The Strategist (17 page)

CHAPTER 28

C
amille hadn’t used her laptop since she unpacked it the night she arrived. There was no Facebook status to update, and she stopped checking her email account weeks ago, so she hadn’t expected to get any real use out of it aside from an occasional game of Spider Solitaire. Nothing in her darkest imagination could have prepared her for how wrong she would be.

Before inserting the disk, Camille unfolded the paper that was included in the safe deposit box and laid it out in front of her. When she glanced at it she saw the words ‘mayor’ and ‘senate race’, but like most every other word on the page, they meant nothing to her.

After another few moments of needless stalling, she finally picked up the disk.

Let go of the fear and just do it
.

She closed her eyes as she slid it into the USB port.

Within seconds a window opened up displaying at least one hundred file folders. Each of them were titled and dated: ‘
7th Congressional Re-Districting’
, ‘
Precinct Judges NW Denver’
, and so on. She clicked on a folder titled ‘
Den County Clerk & Recorder Stats
’ and saw more Excel documents than she cared to count.

It didn’t matter what kind of instructions Julia had written down, Camille knew that most of this stuff was too far above her pay-grade to ever figure out. She hadn’t had much experience with the Bureau’s White Collar Crimes Division and knew absolutely nothing about congressional districts and precinct judges. But Julia was fully aware of that. Yet she left her responsible for the information anyway. Despite her current inability to decode what she was seeing, Camille knew there was something here worth decoding. And judging by the sheer number of files on this disk, it was something big.

Camille continued scrolling through folders with titles that required a
Representative Government 101
glossary to understand. Then, halfway down the page, she came across a Windows Movie file that stopped her cold. Unlike the rest of the files on the disk, the title of this one was simple and straightforward. No glossary needed.

‘
MY FINAL NIGHT WITH ELLIOTT
’

She re-read Julia’s note. “
Even though it’s the last thing I want you to see, make sure you watch the movie file first. Very painful and embarrassing, but it’s also very important
.” 

Her hand trembled as she double-clicked the file.

The first thing she saw was a grainy shot from high above a bed. Seeing it had immediately confirmed Camille’s worst fears. She was tempted to turn it off right then, but knew she had to keep watching, no matter what.

After a few seconds, a lean, middle-aged man wearing only a towel entered the frame. He was talking over his shoulder as he rubbed something on his chest and arms.

“I mean it, Jules. You keep doing stuff like that and you’re going to have a hard time getting rid of me.”

“Empty promises,” Camille heard a female voice say off-camera. Despite its muted quality, she knew the voice all too well.

“Okay, let’s switch places for a day and we’ll see how you deal with the complicated hell that’s my life,” the man answered.

“You
r life is only as complicated as you make it, Elliott.”

“And you don’t think you have anything to do with that?”

Julia finally came into the camera’s view. She was completely naked and drying her hair with a towel. Camille instinctively looked away.

“I take no responsibility for the hell that is your life,” she said lightly. “All I ever ask is to be more a part of that life. Hell or not.”

When Camille looked at the screen again, Julia was sitting on the bed still drying her hair. The man stood over her.

“I don’t think it would be nearly as hellish if you were in it more.”

Julia stopped drying her hair and looked up at him. “Make it happen then.”

“You don’t think I’m trying?”

“All I know is that after you leave here you’re going home to a woman who thinks you still love her. Beyond that, I don’t know what you’re doing.”

He sighed. “I told you I’m working on it.”

Camille had to avert her eyes again, feeling embarrassed by what she was seeing. The woman in the video was definitely Julia, but aside from the way she looked, Camille recognized nothing about her. She spoke in a desperate, pleading tone that Camille had never heard before. She was the worst possible cliché – the jaded other woman who clung to the delusional hope of a future that would never be. She hated to even think of the word ‘pathetic’ in regard to Julia, but that’s exactly what she was. And it was sad beyond description.

“Actions, Elliott.”

He smiled. “I prefer it when you call me Richmond,” he said as he moved closer to her. “Somehow you manage to make that name sound incredibly sexy.”

Even though the camera was some distance away, Camille could see the smile forming on Julia’s face. “Is that right, Richmond?” She emphasized his name in such a way that left little doubt as to what was coming next.

A gentle pull on his towel caused it to fall to the floor. For a moment, Julia sat motionless, staring at his erect penis. When she took it in her hands, Camille got up and walked away. She felt like crying but didn’t allow herself to. She knew the tears would be not of sadness but of angry judgment. And the last thing she could allow herself to do was stand in judgment. This video obviously existed for reasons far beyond what she was seeing right now, and no matter how Camille may have felt about it, she had to keep watching.

When she walked back to the computer, Julia and the man she called Elliott had switched positions and he was now the one sitting on the bed while Julia stood over him, one leg straddling his waist.

Camille looked at the time meter on the bottom of the screen and saw there was fifty-eight minutes remaining in the video. As Julia brought her other leg up and lowered herself onto Elliott’s lap, Camille hit the fast forward button and looked away.

She periodically checked the screen while rapidly moving images flashed in front of her. The fact that she had seen Julia in such an intimate and personal circumstance was surreal. In sixteen years, Camille thought she knew everything there was to know about her. But she was beginning to think that she never really knew Julia at all. The woman she knew would have never put herself in a circumstance like this. The woman she knew would have never slept with a married man. And she would certainly never beg for his affection. If you know a person long enough, you eventually see all sides of them – even the sides they desperately try to hide. Julia obviously tried to keep this side of herself hidden from Camille for as long as she could. But even she knew it couldn’t stay hidden forever.

