Guilty Minds

“Whatever makes you feel good.” I cut off a forkful and took a bite. It was hot and delicious. A solid hit of umami. Hotel room service rarely does a good job with steak. It’s hard to get the timing right. But this one was great.

“What I want to know is who’s behind this,” I said. “It circles back around to the editor of Slander Sheet, this Julian Gunn guy, and what his motivations are. Gunn is leading this, but I’ll bet he’s taking orders from whoever really owns that piece of crap website. Once we find out who the money is behind Slander Sheet, who the real power is, and bring that out, everything will fall into place. We’ll know why this is happening. And we’ll have a way to disprove this thing with some real credibility.”

“That’s not going to be easy, I can tell you that.”

“What have you found?”

“SlanderSheet.com is owned by HunseckerMedia.com. Hunsecker Media.com is owned by some proxy, some limited liability company called, uh, Patroon LLC. Which has to be a shell company. I can’t find anything about it. And I don’t think I’m going to find anything in the next eighteen hours, or whatever we have left.”

“Seventeen.”

“Right.”

“So maybe cyber isn’t the way to find out who owns Slander Sheet. Maybe it’s old-fashioned door knocking and shoe leather and phone calls.”

“I’ll keep trying.”

“Wake me if you find anything.”

“I will. Seventeen hours left. My batteries are running down, Nick, but I’ll do as much as I can.”

“You want to order coffee from room service?”

She glanced at her watch. “I don’t know if coffee’s going to help me at this hour.”

“Tomorrow morning Mandy interviews Gideon, off the record, and I want to be there for that.”

“She’s Mandy to you now?”

I shrugged. “She’s not the enemy. If my theory is correct, she’s being used, too. She thinks she’s really onto a huge scoop and she doesn’t want to back down. Probably because her boss doesn’t want them to back down.”

“Then who’s the enemy?”

I held up Curtis Schmidt’s phone. “Right here.”

– 

I had another Scotch while I checked my e-mail and then e-mailed Montello, the data broker, again. I was beat-it had been a long day, but I had a feeling tomorrow would be even worse.

The five-hundred-thread-count sheets were smooth as silk but cool and creamy. The mattress was firm but not hard. The bed was extremely comfortable. I fell asleep fairly quickly.

The phone rang some time later, an unfamiliar purring ringtone, and I jolted awake. “You got something,” I said.

“This is Gideon.”

“Oh, sorry-Gideon? What’s-” I looked at the digital clock. It was 6:05 in the morning. I’d been asleep for five hours or so.

“It’s online,” Gideon Parnell said.

“What’s online?” It took me a moment to realize. “Slander Sheet? I thought they were giving us forty-eight hours.”

“They ran it anyway,” he said.

20

While I waited for Dorothy to throw on some clothes, I went online to SlanderSheet.com. The piece was the first thing that came up. In huge red type against a stark white background were the words:

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE IN CALL GIRL SCANDAL

Above the headline was an unfortunate headshot of Jeremiah Claflin, in black judicial robe and tie, smiling like a cat in catnip.

I clicked on the headline. A short article came up, Mandy Seeger’s byline right at the top. All around it were ads with photos of women in bikinis with huge boobs. Atop the article was another headline:

NATION’S TOP JUDGE IN ROMP WITH WYDEN HOOKER

Here was another picture of Claflin, this one in casual attire, getting out of a car. Next to that was a picture of Heidi taken from the Lily Schuyler website.

The piece began:

Jeremiah Claflin, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, has had at least three trysts with a high-priced escort in DC, sources tell Slander Sheet in an exclusive. The escort, identified as Heidi L’Amour, 22, works for Lily Schuyler, a pricey call girl service that charges upward of $3,000 an hour.

Reliable sources tell Slander Sheet that the country’s top jurist, who is believed to be separated from his wife, did not pay for the prostitute’s services himself. Instead, the sordid trysts were funded by casino mogul and Claflin pal Tom Wyden, who benefited from a favorable decision by the Supreme Court just recently.

The assignations took place at Washington’s ritzy Hotel Monroe on three separate evenings this spring.

…

The office of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States did not respond to requests by Slander Sheet for comment.

Below the article were headlines about one of the Kardashians, and one about Angelina Jolie, and one about Britney Spears, and a report on Beyoncé buying “$312,000 diamond shoes.”

Then Dorothy knocked on my door and we were off.

–