Forever Driven: Forever Bluegrass #4 (7 page)

M
att was learning quickly
that Cy had been right. This was boring—painfully so. He had met DeAndre, who was outraged over what happened to Riley and offered to help in any way he could. After talking to Riley about DeAndre and his John Wolfe-esque ability to know things before they were public, Matt decided he could read the guard into the situation. It always helped to have an extra set of eyes and ears.

But before he could do that, they were walking into the first meeting of the day—a banking and insurance committee meeting. The meeting ended just as Matt was about to stab his eyes out. He tried to talk to Riley then, but politicians all wanted to see the one brave enough to take a punch for her beliefs. A pack of them followed her to her next meeting—administrative regulation review. Matt had never experienced this kind of torture before. He gave up fifteen minutes into the ninety-minute meeting and quietly passed a note to one of the staff running around the room. The fresh-from-college young woman blushed when Matt thanked her and hurried to give the note to Riley. Riley read it and their eyes met across the committee room. She gave him a slight nod and went back to listening to the sixty-year-old man across the table from her.

Matt had told her he was going to make a round and be back in thirty minutes. She wasn’t to leave the room. He knew there was a fifty percent chance that she would leave without him, but he’d risk it to escape from the meeting.

Matt headed to the main door of the annex building and found DeAndre at his desk by the metal detector. DeAndre looked up and gave him a chin nod. “What’s up, man?”

Security guards at government buildings were under the Kentucky State Police, but they weren’t troopers like he was. They were considered special law enforcement officers. While they didn’t have the training Matt had received, they did have firearm training and had to keep current with it.

“I would like to interview you for this article I’m writing,” Matt said as some congressmen walked by.

“Sure thing. What do you want to ask?” DeAndre asked as he stood up.

“Is there someplace private we can talk?”

DeAndre nodded again and called into his radio. “Doug will be here in a couple of minutes to cover for me.”

While they waited, Matt found out DeAndre was born and raised in Frankfort. He didn’t have the money for college and his grades weren’t good enough for a scholarship. So he’d started working in a gun shop. He liked the perks of being able to shoot at the range after he closed and had met a lot of state police there. Two years before, one of them asked to see a gun and DeAndre showed him how it was used and fired it a couple times, hitting the bullseye each time. The trooper had asked why he wasn’t in law enforcement. DeAndre went home and looked it up. He told Matt he just knew it was what he was meant to do. He wanted to join the state police but didn’t have the required college credits. This job had come up, so he’d taken it while he took night classes to become qualified. Doug appeared and Matt followed DeAndre down the hall.

“I need a place that’s completely private. I can’t have anyone overhear us,” Matt said in a low voice.

“What kind of questions are you asking me?” DeAndre asked with humor lacing his voice.

“The confidential kind.”

“Then there’s only one place to go here.” DeAndre led them down into the basement and unlocked a door. A loud furnace was pumping heat into the building. “This is the only place I know that people can’t hear you. I’m sure there are others, but here you don’t have to constantly look around. So, what questions are so secret we had to come here?”

Matt reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He tossed it to DeAndre who looked at him skeptically before opening it. “Man, you’re with the state police?”

“Yes. And my territory is Keeneston. I am on a month-long leave after wrapping up another job. I’m friends with lots of people in that town, including Riley and her family. Her mother asked me to watch over her until this guy is caught,” Matt explained.

“Why aren’t you doing what her dad did yesterday and scaring everyone who dares to look at Riley?” DeAndre asked.

“Because then the assailant wouldn’t make another move. I want to blend in. I’m familiar with undercover work and have great results with it. Plus Riley would throw a fit if I played bodyguard.”

DeAndre snickered. “That’s the truth. What do you need?”

“I need you to keep my cover as a reporter, but mostly I need someone I trust to be an extra pair of eyes and ears and backup, in case we need it.”

“Oh, man. Of course. Riley’s real cool. Most of these people don’t even pay attention to me. She’s not a regular politician. She really does care about others. I’ll help anyway I can. I do change buildings quite often, though.”

