No one would be able to tie the pictures to Elizabeth Victoria Lemaire-Randolph. As always, he had recorded her anonymously, and the report would live in his private records, rather than BullNet.
“I need your account of the evening’s events,” he said, withdrawing his palm. He tapped on the device’s screen, then noted the date and time as well as his name and rank. It was a familiar routine when the pair debriefed after a job. Usually no one but the prime minister would see the report, but this time would be different. This time excerpts would be sent to a few key members of the senate’s disciplinary committee.
The High Council of Judges would confirm their judgment. She’d have to recuse herself from that meeting, wouldn’t she?
Of course she would. It wouldn’t be right to rule on such a case.
Lila picked up her tea and ran through what had happened the night before. She didn’t speak in much detail about La Roux’s web of blackmail because she hadn’t ferreted out all his victims yet. It would take her weeks to finish that. She spoke in broad strokes only, except when it came to the attack.
She was very precise when she got to that.
“You aren’t listening as you usually do,” she chided gently after she had finished her account. Her voice hurt worse than ever, as if scratched by burning embers as she spoke. She sipped her second cup of tea, hoping to ease it.
Shaw tapped on his screen, turning off the recording program. “It’s not your usual story,” he said, tucking his palm into a deep pocket in his blackcoat. “You’re usually in and out, and no one’s the wiser. This time was different. Such violence is usually committed by the mentally ill, by anarchists, by drunks, by people like that hacker or Peter Kruger. My oldest son played with Senator La Roux as a boy. I always believed that he was a moral man. He was a highborn, raised and educated in Bullstow. We all had something to do with it.”
Lila could relate. She’d felt similarly when Patrick Wilson had been picked up for his crimes. She and Alex had taught him how to tie his shoes and ride a bike.
“You feel responsible for his actions?”
“Such behavior reflects on us all. We were his teachers. This was his milieu. We should have seen the defects within him long before he graduated.”
“Do you also blame the citizens of Beaulac? He lived there for years.”
“Only during the legislative session,” he said, turning back to his coffee. “In truth, madam, I don’t know what to think about it all. I don’t know who’s to blame.”
“Perhaps you should blame Senator La Roux. People change. They don’t always change for the better.”
“Sometimes they don’t change at all. Sometimes you never knew them to start with.” He rubbed his eyes, which had turned red without sleep. “We’re lucky that Senator La Roux never told anyone about your extracurricular activities. Your identity is still safe.”
“He could still talk. He probably will talk before the end. Has he requested another deal? He was full of them last night.”
Shaw fiddled with his coffee cup. “I don’t know how to tell you this, and I don’t know if it will make what happened last night better or worse, but Senator La Roux is dead.”
Lila felt the punch in her stomach.
The senator had managed yet another blow.
“I don’t understand. He was in a holding cell. How can he be dead?”
“I was with him when it happened. He wouldn’t admit to any wrongdoing no matter how often I threatened him with truth serum. He did give me a list of those he had caught inside the network, though, several dozen highborn and hackers. He told me the evidence against them was stored on a backup drive in his suite, and since his computer was likely nothing more than ‘an expensive paperweight,’ if you were to be believed, we should start there. He said he’d be damned if he’d be thrown in a holding cell while they got off scot-free.”
He passed her the list, and Lila shook her head. “He blackmailed far more than that.”
“You’ll find them all. I’m quite confident in your abilities.”
“I don’t understand where all the money was going.”
“Favors? Votes? We’ll look over his financials and bring everyone in for interrogation. It won’t take long to see the pattern, to understand what he was trying to do. We already know the goal.”
“Get elected in the Saxony Senate.”
“Then Unity and beyond.” Shaw rubbed at his mustache. “He didn’t hold back with what he did to you. He called it an accident, said that he wasn’t himself, but he admitted it. It’s about the only thing he did admit to. Then he grabbed my gun when my back was turned. It was a rookie mistake.”
Lila didn’t believe it for a moment, especially when Shaw’s eyes slid to the floor. “You carry a gun with bullets?”
“Of course. I’m the chief and ultimate authority on this compound. It is my burden.”
“Bullshit. Senator La Roux asked for a gun, and you gave it to him.”