Face of Betrayal (18 page)

“Did you have anything to do with Katie’s disappearance?” Cassidy kept her pacing quick. She wanted to get to the good stuff, to the topics that might knock Fairview off balance.

“No, I didn’t.” His answer was smooth. Concern with just a hint of anger.

“Did you kill Katie Converse?”

“I did not.”

She decided to switch it up a bit and project sympathy. “Have all the rumors and speculation been hard on you and your family?”

Fairview turned to Nancy, and they exchanged a glance that appeared private and that Cassidy bet had also been rehearsed a dozen times.

Then he turned back to her. “The media have tried to go through my wife’s medical records, and the tabloids have chased my children. But the fact of the matter is, this is not about the Fairviews. This is about the Converses. And what we’ve experienced is minor pain compared to what Mr. and Mrs. Converse are going through. Our hearts go out to them.”

“Nancy, how are you coping with the media onslaught?” Cassidy asked. “Do you read everything? Do you listen to everything? Or are you tempted to put your hands over your ears and not take it in?”

Nancy’s mouth crimped. “They have completely lost sight of Katie. Instead, they want to make it about innuendos and half-truths and out-right lies about my husband.”

Fairview shook his head. “It’s ridiculous that we are even being asked these questions. Katie is a troubled young woman, and I have tried to help her. And this is the payback I receive? To be accused of her murder?”

Was this the first crack in the façade? Cassidy felt like she could levitate out of her seat. “Troubled? What do you mean by troubled?”

He sighed. “When you first meet Katie, she seems older than her years. I mean, how many people her age want to talk about how bills are made? But the longer you know her, the more you can see how lonely and insecure she is.”

Cassidy shook her head. “But Katie has gotten straight A’s, she was president of several clubs at her high school, and she got into this competitive page program that takes only a handful of students from across the nation. By every account, Katie is a success.”

Fairview made a gesture with his hands as if he were brushing all that aside. “A lot of these young people look successful on the surface. But inside they’re hollow. Inside they are filled with turmoil and weakness and self-loathing.”

Cassidy suddenly
knew
that Fairview was talking about himself as much as he was Katie. Nothing was hidden from her, there were no shadows, everything sparkled. And it wasn’t just the studio lights. She was in the zone.

“So you are saying—what? That Katie was . . . depressed?”

“Katie was a very troubled young woman. And seeing a friendly face from home, she reached out to me. I was afraid to turn her away. Afraid if I did, she might do something rash.”

“Rash? What do you mean by rash? Do you mean you were worried she might run away? Do you think that’s what’s happened?”

“I have no idea what’s happened to Katie. But yes, Cassidy, I was worried that she might run away.” Fairview’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Even that she might possibly go further and choose the ultimate method of running away.”

Cassidy let her eyes widen. Her mind and her mouth were operating on two separate planes now. She was weighing her next words, searching through her mental data banks, anticipating the senator’s response, while her mouth and tongue simultaneously shaped the words she had chosen a second earlier. “Are you saying Katie was suicidal?”

“I’m not a professional counselor. All I know is that Katie is a very troubled young woman. She can be in tears one moment and then bouncing with happiness the next.”

“But doesn’t that describe a typical teenager? You yourself have a fifteen-year-old son and a thirteen-year-old daughter.” Cassidy watched the skin around Fairview’s eyes tighten. She only hoped it showed on camera. “As a father, don’t you feel that these types of mood swings are common to every teen?”

She hoped the viewers caught the unspoken corollary:
As a father, can’t you see that you wouldn’t want an old guy like you hanging out with his daughter?

“These moods of Katie’s were more than that. A few times, she talked about how she didn’t feel like she could go on. I tried to get her to go to a counselor, but she adamantly refused. She said I was the only one she could talk to. And I was afraid if I forced her, she might act on her threats. Frankly, I got caught up in the intensity of it.”

“Senator, excuse me, but I have to address this.” Cassidy drew a deep breath. “There are rumors that your relationship with Katie was sexual.”