“Not a problem. I’ll get Riley’s schedule and send it to your boss. You’ll be at whichever building she is the most that day. Here’s my number. Call me if anything unusual goes on.” Matt sent DeAndre a text with all his info and felt better, having someone else know the game plan.

“Thanks for bringing me in on this. It’ll be a great learning experience. I’ll have my college credits required to apply to the Kentucky State Police in May,” DeAndre told him.

“Well, you help me out, and I’ll help you out. I’ll help you study or go through the physical tests as much as you want.”

“Really?” DeAndre’s eyes got big, and he smiled with such enthusiasm Matt remembered even at twenty-three, he was still a kid trying to better his life.

“Absolutely.” Matt held out his hand and DeAndre eagerly shook it.

F
ive minutes later
, Matt was back in the most boring meeting in the world. A woman he recognized as Riley’s secretary walked in and handed her a note. She stood back as if waiting for a reply. Riley read the note and her eyes shot to his. Matt straightened up. Something was wrong. Riley’s lips thinned and she wrote a reply and handed the note back to her secretary who looked at it and shook her head before bending down and whispering in Riley’s ear.

“I don’t care,” Riley said on a harsh whisper that interrupted the meeting. She ignored her secretary and turned back to the table. “I’m sorry, please continue.”

Matt saw that Riley kept glancing up at him and sat very rigid as her secretary left the room. A second later his phone vibrated. He glanced down. It was a text from Riley. How? He had been watching her, and she hadn’t looked down at her lap to type. Hell, he hadn’t even seen a phone.

Peel and Stanley are in my office demanding I see them. I told Karen I didn’t want to see them, but she let them in anyway. I have thirty more minutes here. If I swear to come straight to my office, can you go eavesdrop?

Matt gave her a barely perceived nod and stood back up. He had wanted to talk to these two anyway. Riley had told him about Senator Gregory Peel and Representative Marge Stanley and their desire for the highway proposal to succeed. Matt casually headed for Riley’s office. There were four rooms and two doors to the office. The main door opened to the waiting room where there was a couch, a coffee table, and two chairs. Behind them was the secretary’s desk. To the right was a small conference room for no more than eight people and a kitchen area, both of which were shared with the neighboring representative.

A left from the waiting room led to Riley’s office. It was large enough to have its own sitting area, two large bookcases, filing cabinets, and a cherry desk. It also was home to the second, unmarked door leading to the hallway. It was that door Matt went in with the key Riley had given him that morning. The office door to the waiting area was half-open and Matt could hear Karen talking with Peel and Stanley.

Matt turned his phone to silent and set his bag down by the unmarked door back to the hallway. He slowed his breathing and crept closer to the partially open door. When he got close enough to hear, he relaxed his body and closed his eyes. He focused all his attention on the conversation coming from the next room.

“She wouldn’t leave the meeting. I’m sorry,” he heard Karen repeat.

“She has no respect for seniority,” Peel spat. Matt silently agreed. Riley had respect for people who earned it, not someone who thought it was owed them. When he was working construction in Lumpur, he’d heard quite a bit about their senator. They thought he was a god. He brought jobs to the county and was one of the highest-ranking members in the state legislature. When he was home in Lumpur, he worked at his law firm, though Matt never heard of him actually having clients. It appeared his associates did all the work, and Peel would come out, shake hands with the clients, and collect his money.

“I didn’t think some farmer from the middle of nowhere would be such a problem,” a woman’s voice said. That must be Marge. Matt hadn’t had time to really look into her except to know she was from Milan, Kentucky, was a community volunteer, and the president of something that sounded a lot like the Keeneston Belles for married women. In Keeneston, married Belles became part of the Keeneston Ladies.

“That’s what Karen is supposed to be handling. If you can’t even get Riley to meet us, what are we paying you for?” Peel snapped.

Matt’s eyes opened, and he fought the urge to step closer.

“You’re only paying me to keep you informed of everything she’s doing. As I told you, she’s looking into talking to the historical preservation society about turning all of Main Street into a historical landmark.”

“Dammit!” Marge cursed. “Where did she get that idea?”

