“There was this study called the Stanford Prison Experiment.”
“I know the study, Lee,” he said, exhausted. “You’re talking about power. Give a man a little power and he turns maniacal. Not all men do that when they get power.”
“Well, it sure happened to most of the people back there, in that corrosive city. It happened long ago, and it grows, like a tumor, feasting on the body of the country. We make more and more laws but convince the people they still have freedoms, and the thing is, a lot of those laws are a hundred percent needed.”
“Like gun laws, child labor laws, all of it. Yes, Lee, I get that.”
The rest of the flight was quiet, but Eli still heard the noises in his mind, working on him, driving him crazy. The guilt of working for Lee, the heartbreak that he knew he couldn’t make a difference, no matter how hard he tried.
The only thing he could do was to give his actual job a hundred percent. When they arrived at the home where Lee lived when he wasn’t in Washington, he again couldn’t believe his eyes. The sheer opulence of the place blew him away, especially seeing where it was located.
This wasn’t Washington, heavily treed and green with foliage. No, this was a ranch in the low-lying mountains that made up the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Pine forests, open fields, a thin trickle of a river running its western border, that was Lee’s ranch.
He even changed while there, coming from his suite of rooms in cowboy boots and Wranglers.
They dined on eggs and thick slices of bacon for breakfast, and Lee had more intimate dinners with donors and important constituents. The townhall that had been planned for months changed venues once the location was leaked to the general public.
Eli watched Lee schmooze with the money people, promising one that his coal mine would once again thrive, and the thing was, the man believed Lee. He thought that he’d soon be raking in the money and handed Lee over the last of his fortune to see to it.
Another wanted less property taxes, and that wasn’t up to the federal government, Lee did have friends in state that could help with that.
He was ready to give up on Lee having any saving graces, but then Eli saw something that made him even more curious.
He knocked on Lee’s suite door, heading in when he heard Lee calling. When he got into the room filled with oak furniture and light linens and rugs, he didn’t see Lee. “Where are you?”
“In the tub! Be there in a few, but if it’s just those fax papers that Laurie sent, leave them on the desk!”
He did have the papers in hand, and saw the corner rolltop, so he went there and raised the tambour and then stepped back in shock.
All of the books he’d given Lee that were being banned were there, post-it notes sticking out from the pages of all of them.
Opening one, he saw that notes were scribbled there.Good point to take to Fleckmen.
Take this one off the list, it’s nothing and makes us look like fools.
This is too aggressive for little kids, but upper class elementary would be fine.
Lee was actually reading them. He could barely believe it.
Then he saw the laptop, open and the screensaver scrolling through pictures from Lee’s travels, he set his finger on the touchpad and saw the screensaver stop then a list came up of names, and next to them…
“I’ll be damned.”
“Good! You’re still there,” Lee called from the attached bathroom.
Eli closed the lid of the laptop then closed the rolltop. “I’m here. Do you need me?”
Eli turned his head and saw Lee in nothing except the towel that was tied around his waist. “I do,” he said, smiling seductively. “But I’m not up for the price of that, so how about you just get into my briefcase under the desk and grab those contracts.”
“Contracts?”
“I’m hiring a crew to add on a sunroom to the house here. The business card with the fax number is secured to the contract.”
“Sure,” he said, unable to keep from smiling.
“Do paperclips get you off or something?”
Speaking of getting off, seeing Lee so scantily dressed was making him a bit heated. It was hard to keep his eyes diverted from the mostly naked man. “Yeah, paperclips are my kink.”