“Sounds like there’s a choice in there somewhere.”
“Look, tell me what you want to know and then I can make that choice.”
“Why did Alice Lancer leave here? She seemed to be doing so well.”
“In some ways Alice was complicated, in other ways quite simple.”
“You’re going to have to elaborate on that.”
“Alice liked success. She liked the best things in life.”
“Was that the simple or the complicated?” asked White.
“As you might imagine, that was the simple part.”
“And the complicated?”
“Howshe got the best things in life.”
“I assume she made a good living with your firm. Then she left and joined a private security outfit in Miami. I imagine she took a pay cut with the career switch.”
“She wasn’t poorly compensated, I can tell you that. Even as our communications director she made six figures. She made a lot more as a lobbyist.”
“But it wasn’t enough?”
“Apparently not.”
“So where did it get complicated?”
He fidgeted and wouldn’t meet her eye.
“She’s dead, Mr. Drake. She can’t sue you. I just need the truth.”
He sat up straighter and said, “There is a lot of confidential information that comes through a firm like this. Part of what we do is oppo research. We perform it on opponents, but we also do it on our own clients. The theory being if we know what the dirt is, we can control and spin it. Some of it may later be leaked intentionally and strategically and with the client’s permission. Some is given straight out to make a point.”
“And some?” said White.
“Should never see the light of day.”
“And Lancer used this to her advantage?”
“I speculate that she did. On at least two occasions.”
“Can you tell me more about these instances?”
“Only that the two clients in question dropped this firm like a hot potato and would never say a word about it afterward.”
“And you suspect…what?”
“I suspect that Alice Lancer used confidential information to blackmail these clients. They paid her off but then they, understandably, cut all ties with this firm.”
“Why wouldn’t they have gone to the police instead?”
“Politics is a nasty business, Agent White. Dirt and mud are thrown all the time. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn’t.”
“But there are limits?”
“Yes, there are. And I think what Lancer had found breached those limits. The clients wouldn’t go to the authorities with something that might landthemin jail or destroy their careers.”