“She got it after looking into you. You were the chair of the committee that did the same thing for downtown Milan,” Karen said softly, as if expecting an outburst. The outburst came in the form of a hand slamming down onto a desk.

“Calm down, Marge,” Peel said. “It took you years to get that done. Remember how many hoops you had to jump through? Keeneston is a couple years younger than Milan with no fort or historically significant landmarks. Since she’s keeping us waiting, what else can you tell us she has going on? Has she said anything about the attack?”

He could hear Karen taking a deep breath and moving to get something from a desk drawer. It sounded like she was turning pages in a notebook. “Well, you all surely know about her speech in the cafeteria yesterday. Angela Cobb was in here yesterday afternoon and told her that five more people have agreed to vote down the highway funding.”

“Hmm,” Peel murmured. “That leaves us only three votes ahead. We need to get some of those voters back. It shouldn’t be that close.”

“Let’s go back to the war room after we talk to Riley and see who we can get to flip since it’s looking less likely we can use reason with the girl,” Marge said with disgust.

“Is there anything else?” Peel asked Karen.

“Yes. Her father was with her yesterday. He told me to keep an eye out for her. I was expecting him back today, but Riley said he got bored. However, there is a new guy with her.”

“Who is he?” Peel asked.

“A reporter named Matt Walsh from
The Keeneston Journal
, her hometown paper. They saw the news on the attack and wanted to do an in-depth story on her and her fight to save their town,” Karen said. Matt could practically hear her rolling her eyes.

“Do we need to worry about him?” Marge asked.

“I don’t think so. He just seems to follow her around and write in his notepad. He hasn’t really gotten in the way, although he’s only been here a couple of hours. He’s with her now in that committee meeting. He was sitting in the corner of the room looking as if he were about to fall asleep.”

“What does he look like?” Marge asked again as she stood up and started pacing.

“Tall, skinny, dark blond hair. He’s usually eating. He raided the kitchen before the first meeting.”

“Let us know what questions he’s asking. We don’t want him to dig where we don’t want him to,” Peel ordered before cursing again. “I don’t have time to wait here another fifteen minutes. Come on, Marge. We can use the time before my lunch meeting to see who we can flip to our side.”

Matt didn’t move until they had left the room and walked past the closed office door. Karen sighed loudly, and he heard her collapsing into her chair. Matt waited until she was typing again to sneak out into the hallway so he could walk in through the main door. As soon as he did, Karen’s head popped up from her computer, and she smiled at him. She was in her mid-thirties, divorced, and had two kids, according to Riley. It was probably why she needed the money. Unfortunately, she also would need a new job soon.

“Hi, Karen. I don’t know how she does it. That meeting almost put me to sleep. I had to get up and stretch my legs.”

Karen gave him a flirty smile. “Oh, I know!”

“So, why don’t you tell me a little about how you run the office? You know, the type of calls you take, who visits, and so on so I can get the feel for what it’s like working here.”

Matt took out his notebook and listened as Karen told him most of the truth. “I bet it can get heated when you have two equally stubborn forces on opposing sides. Anything ever get heated in here in terms of yelling?”

Karen shook her head. “Not that I can think of. I know it happens in committee meetings and sometimes on the House floor, but no one has ever charged in here and started yelling before.”

“I’m surprised,” Matt told her as he looked up from his notebook. “You would think the person who attacked Miss Davies would have talked to her before to find out she wasn’t going to change her vote and only resort to threats then.”

“Has she said she isn’t going to change her vote?” Karen asked nervously. “I mean, after experiencing what she did, I would be afraid to vote either way. I would probably abstain.”

“Miss Davies did make it very clear yesterday she wasn’t going to change her vote . . .”

“And I’ll make it very clear right now that I have no intention of changing my vote. I will do whatever it takes to make sure there is never funding for that highway,” Riley said from behind him. “Now, where are the terrible two?”

Karen cringed slightly before pasting on a serious-looking face. “They left fifteen minutes ago. Here are your calls, and Ms. Cobb stopped by to see how you were doing today.”