DC was about two hours, and it was close to three o’clock by the time the Uber they’d ordered pulled up to the palatial home of Senator Alston Franz. Blaze was stunned when the senator answered the door himself.
“Come in, come in.” He waved them in, glanced both ways then closed and locked the door.
“Thank you for seeing us,” Peyton told him.
“I always have time for you, Peyton.” He shook hands warmly with her, then glanced at Blaze.
“This is Scott Hamilton, Senator. He’s doing some investigating for me.”
“Call me Blaze.”
“What kind of investigating?” Franz asked.
“Something that tangentially involves a person you know. I’m hoping you can give me some help.”
The senator shook hands with Blaze, a questioning look on his face.
“Well, I guess if Peyton vouches for you, you must be trustworthy.”
Blaze swallowed a smile. “Thank you, sir.”
“Blaze is a SEAL,” Peyton told him.
“Okay.” Franz nodded his head, trying to hide his confusion.
But Blaze saw the instant the man’s brain made a long-ago connection, and again the senator looked from one of them to the other.
“I think we’d better go into my den to discuss this, if it’s what I think it is.”
The den was just down a short hallway from the entrance, a room paneled in aged oak and filled with books, photos and memorabilia that chronicled the man’s life in politics. A tray sat on a low round table, containing a carafe of coffee on a warmer and a plate of what looked like home-baked pastries. They hadn’t had lunch and Blaze was already salivating.
“Have a seat and help yourselves.” When they were all seated, Blaze and Peyton on the couch, Franz in an armchair, and they all had coffee and pastries, he nodded at Peyton. “Okay. Let’s hear it. Start at the beginning.”
Blaze began by telling him who he was and his relationship to Warren Sulzberger. It was obvious Franz knew all about the situation, but he waited until Blaze told his entire story.
“Nasty business,” he said. “Nasty and disgusting. The cover-up even more so. I’m sorry about your team. I just don’t have words to explain the revulsion it created.”
“I’ve been carrying this rage around with me for years,” Blaze told him, “ever since it all happened. Good men were killed because of greed. You have no idea how many times I’ve visualized killing that man in any number of ways.”
Even knowing that thirst for revenge held him in such a tight grip, Peyton was right. This was a better type of retaliation and lasted a lot longer.
“I can certainly understand how you feel. A lot of us felt that way at the time, although probably not as intensely as you.”
He set his cup down. “I have to ask, sir. How and why was this buried like it was?”
Franz shook his head. “A lot of strings were pulled for that. Sulzberger had very influential friends. I’m assuming he still does, since he’s made a killing as a lobbyist.”
“Peyton came up with this idea we want to tell you about,” he explained, “and she’s right. It will be much more effective.”
“I’m counting on that,” Peyton told him.
“But why are you looking into it now?”
“Because Sulzberger has insinuated himself into our lives.” She went on to fill him in about Dane and Brianne, Kendrick’s efforts to bury the whole thing, aided by Sulzberger, and how it had popped him into Blaze’s life again.
“Okay. What are your plans moving forward? I can tell you it didn’t sit well with a lot of people to let him slide out the way he did. They’d be damned happy to see him finally pay for it.”
“Peyton, why don’t you tell him about it? This was your idea.”
When she finished, the last thing he expected was for Franz to burst out laughing. The man laughed so hard they were afraid he’d choke, but eventually he settled down.
“Sorry, but that is going to make a whole lot of people very happy. Really, really happy.” He leaned forward in his chair. “If you can manage to get a photo somehow, that would be a bonus. So what is it you’d like from me?”
“We need information.” Peyton sat forward. “Just enough specifics that the media will dig deeper into it and find out the rest for themselves. Can you do it?”
Blaze watched the man turn it over in his mind then come to a decision.
“I can’t give you everything, but I do know where some bodies are buried. I can get you enough solid information that