It was clearly the question Fairview had been waiting for. His practiced answer flowed out of him as if she had just pulled a cork from a bottle.

“Well, Cassidy, I have not been a perfect man, and I’ve made my share of mistakes. But I’ve been married for twenty-four years, and I intend to stay married to this woman as long as she’ll have me.”

He and Nancy looked at each other, and Nancy even managed to squeeze out a smile for the cameras.

Fairview turned back to Cassidy. “But out of respect for my family, and out of a specific request from the Converse family, I think it’s best that I not get into those details. That’s not what matters now. What matters is that Katie is missing.”

“So you are denying that you had an affair with Katie Converse?”

“Let me just say this. I may have made some errors in judgment, but I have done nothing illegal. I never touched a hair on Katie’s head. But the fact of the matter is this. I’ve been married twenty-four years, I’ve made some mistakes in my life, and I’m not a perfect man. But out of respect for my family, and out of a request, a specific request from the Converses, I will not go into the details of my relationship with Katie Converse.”

There they were. All the messages in one breath.
Again
. Practically word for word.

“What exactly did the Converses ask you to do?” Cassidy hadn’t heard anything about it. In fact, as far as she knew, the Converses and the Fairviews were no longer speaking to each other.

He shifted. “A couple of nights ago on one of the TV shows, uh, they said they did not want to hear about the details of the relationship, how I feel about Katie, or how she feels about me. So I’m trying to honor that. I think the American people understand that people are entitled to some privacy. I’m entitled to try to retain as much privacy as I can. The Converses are entitled to retain as much privacy on behalf of their daughter as they can. So I’m going to honor that.”

That was the best his lawyer and the media coach could come up with? That the Converses had made some offhand remark on TV that Fairview was now treating as a specific request made directly to him?

Cassidy put on a stern look. “But, Senator, you are protecting your privacy at the expense of a young woman who is missing.”

A hint of anger crept into his voice. “Well, that’s not correct. That’s not correct at all. Because I have cooperated with law enforcement. I mean, I have not been part of the media circus if, if that’s your point. No, I haven’t held a news conference, and no, I don’t do talk shows. But I have cooperated. I have worked with law enforcement at every step and given up a lot of my civil liberties to make sure that they have all the information that they need.”

“Don’t the people of Oregon deserve the truth? The people who elected you to this office?”

Fairview jutted his chin. “They deserve the truth. And the truth is that I have done everything asked of me by the people who are responsible to find Katie Converse. It’s not the news media’s responsibility to find Katie Converse. It’s law enforcement’s. And I have worked with the authorities to do just that.”

Maybe Nancy was the weaker link.

Cassidy softened her tone. “What toll does this take, Nancy? I mean, when you’re the wife of a public official and you hear these whispers and you have law enforcement coming to you and asking you questions about your most intimate relationship, how do you handle that as a wife?”

Nancy managed a half smile. “I don’t listen to rumors. I know James Fairview. I know about our relationship, and I feel very secure in it. And I don’t need other people to tell me what they think about it.” She put on a sad expression. “Instead of focusing on finding Katie, or talking about the good things my husband has accomplished, the media are trying to make something out of nothing.”

Out of nothing?
Either this lady was in denial, or she was completely heartless. Cassidy couldn’t wait to see how they reacted to what she said next.

The words hurried off her tongue. “I’m going to turn to another area. A young woman, a cook at the Senate cafeteria named Luisa Helprin, has told me that she had a relationship with you, Senator. And that you asked her to lie about it. True?”

For a second, Fairview and his wife exchanged a glance. Cassidy wished she could read that glance. Did Nancy already know? Guess? Choose not to know?

“I didn’t ask anyone to lie about anything,” Fairview stuttered. “I did not ask Luisa not to cooperate with law enforcement. That’s an absolute lie.”

Just the way Fairview said
Luisa
confirmed the whole thing. Obviously, his lawyer and his media coach had not prepared him for this. Cassidy would bet that the two of them were watching this on TV and having a heart attack—and that Allison would be on the phone as soon as the program was over, demanding Luisa’s contact info.

