You were never going to end up in his bed; you said so yourself.”
“I did. Shit. Why did Richard Lyon invite JP in the first place? Before I knew you, I would often tell people that reporters are a lot like vampires—you should never invite them into your house because you can’t get them out.”
William laughed as we walked downstairs to his garage. “That’s a bunch of folktale nonsense,” he said. “We can come and go anywhere we please.”
William took me home and I quickly picked up my gear and left for Palo Alto. I phoned my staff from my car and asked them draw up a script to use in the phone interviews. My plan was to conduct in-person interviews at the Stanford Shopping Mall and among small businesses along University Avenue.
Being able to read people’s emotions put me in a good position to conduct voter interviews. It’s common knowledge in the industry that people often lie, or minimize things when they participate in surveys, especially on the phone. No one wants to tell a stranger they drink four cocktails a night, or eat red meat five days a week. It’s the same with their views on candidates and political issues. Most people don’t want to tell you they don’t like someone when they have to look you in the eye. None of that would matter for me, though, because I would know their true emotions whether they shared them or not.
Thankfully, traffic was light and I made it to Palo Alto quickly. As I pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center, I readied myself for an afternoon of reading people.
After several hours of speaking with voters, I took refuge in a café on University Avenue to rest my tired feet and type up my notes. I ordered a chai latte. Elsa’s love of all things tea rubbing off on me. I sipped the frothy, fragrant milk feeling both exhausted and exhilarated after my conversations. I couldn’t wait to relay the results of my discussion with the team.
I had been typing for about an hour when Stoner Halbert suddenly appeared in front of me. It was a shock to see him; we’d managed to sidestep each other for months. I’d avoided him when he was in the midst of stealing all of my clients. Later, when I joined the Council and had given up any work connected to him, I became too busy to care.
Halbert took the chair directly in front of me. A changed man stood before me. It was difficult to fathom this was the person who’d ruined so many of my days months ago. Now his aura was hollow, as if someone had stolen his very essence. The blue eyes peering into me were flat and dark.
Sitting in silence, regarding each another across the table, it struck me that I should have been more intimidated to face such a creature, this weasel that stole from the nests of others to feed himself. But I was no longer flying blind; I could read people’s intentions, see their true colors. It hadn’t been easy, but I’d come to trust my instincts and my intuition, two powerful forces that have served women for centuries. Elsa had prepared me for a moment like this, when I could sit face-to-face with an old nemesis and breathe a sigh of relief.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” I said. “What brings you here?”
Halbert licked his lips and sat for a moment before replying. His gestures were human enough to keep people from noticing, but to me, his air of decay was unmistakable, as if he would peel open at any moment and allow some malevolent beast to come pouring out of his center.
“I came to discuss the terms of your surrender,” he said. “You must have known I would be the one to take you down. I felt I should deliver the message in person.”
As odd as it may sound, I was delighted by his remarks because it showed that he didn’t know what I knew: that the majority of local voters cared very little about Richard’s comments. My interviews had revealed that most people were too busy living their lives to tune in to these kinds of petty clashes. And the few who had heard about the video were more interested in Levi’s words and actions than those of his friends. Everyone, it turns out, can relate to being at a party where someone you know says something embarrassing. Halbert,