “force of habit.” Melanie looked regretfully at the Jeep, parked in the driveway as usual.

“He sold it to me,” Tony said. “Five hundred bucks. You think I was ripped off?”

Her stomach rose inside her and her eyes welled with tears as she backed away.

She cried in the car outside of her apartment, finally wiping her nose and putting on a happy, swollen, red face.

“I got a job,” she said, sitting on the couch, her legs curled up beneath her.

They congratulated her and opened four bottles of beer to celebrate. Melanie wasn’t much in the mood but felt obligated. She didn’t mention her brief stop at Danny’s apartment.

“Dan called,” Trish said, cautiously.

“When?”

“I don’t know, he left a message.” Jenny pushed the play button.

“Hi, Mel. I was hoping to catch you before your interview. I’m at the airport. Um, I think I made a mistake. I miss you and, well, you’re my best friend. Shit, there’s my flight. I’ll call you from New York tonight. I love you, Melanie. Bye.”

“Can you save that for me?”

“Sure.”

“I’m going for a run.”

The next day Melanie phoned her parents explaining her new career. “I’m not really sure, yet. But the company develops communication networks for huge conglomerates overseas.” She had been practicing and was impressed with how simple that first lie had been.

Spy Melanie can do anything
.

Agent Collins had been right. Everyone thought they understood but weren’t totally sure. After two days they stopped asking Melanie to explain.

CHAPTER 7

10 years later

The drizzle outside her office had been non-stop for two weeks. The gloom had penetrated the brick walls of the Agency’s historic building and had seeped under her skin. Melanie’s heart was heavy as she turned from the gray sky and wet pavement to the barren walls of her office. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes and leaning back against her chair was a file placed benignly on the corner of her desk. Disturbing images of Diane March’s broken body played through her mind.

March was a fresh, naïve 22-year-old college student who had gotten involved with the wrong people at the wrong time. Melanie had been in Ben’s office yesterday when March had called looking for Agent Finn Parker.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jackson, but I’m routing a call.” Judith’s voice was crisp over the intercom.

Ben pushed the flashing red button. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, I’m looking for Agent Parker.” The voice was sweet and unsure.

Ben shot Melanie an intense glance. His pale blue eyes had streaks of red and his lower lids sagged.

“Who may I ask is calling?”

“My name is Diane March. I’m … I’m helping Finn on an assignment.” Her voice was giddy and nervous with a hint of possibility that came from youth. “He was supposed to call me tomorrow and I know I wasn’t supposed to call this number but I wanted him to know that Leslie was way easier than he’d expected. I finished ahead of schedule and the disc is ready.”

Finn Parker’s image flashed, unwillingly, in her mind. His handsome face hid the demons that lay beneath the surface. And she knew Diane March was a victim to those good looks.

Parker had been recruited into the Agency two years before Melanie, and she was assigned to his sector for the first six months. They’d started as friends, comrades. She snorted at the memory, it seemed like another lifetime ago.

Finn’s father Hugh Parker, a U.S. Senator on the Agency’s governing board, was a true politician – tough as hell and a hand in every pot. Parker Sr. expected great things for his boy and bestowed unwarranted merits at every opportunity. Finn’s failures were brushed aside, leaving nothing but his highly polished shell.

Melanie despised Finn. She hated that he was rewarded for his incompetence while she fought for every promotion. They had risen up the ladder at the same rate but she’d sacrificed everything and

he’d given up nothing. While she studied, he golfed. While she worked long hours and dined alone, he vacationed with the members of the Board. Early on she brought his blunders to the forefront, it added infinitesimal dilemma to his career and painted a target on her back. However, privately she knew, it caused friction between him and his father. It was not enough but it had to be.

“Agent Parker is on another assignment, very top secret, so I’ll have another agent pick up the disc.”

The disappointment in Diane’s voice was obvious.

“Well, Finn promised no one would see the video, and I was kind of hoping to see him again.”

“I promise that only a select few will see the tape,” Ben said in his most grandfatherly voice.

The trace showed she was in Atlanta. “I’m sending Agent Patal. He’ll be at The Lexington Hotel in 10 minutes so stay put, Ms. March.”

“Okay but how’d you know…?”

