The Voting Machine

The Equal Protection Clause

"I started putting it together yesterday. There are several pieces of information that made me realize that Stevens has been on the wrong track suspecting your father. The first piece was a case file that Fatima gave me. She has been researching public records from the lawsuits that Zeke and David filed in the past two elections. First the Democrats complained about voting machine glitches when they lost four years ago. Then Republicans complained that union workers swapped out memory cards when they lost two years back.

"Both parties basically made the same arguments for different sides, claiming each time that the state failed to protect basic voting rights. Fatima showed me the explanation of the Equal Protection Clause. It was part of the Fourteenth Amendment issued after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. It says a state shall not deny a person within the state the rights due to all citizens of the nation."

"I know what the Equal Protection Clause says."

"It played a key role in so many civil rights issues. It was part of the Bush vs. Gore decision in the 2000 election. In that case, the Supreme Court agreed that voter's basic rights were denied by the problems with ballot counting in Florida."

She nodded. "The Justices agreed on that. David told his attorneys in Nevada to use that precedent from Bush's lawyers to argue a denial of voting rights based on ballot protection and integrity. They said the state was not doing enough to protect the safety and legitimacy of ballots once they were cast and counted. Zeke just had his attorney's lift the same argument two years later."

"So if you know the case, you know that the state of Nevada was forced to concede there was a basic problem. The courts agreed to a series of measures for monitoring the polling stations and voting machinery. They tried to please both sides. Zeke and David would each have a system of audit that allowed their representatives to inspect and verify the integrity of the voting process at every stage of the election cycle. The court specifically got them involved and made them accountable so they wouldn't raise a future challenge."

"I know all this."

"So then you also know about the master keys."

Annabelle blinked and slicked her hair back in a ponytail. It was her signature tell, one she had used before when she wanted to make it seem like she didn't know what I was talking about.

"The master keys, Annabelle. Surely, you know about the master keys, don't you? The County Clerk's office had a set that granted access to every single polling station in Clark County. And it went missing the day before Zeke and David were killed. Whoever took those keys would've had access to all the locations where the voting machines were being stored, transported and staged for the election. They could've broken into the polling centers themselves or passed the keys to Los Empresarios. After all they were the ones who set the traps in the equipment."

Annabelle started chewing at her fingernail.

"That was the big question that the police and the FBI could never get their head around. Shiro didn't understand it either. Castle had his two agents strap me to a ceiling in an underground dungeon. They waterboarded me with energy soda. They just wanted an answer on the master keys. But I didn't know anything at the time. Now I do."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I think you know."

"You think someone close to David gave those keys to Los Empresarios? No one in our campaign would've done that. They are our enemies. You see what those monsters did to me: snatching me off the street in broad daylight."

"That's right," I said. "They kidnapped you and locked you in that fortress in the desert. I saw the machines in that underground lab. I always wondered why they did it. Getting involved in an US election was so different than their core business. They had no experience, no expertise. Why would they take that chance unless they had someone on the inside giving them instructions?"

"I don't understand what you are suggesting? How would someone from the campaign work with those monsters?"

"I met with their boss Juan Ricardo on the night he died."

"He was a pure sociopath."

"Maybe so. But in the end he met his match. He said he had been working for a client. He thought he would come out ahead in the arrangement but he underestimated his client. He didn't realize she was playing him all along."

"She?"

"She. Juan Ricardo was working for a woman. I found out something else about their relationship this morning when I was stumbling around Skid Row searching for a kill shot. I told one of the slingers on the street corner how I shared a jail cell with the acting boss of LE. The slinger said that was bullshit because LE doesn't ever go to jail. They got too many ties with the LAPD and the Sheriff's Department. He told me the only time the LE bosses go to jail is when they want to get caught because they have a job to take care of on the inside. 

"Juan Ricardo was my cell mate in the Twin Towers. That was the night your old teacher got killed in the next cell block over. He was there to oversee that execution, wasn't he? And then he had the added purpose of making sure I was safe overnight so that Shiro's agents couldn't get to me before I had my court hearing. The next morning you rescued me and whisked me off to Las Vegas."

"You think it's me?" Annabelle laughed. "You have any idea how crazy you sound? It's got to be the pressure, Temo. You've been through hell I know that. But you are being delusional."

"It's not delusional. It makes perfect sense. I don't know why I didn't see it earlier. You told me yourself you did jobs for LE back when you were a teenager. You drove cars full of cash down to the border. They killed your friend but they didn't kill you. I guess they realized you were a more valuable connection if they let you live."

"But they kidnapped me, Temo! They held me at gunpoint and transported me out to that hell hole."

"You ordered them to capture you. The kidnapping was to confuse Stevens and the police, to make sure no one ever considered you as a suspect. And it worked as far as they were concerned didn't it? I'll bet they never even asked you for an alibi. What was the original plan before Luke and I showed up? To have Juan Ricardo's men hold you there until after the election? Luke warned me we shouldn't go after you. But I didn't listen to him. And now he's dead."

"That isn't my fault, Temo. You two brought the drone with you. Castle's team was tracking you, not me. Otherwise they would have never bombed the compound."

"So it was our fault for trying to help you, for believing in your lies! You know what Ricardo did to us out there? He strapped us into chairs and ran electric currents through our skulls."

"I didn't know you were there. I would've never let him do that."

"You had him wrapped around your finger, didn't you?"

"He thought my father was Shiro. He thought I could help him get equal footing into the partnership, a direct stake in running the global games. I let him believe that."

"He never realized the fresa was fooling him all along, just like you were deceiving all of us. You were the one who introduced David to Gina. You were the only person who had visibility into corporate affairs at Passion and David's work in Las Vegas. Too bad Chet killed Gina before you could link her to David so they could share information. Otherwise, you might have stopped Shiro six months ago. Things never would've gotten so messy. But when she died, you had to move to Plan B. You came down to Los Angeles the night she died and the next morning we were on our way to Vegas."

"I did that to protect you. Shiro's agents tried to kill you on your last night in the city. You think they wouldn't have tried again?" I could hear the anger rising in her voice. "Besides, I wanted you to be part of something good. You deserved that after everything that had happened to you. No one else made any move to help you, did they? Your wife threw you out. Your old friends from Passion? They were too busy fending for themselves. All I've tried to do is help the people who slip through the cracks through no fault of their own."

"You have been doing a lot of good. But you haven't been honest about how you're doing it. You knew about Shiro for years, didn't you? You knew your father was the banker for something dark and secret. You were paying attention even when he didn't know it, even when you were young and your mother and father were off in their own worlds and they neglected you. A lonely child learns fast, because no one is there for her in the ways that matter, no one is going to teach her how to love and be loved."