Inside, Cassidy was grinning, but she kept her expression grave. “We have a statement that your lawyers gave to Luisa, and it says, ‘I do not and have not had a romantic relationship with Senator Fairview.’”

He shifted. She could see the sweat shining on his forehead. Nancy was no longer smiling. Her mouth was half open, her expression stunned and frozen.

“Well, uh,” Fairview stuttered, “that’s a statement that a lawyer sent to another lawyer. I did not have anything to do with that.”

“But why would your lawyer write up the draft of something without your authorization? Why would you want her to say that she didn’t have a relationship with you?”

Fairview found his footing. “Because she didn’t.”

He managed to sound like he meant it. How good was he at compartmentalizing? Had he told so many lies that he sometimes believed them himself? Or was he one of those people who could parse a sentence (“I did not have sex with that woman” came to mind) so narrowly that he sincerely believed it was true?

“Why would this young woman make it up?” Cassidy emphasized the word
young.

Fairview pursed his lips and nodded as if he was agreeing with something she had said. “You know, Cassidy, I’m puzzled by people who take advantage of tragedy.”

“Are you saying that Luisa completely fabricated this?”

“She’s taking advantage of this tragedy. She didn’t know Katie Converse. So she gets to have her moment of publicity, of financial gain. And I’m puzzled by that.”

As far as Cassidy knew, Luisa had only told her story to her. And at Channel Four, they never paid for interviews. Of course, that didn’t mean a paid-for interview with Luisa wouldn’t run in one of the tabloids tomorrow. Or that Fairview wouldn’t cast as many aspersions on Luisa as he could.

“Do you think Katie Converse’s disappearance has made you less effective as a senator?”

“No.”

She waited, but it was clear Fairview was determined not to say anything more. “But don’t the people of Oregon deserve a senator who is not distracted by this type of allegation? Have you considered resigning?”

Fairview reared back as if Cassidy had slapped him. “No. I won’t resign. I will finish out my term. Let me tell you—”

Nancy laid her hand on her husband’s thigh and leaned forward. “Because there are so many, many more who don’t want James to resign.”

He nodded emphatically. “My dad taught me when I started a job to work hard and finish it, no matter how tough it got.”

“But with all due respect, Senator, your father never envisioned a missing girl and a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.”

Fairview narrowed his eyes. “I think the principle applies to anything you do in life. And that’s the easy way out. People know my history and my record. People know I’m a fighter. And this is the toughest fight of my political life. Which is why I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to set the record straight.”

“Thank you so much, Senator and Mrs. Fairview.”

“Thank you,” they chorused. Looking daggers at her.

MARK O. HATFIELD UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE

December 31

U
nable to sleep after watching Fairview’s interview, Allison had gone to work ninety minutes early. Just as she was putting her key into the lock, the phone began to ring inside her office. She quickly unlocked the door and lunged for the receiver, catching it right before the call went to voice mail.

“Allison Pierce.”

“It’s Greg.” Greg worked down the hall from Allison. The connection was bad, and she had to strain to hear him. “I forgot my security card. Come down and let me in.”

Before Allison could say anything, she heard a click. He had hung up. With a sigh, she dropped her purse and coat on her chair and then started for the elevator. When the doors opened, she got on and pressed the button for the ground floor.

But something about the request nagged at her. Greg was nearing retirement, quiet, polite, and very responsible. He and Allison seldom talked unless they happened to be standing in front of the office coffeepot together. He always made a point of pouring her the first cup, letting her enter the elevator first, and holding the door for her or any other female.

That was what bothered her, Allison thought, as the floors ticked by. Greg wouldn’t order her to come down and get him. He would apologize for putting her out and then politely wait for her to offer to help. Or he would explain himself to security and not bother her at all. Really, there was no reason for him to involve her. Security must have a procedure for when someone had lost or forgotten his badge.

Allison shivered. It felt like something cold had touched the back of her neck. So why
had
Greg called her? And how had he known she was in her office so early?