Ben cut her off and called Mike.

“Mike, I just received a call and…”

“I’ve got it here.”

“Great, block her number. I don’t want Agent Parker getting to her.”

Mike uttered a quick, “Yeah, give me a sec.”

Melanie could read Ben’s angry look. “I’m already gone,” she said.

Two hours later, Melanie touched down at Hartsfield airport in Atlanta. Diane was already dead.

Patal was waiting at the terminal with the news. He’d met her at the hotel and the trade had gone smoothly but an hour later she “fell” from the third-story window of a known crack hotel, five blocks from The Lexington. The high humidity was unbearable as Melanie and Patal climbed into the back of a waiting SUV.

“Who’s this Leslie she referred to and what do we know about him?”

“Leslie White is the founder of the National Coalition of Morals and Ethics in America. He was in the footage attained from Ms. March.” Patal looked over the top of his glasses. “Some pretty kinky stuff.”

Eyebrows raised, Melanie watched as Diane and White broke at least two Georgia state laws.

She studied the information before being dropped off at the lobby of the National Coalition of Morals and Ethics in America’s new 87-story tower for some face time with Mr. White.

Stepping out of the revolving doors and into the sweet, sweet air-conditioned lobby Melanie stood for 10 cool seconds.

“Mr. White’s limo has arrived,” the security guard said into his two-way radio before turning his beady eyes on her.

“I was just trying to get out of the … storm,” Melanie said as the thunder cracked mightily outside.

“I’m sorry but you’ll have to wait outside if you don’t have business here.”

Begrudgingly, she pushed her way out as the sky opened up and dropped sheets of rain. While all eyes were looking up in disbelief Melanie slipped into the back of the limo.

The monogrammed towel from the limo bar was perfect to soak up her dripping hair. Melanie didn’t feel guilty about drenching the soft calfskin leather, nor did she regret placing the disc into the DVD player and pausing the picture with Leslie in a very unflattering position. Rain pounded the roof of the limo as Melanie waited for Mr. White to emerge from the multi-million-dollar skyscraper.

Leslie White staggered into his limo, dry but for the cuffs of his trousers and his $1,000 shoes, without noticing Melanie or the muted TV. He grabbed at the whiskey and took a swig straight from the Baccarat crystal decanter.

“What the hell?” he said, spraying whiskey across the interior and onto Melanie.

She wiped her cheek with a fresh towel as the moans from the TV violently blended with the beating of the rain.

Then, with a hollow shriek and a jerk back, White scurried to stop the movie, scrambling across the limo’s carpeted floor. On his knees, he began to weep before breaking into Bible verse.

“Save it,” she said, pausing the DVD with Diane’s image frozen on the screen.

White stiffened, petrified.

“Who are you? What do you want?” He asked, giving up his holy stance and sliding back onto his seat.

Melanie tossed him the black-and-white police photos of Diane’s corpse.

“I want to know why.”

“I didn’t do it. I just saw it on the news,” he said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I swear I didn’t kill her. She was very much alive when I left her this morning.”

The limo phone rang and Melanie hit the speaker button and pointed for him to speak.

“Hello?” White cleared his throat.

“Leslie, how are you doing, my friend?”

Melanie’s heart skipped, she recognized the voice – Hugh Parker, Finn’s father. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and hit record.

“Hugh? Now isn’t a good time. Why don’t you call back tomorrow and we’ll talk?” White said impatiently.

“I don’t think you understand,” Hugh Parker said coldly. “We need to talk about your decision not to back Joe Perry.”

“We’ve already discussed the Coalition’s position on this election,” White said, annoyed and clearly tired of this conversation.

“Listen, you dumb shit, you are going to do as I say.” Hugh Parker’s voice was ice.

Melanie was shocked, sickened – and elated.

“Have you gone crazy? Who do you think you’re speaking with?”

“Have you seen the news?” the Senator asked angrily, losing his patience.

White’s expression turned ghost-like.

“You? You did this? Because of an election?”

“I own you, White. Next week you are going to proudly announce that the National Coalition for
Morality
and
Ethics
in America supports Joe Perry for Senate.” The disdain in his voice was emphasized by the sarcasm placed on the words “morality” and “ethics.”