When the video finally reached a point when Julia and Elliott were no longer in bed, Camille pressed ‘play’. The camera held the shot of an empty bed with the two of them nowhere to be found. After a couple of minutes, Camille hit fast forward again, advancing through another ten minutes of video time before a fully clothed Julia finally appeared in the bedroom. By the time Camille pressed ‘play’, Julia was already in mid-sentence.

“That’s always the way it goes! You get your rocks off here then run home and put on your fucking family man suit!”

“Whatever!” Camille heard Elliott shout from off camera.

“Yeah whatever
, Elliott! Whatever! I wonder if that’s what she’d say if she ever found out. Do you think she would be so nonchalant about it?”

As taken aback as Camille was by what she saw earlier in the video, Julia’s angry display was absolutely shocking. She had witnessed Julia raise her voice only a few times, and never to this level. Her eyes were wild and she looked as if she were ready to throw a punch. Camille feared she would do just that when Elliott finally entered the bedroom.

“I don’t suggest you talk like that,” he answered. Even though his tone was measured, there was an unmistakable menace behind it.

Julia didn’t seem the least bit fazed. “Oh really? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call her right now?”

“Because you would ruin a lot of lives, starting with your own.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat or something?”

Elliott approached her until he was only a few inches from her face. Julia didn’t give an inch of ground.

“The way I’m reading this conversation, you’re the one making threats.” He started to bring his hand up, but when Julia brushed by him and sat on the bed, he lowered it.

“I haven’t started making threats yet,
Richmond
.” The emphasis on his name was not nearly as sexy this time.

There was a brief moment of silence as Julia sat on the bed and Elliott stood in the corner looking at the wall. Both appeared emotionally spent. Then Elliott began looking around the room. “Let me guess, you’re recording this.”

Julia stood up. “Seriously? What kind of stupid question is that?” she asked in the high-pitched voice that Camille knew she only used when she was lying. “The video camera is downstairs hooked up to my TV if you want to go check.” Julia didn’t bat an eyelash, even though she practically spoke into the camera as she said it.

“Don’t act like you’re suddenly above doing it.”

“If I recall, anytime there was ever a video, it was because you asked for it. Why on earth would I want to record myself having sex with an asshole?”

Elliott stopped looking around the room and turned his focus back to her. “I don’t think you would have had a problem with it half an hour ago.”

Julia smiled. “Funny how quickly things change, isn’t it?”

Elliott leaned against the dresser and cast his eyes downward, apparently satisfied with Julia’s answer about the camera. She had obviously concealed it well, because he had looked directly into it at least three different times.

“So maybe you should tell me what I’m supposed to do?” he asked.

“Tell the truth for once in your life, Elliott. Just tell the truth.”

“Christ, Julia! What the hell am I not telling the truth about?” It was the first time he had raised his voice. Camille recoiled as much as Julia had appeared to. “You know I’m married! You know I have children! You know the public position I’m in! I’ve never hidden a single thing from you!”

“You’ve hidden a lot from your wife though. Haven’t you?”

“Do not mention her again. You’ve said enough already. Do you understand? Keep her name out of her mouth.” Camille felt tense as he approached Julia again.

“You mean her full name – Mayor Sonya Janice Richmond?” Julia said with a sneer. “I certainly wouldn’t want to piss off a mayor, especially one who is less than two months away
from becoming a United States Senator. I doubt you would either. What do you think would make piss her off more? You fucking me or you fucking the voters of this state in order to get her there?” 

Camille felt like she was watching a movie and the woman on screen was an actress doing a terrible impersonation of her friend. Nothing about it seemed real.

But the next thing Camille saw reminded her of just how horribly real this was.

Elliott grabbed Julia by the arm and pulled her close. “So you want me to threaten you? Is that it?”

“Let go.” Julia’s back was to the camera now, but Camille could still sense the fear on her face.

“You’re going down a road that you really don’t want to go down, Julia. I suggest you back off.” Elliott let go of her arm and she staggered backward.

Julia sniffled and dabbed at the corner of her eye. “You’ve been so concerned about not hurting your wife and children. Did you ever once stop to think about the consequences of hurting me? Or continually lying to me? Or putting your goddamn hands on me?”

Elliott was silent.

“You obviously know what your wife can do to you,” she continued. “But you should be just as worried about what I can do.”

Elliott crossed his arms. “And what exactly can you do?”

Camille felt short of breath. This was no longer a video she was watching on a computer. This was Julia’s life unraveling in front of her eyes. She found herself praying that Julia would not answer the question and simply walk away.

“You probably should have thought about that before you asked me to be in your videos. You
definitely
should have thought about it before you started talking to me about Springwell Technologies.”

“Do you honestly think you can–
”

Julia put her hands up. “Just don’t take me for granted, Elliott. And I’m not talking about from a relationship standpoint, because you’ve clearly shown me that you don’t give a damn about that. I’m talking about you thinking that I’m just going to allow you to hurt me time and time again without ever striking back at you. I have plenty of ways I can strike back at you.” 

Elliott shook his head. “All of this because I’m not going home to tell my wife of twenty-six years that I’m leaving her? You’re sadder, and a hell of a lot more delusional, than I thought.”