so hard to get passed.”
Bartlet met Clint’s gaze, his expression unreadable. The guy was good. No question about it. But Clint’s SEAL-trained instincts were going haywire inside and he put more stock in those than in any excuse coming out of Bartlet. The other man took a deep breath, then smiled. “Is that where we’re at now? My politics make me guilty? If you must know, I backed the conservative candidate because of his fiscal policies, not because of his stance on the bill. I’d planned to talk with him, get him to change his mind about the legislation when it came down to it. I’m not without influence in political circles too.”
I bet. Clint bit back that response and inhaled deeply. Bartlet struck him as the kind of wily guy who’d be completely comfortable in a room full of politicians that most would see as a snake pit—Clint included.
“Trust me, Mr. Buckman,” Bartlet said after a moment. “Talk to Berger.”
Clint trusted this guy about as far as he could throw him. Which was farther than most people, but still. He dug his nails into the arms of the leather wing chair he was sitting in to keep from reaching across the desk to grab Bartlet by the throat and throttle him. He was getting lost in the weeds and needed to keep cool, no matter how much angry heat was raging inside him. Which was so not like him. Up until now, Clint had always been the cool one, the guy who pulled Levon and Noah back when they were going too far. But the minute he’d gotten involved with Tara, all his icy barriers seemed to have melted away. It wasn’t a good feeling. In fact, he felt damned prickly and uncomfortable about it. Still, he forced himself to continue questioning Bartlet, to try and get some info here that SSoF wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
“You mentioned Ms. Crumb earlier. How would you describe her professionally?”
“Frosty,” Bartlet said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs. “Focused, but frosty. That’s my take on Tara. I tried to get more friendly with her after she took over as interim director, in a board member capacity, of course. I like to get to know all the directors. Makes it easier to get things done with the organization if we’re all on the same page.”
Clint snorted, biting back a nasty response. This douchebag was lucky Tara hadn’t filed a harassment complaint against him. “Go on.”
Bartlet shrugged. “Really, that’s it. Tara gave me the cold shoulder. And not just me, either. She has a bit of a reputation, you know. That’s why I’m telling you, there’s more to the story of her firing John Berger than she’s letting on. He’s quite an ambitious young man, but in the environmental lobby, it can be hard to rise to the top, you know. Maybe he resents the lovely Ms. Crumb for getting the interim director position. Maybe he thinks he can make his own star rise if his organization gets the credit for the legislation passing—but of course, for that to happen, he’d need it to pass without Go Green Energy’s support. Something to look into, wouldn’t you agree? Makes sense to me.”
The phone on the desk rang again, cutting off Clint’s next question.
“I’m sorry,” Bartlet said, checking the caller ID. “This is my next conference call. I have to take this. Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Buckman. You can show yourself out, right?”
Yeah, he could. Clint got up and walked out of the office and headed back to his car. On the way, he pulled out his phone to call the guys.
“Bartlet thinks we should look deeper into John Berger,” he said, then explained about Bartlet’s insinuations as he pushed out of the front entrance and back into the sunny parking lot.
“On it,” Levon said through the phone line, his voice echoing a bit since the guys had the call on speaker. “Find out anything else?”
Just that Bartlet is a slimy creep. Clint swallowed that response and said instead, “No.”
“Right. Well, keep going,” Noah said. “You investigating this on the down-low seems to be helping. You’re getting in with people like Bartlet that the cops can’t get to take a meeting. We’ll look into John Berger further and let you know what we find.”
“Thanks.” He ended the call and climbed back into his truck to head home. Funny how it didn’t bother him to call her house that now. A week or