White, stupefied, said nothing, but gurgles escaped his clenched throat. Melanie’s heart was hammering as loudly as the storm outside.

“I hope you wore a condom,” Parker’s vile laugh echoed. “You really ought to be thanking me.”

“Thanking you?”

“She was only your lover. I could have targeted your wife or son.”

“Thank you,” White’s low voice cracked as it shook.

“That’s better. We’ll play golf soon.”

“Golf?” White asked meekly.

Melanie was grateful when Parker’s hearty laugh was abruptly silenced. White had cut him off with the touch of a finger.

Melanie was shocked at Hugh Parker’s brazen demeanor.

“I knew he was powerful. I started the NCMEA in an old building next to a strip mall. It was Hugh that got the momentum going. He’s the reason we are where we are today.” White was drained of color and sat slumped in the corner of his limo.

As she stepped back into the torrential rain, Melanie took one last look at White crying like a baby.

“That’s what you get when you deal with the devil.”

One taxi and a plane ride later, she was being rained on back home in D.C.

“Agent Ward, Agent Jackson is available to see you now,” Jane called softly from the doorway.

Melanie was startled awake.

“Thanks, Jane.”

Melanie’s assistant, a young girl with fair, freckly skin and short red hair, had been with the Agency for just six months and still seemed unsure of her place. Her unease, Melanie believed, stemmed from Melanie’s reputation for ruthlessness.

“Do you need anything else, Ma’am?”

“No, that’ll be all.”

Melanie smiled. She somewhat enjoyed her bitch status, preferring to think of herself as ambitious.

File in hand, she headed for Agent Ben Jackson’s office.

“Melanie, come in and have a seat.” Ben was pouring himself a drink and offered one to her. She refused as always, and as always Ben handed her a scotch.

“Thanks,” she said, setting the drink on a coaster.

“You know, Melanie, you’re a fine agent. To tell you the truth, you’re one of my best.”

“Just
one
of the best?”

“Is that the file?” Agent Jackson’s face creased into a frown.

She placed it on the desk in front of him.

“Yeah, it’s all in there, including the DVD of White and Diane and audio of Hugh Parker’s threats and confession.”

Ben shook his head and blew out a heavy sigh. “You do realize that this will never leave this office.”

“We can’t just let him get away with murder!” If she was surprised, she shouldn’t have been. Melanie could no longer easily distinguish her own emotions, stifled for as long as they had been. It would take effort to decipher what she was feeling and she just didn’t have the time or the inclination.

“Hugh is at the peak of his power, and he’s part of our governing board. Realistically, we don’t have a choice. Right now we wait, hold our cards and hope he somehow slips up.”

Melanie’s hatred for both of the Parker boys deepened. She had learned long ago how things worked in this town. The powerful could literally get away with murder but usually they hid behind heart attacks and suicides.

She would keep quiet for now, for Ben. He held a spot in Melanie’s heart with his fatherly air, which she appreciated being so far from her family. Though admiration for him was not the general consensus in the Agency.

“Are you feeling okay, Ben?” Melanie asked, noticing the new crevasses carved into his face. “You seem tired.”

He smiled but shook his head. “I’m fine.”

He handed over a dossier stamped CONFIDENTIAL. Melanie had never understood how this might deter someone from looking.
If anything,
she thought,
it made the contents more appealing.

“Take it, and we’ll meet in the morning.”

“What are you going to do with the March file?”

“Mull it over.” He sighed.

“Just so you know, Ben, I’ve made copies.”

Melanie took the elevator to the Agency’s state-of-the-art basement gym, complete with lap pool, sauna and steam room. She needed to work out her aggressions and push back the thoughts of Diane’s family getting the news of her death. For them there would always be unanswered questions. Dying with whores and junkies – could there be any more disrespectful death for a young woman? Melanie’s heart ached.

She thought of her own mom and dad, whom she hadn’t seen in over a year. She’d systematically deleted everyone important from her life. She’d sent an occasional card or e-mail, and gifts on all the required holidays, but her devotion to work had taken its toll. Melanie missed the horrible family dinners. She was friendless in D.C. and it had been years since she had been in an intimate relationship.