his father Jackson was involved in. Because of the complicated web developed by Pope to hide his interests, Forbes merely assumed that Pope continued his family’s oil and gas businesses and was quietly living off of those earnings, which of course he had and which still constituted a significant component of his wealth. It was his knowledge of oil and gas that brought him into the media light from time to time to discuss energy issues and the political component to them.
That veneer of oil and gas served as cover for the rest of his financial largesse. Forbes nor anyone else had any inkling of his other worldwide interests in banking, hedge funds, casinos, military contracting, technology or real estate, nor would they, not right now. Only when Pope was truly the wealthiest and most successful person in the world would he then reveal the vastness of his financial empire and let the world truly comprehend the power and wealth that he’d obtained.
Yes, he had a bad week but the mess was cleaned up and it was time to move on.
He looked down to the pool.
Veronica waved to him again.
It was time to join her.
* * *
The Judge stood outside the polling place for Governor Thomson and his wife, leaning against the limousine, sipping a Grand Brew coffee. Three cigars were in his suit coat pocket and before the day was out, he’d have smoked all three and given out a hundred more. Nevertheless, he imagined that if anyone bothered to take a close look at him right now, they would see an expression of extreme satisfaction.
Judge Dixon would go out of presidential campaigning a winner, a big winner. He only had to think back to last night to realize how big.
Three days ago, Arizona was not even on his radar, other than for thoughts of a spring golf trip. It was counted as deep red on the electoral map, the vice president ahead by anywhere from seven to ten points in recent polling. The Democratic Primary campaign was over by the time the Arizona Primary had rolled around in the spring. The campaign made one cursory four-hour stop and the governor gave a couple of quick speeches, shook some hands and collected some campaign checks. However, in Dixon’s campaign calculus, Arizona was conservative in general, governed by a very conservative governor focused on her border and didn’t seem like a good bet to pile in limited campaign financial resources, especially given the other states that were closer in the polling and richer in electoral votes. After their quick spring visit, the Judge never gave Arizona another thought throughout the entire election.
Then on Sunday morning the scandal broke. The polls massively swung in their direction overnight. Florida, Missouri and Arizona, among a few other states, suddenly came into play just as Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio and Virginia turned dark blue, locks for Governor Thomson. On the last day, the campaign hit all three, welcomed by massive and enthusiastic crowds and from what Dixon had seen in this morning’s polling, they would win all three. If they’d had a few more days, the Judge thought they could have really swung the election to a landslide, especially down the ballot. That would really be what they had to watch today, how much impact the scandal would have down the ballot.
If they had two more days, they could have experienced the Pope effect.
Dixon began to calculate what the impact of Pope’s involvement would have been on the electorate, one of the richest men on the planet trying to fix the election. Pope was fairly anonymous himself, but everyone knew Pope Oil and Gas—P. O. & G. Christian Pope’s wealth would have spoke volumes as would’ve his politics. People often thought the rich bought politicians. In this case, a very wealthy man actually had bought the election but for the investigating of McRyan and Wire.
He wished he could have used Pope. He wished he could have leaked that to the media somehow, let that message get out to the electorate. Of course, had he done that, he’d have had Mac, Wire, the FBI director and attorney general all over him. Heck, he wasn’t even supposed to know. He couldn’t even tell the governor. Wire said Mac would be furious if he found out that she’d even told him. So he said to himself, just take the win.
The pundits would speculate about what might have been, but the Judge didn’t care. If the playing field was