Political Science 101

Chapter Fifty-Seven

LENNY PICKED up his cheap universal TV remote control and turned off his antiquated 15" tube television. But the look on Lenny Knight's face was one of confusion. What he just watched in the NBC interview with Ray Doyle did not match-up with the information he'd gotten in his discussion with the woman who only identified herself as "Ana."

She'd told him Jeb Larkin and oil heiress Lenore Sable began angling to replace Arnold Jenkins several years ago because, though Jenkins was in their pocket and Sable pulled his puppet strings, he was becoming defiant. This was why, according to Ana, Larkin and Sable paid to have Jenkins murdered, subsequently replacing him with someone who would abide by their demands.

But this guy Lenny just watched, Ray Doyle, didn't appear to be on anyone's puppet strings. His casual demeanor in the interview made it seem like he was not doing the bidding of anyone. So, either this was by design and Ray Doyle was exceptionally good at making it seem like he was an independent (though someone else was pulling his strings), or the information he got from "Ana" was completely false.

He reached down to the long old wooden coffee table in front of his hand-me-down couch and picked up his old tape recorder. It was the same tape recorder Ana asked him not to use, and lucky for Lenny, she didn't notice when he pressed RECORD as he placed it into the breast pocket of his bargain store suit jacket, agreeing not to record the conversation.

Lying is just part of being a cop.

It was one of those old tape recorders — an actual tape recorder — which used those miniature cassette tapes no one used anymore. Everyone else used digital recorders now, but Lenny was old school; he was old school for two main reasons: First, most updates/upgrades were probably cost-prohibitive and overly-complicated; and second, he absolutely hated change, unless it significantly benefited him. And switching from tape to digital didn't seem to matter enough for him to make any sort of significant transition.

After rewinding the tape, Detective Lenny Knight listened again to his interview with Ana.

The recording had that deep airy his which always seemed to accompany recording on cassette tapes. And the voices were a little muffled from having the recorder in Lenny's pocket, but they were still clear and audible enough to understand.

KNIGHT: Fine. So where are we going with this?

ANA: Well, I guess you could say that the story will end in November on Election Day, but you'll know more about the murder of Arnold Jenkins.

○ KNIGHT: Congressman Arnold Jenkins.

○ ANA:  Yes.

[PAUSE]

○ KNIGHT: Well, I'm all ears.

○ ANA: One thing first.

○ KNIGHT: Yes?

○ ANA: I was never here.

○ KNIGHT: I understand. Now, what do you know?

○ ANA: More than I wish I knew.

○ KNIGHT: Take your time.

  [PAUSE]  

○ ANA: I don't know where to start. Ask me something.

○ KNIGHT: Who killed Arnold Jenkins?

○ ANA: Whoa, let's work up to that.

○ KNIGHT: Okay, tell me about the link between you and Mitchell Bradley.

○ ANA: A year-and-a-half ago, I was told to strike-up a friendship and hopefully a relationship with Mitch so that I could keep tabs on what he knew.