The Governor's Wife (46 page)

—"ends. You won't
be
the wave—the wave'll be drowning you. You went from nobody to somebody in twenty-four hours. You can go back to nobody just as fast."

"No more sex. That'll really disappoint Mandy."

"Don't give yourself too much credit, cowboy."

"The entire varsity cheerleading squad, Jim Bob. When I was fifteen."

The thought of those sexual encounters made him feel guilty. Sinful. He was a religious man now. A man who could rise above desires of the flesh. Perhaps being celibate for a few years would be a good thing. Allow him to focus his mind on spiritual matters. Put his energy to work for God.

Still, he hated to see his year's supply of Viagra go to waste.

She had been seventeen and a virgin when she had first had sex with Bode Bonner. It had been a sweaty affair on a summer night in the front seat of his pickup truck. She prayed for forgiveness the next morning at Mass, but she did not stop having sex with Bode, not for twenty-five years, until he vetoed the CHIPS funding two years ago. The Children's Health Insurance Program. He knew how much that program meant to her, but he chose Jim Bob's opinion over hers, his political advice over her pleading for the children. Because of her husband, hundreds of thousands of poor children in Texas were thrown off the health insurance rolls.

How could she share a bed with a man who could do that to children?

She began sleeping on the day bed. She wished she hadn't. Once she had left their bed, she didn't know how to go back; once he had taken up with Mandy, she couldn't go back. Without their bedtime conversations when she had unimpeded access to his conscience, his transformation from a good man to a successful politician accelerated. She no longer recognized her husband. He had become a stranger to her. She couldn't have sex with a stranger, even if she were married to him.

But she missed sex.

She had never had sex with another man. On a few occasions, she had wondered what it would be like, if it would be better or worse or just different, but Lindsay Bonner had never been tempted to stray.

Until now.

"He's not gay. The Mexican doctor."

Jim Bob raised his eyes to Eddie Jones standing in the doorway holding a large envelope.

"How do you know?"

"He's got a woman. A married woman. Nice looking broad."

"How do you know she's married?"

"Wedding ring."

Jim Bob gestured at the envelope.

"You got photos?"

Eddie stepped forward and dropped the envelope on the desk. Jim Bob opened the clasp and removed a stack of photos. He stared at the images a long moment. He blinked hard then stared again. They were photos of the doctor and a redheaded woman; they were drinking wine, holding hands, and dancing in each other's arms. A man and a woman who looked very much in love.

"Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"She's working for Jesse Rincón."

"Who?"

"You don't recognize this woman?"

"No."

"That's the governor's wife."

"You're kidding?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

"You look like you're passing a kidney stone."

"I might be."

"The boss's wife, she ain't been around much since I hired on."

"She's been down on the border."

"Those unforeseen, unexpected, unpleasant things are starting to pile up, Professor. Figure I'm gonna start earning my pay pretty soon. Where's the boss?"

"At the Capitol, for his press conference."

On the fifth day of July, the governor of Texas stood alone in his office on the first floor of the State Capitol. He never actually worked there; it was just a convenient place to meet legislators and lobbyists and give interviews to the press. The national press. They had all journeyed to Austin, Texas, to meet Bode Bonner, American hero. The man who would be president.

One big play.

A game changer.

And it had changed his game. Three months before, he couldn't pay the press to attend his weekly press conferences. Now his office had to issue credentials, so many media outlets wanted in on the action. No less than one hundred reporters and two dozen cameras awaited him in the press room. He was the most popular, most admired, most handsome, and most followed man in America. His favorable rating exceeded ninety percent and his negative was less than five percent. The world was waiting for him to announce his run for the presidency. He was waiting for the best moment to announce. But announce he would. His Super PAC now held pledges totaling $750 million. The Professor was hiring a campaign staff.

President William Bode Bonner.

Three months before, he wore Armani suits and French-cuffed shirts. Today, he wore what had become his trademark attire: buttoned-down, long-sleeved, starched shirts—white, blue, yellow, green, ecru, and even pink on Breast Cancer Awareness Day—jeans, always creased to perfection, a black silver-tipped cowboy belt, and black handmade cowboy boots.

No hair spray.

Two months before, three Mexican
sicarios
had attempted to assassinate him. No second attempt had come. El Diablo had apparently given up on killing the governor of Texas. Of course, he now traveled with a half dozen Texas Ranger bodyguards. Mandy still served as his aide, but not as his mistress. He had expected tears when he broke the news that Jim Bob had ended their affair, but she had only said, "We can wait." He wanted to ask, "For what?", but she had already exited his office. Becca still slept in the Mansion, but she had returned to volleyball practice at UT. And the governor's wife had returned to the border. She had been gone forty-six days.

"Governor, we're ready."

A young man stood where Mandy should be standing.

"Where's Mandy?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"Jim Bob here?"

"Yes, sir. He just arrived."

Bode strode across the foyer with the same jaunty cockiness he had exhibited twenty-five years before when running onto a football field. Of course, it was easy to be cocky when God was your teammate. But Bode Bonner was about to learn that politics in America, like football, is a contact sport.

The Border Patrol agent named Rusty tackled the skinny Mexican boy.

The boy had raced past the front door of the clinic, where Jesse and Lindsay stood, as if he were running a race. He wasn't. He was being chased. By a green-and-white SUV driven by another Border Patrol agent. The boy glanced back, only to be slammed to the ground by Rusty, who had cut around the back side of the clinic. Rusty now punched the boy in the face numerous times.

"Rusty, he's just a boy!" Jesse said.

"He just shot a Border Patrol agent in Laredo!"

Rusty removed a gun from the boy's baggy pants and tossed it aside. Next came a switchblade. Then a baggie of a black substance.

"Mexican black tar heroin," Rusty said.

He turned the boy over and cuffed his hands behind his back then yanked him up. The other agent loaded the boy into the SUV then returned to Rusty. He slapped him on the back.

"Just another day in paradise."

Two hundred thirty-five miles north, Governor Bode Bonner stepped to the podium and smiled at the sea of reporters. Network. Cable. Wire services. Newspapers. They had all come to him.

"Good to see y'all today. Questions?"

Hands shot into the air. Bode searched the sea of reporters and spotted a cute gal from cable waving as if desperate to be plucked from obscurity by Bode Bonner and put on a national stage. Why not help her get ahead in the world? He pointed at her, and she stood. If he weren't a religious man, he'd say she had a nice body.

"Governor, are you worried about another assassination attempt?"

"No."

"But they killed your bodyguard and your daughter's best friend. It was a miracle that you and your daughter survived."

"Yes, it was."

He thought it best not to elaborate.

"You really are an American hero."

He smiled. No need to over-talk the obvious. He'd just hero his way through this nationally-televised press conference. The little gal looked like a star-struck teenager. She had another question. He nodded at her.

"Governor, how are you going to reduce the federal deficit as president when Texas is facing a twenty-seven-billion-dollar deficit with you as governor? When you're going to fire tens of thousands of state workers and perhaps a hundred thousand teachers? How are you going to save a broke nation when you're governor of a broke state?"

"
What?
"

Right before his eyes, the cute reporter had transformed into Katie Couric, like that guy in the werewolf movie.

"Well, uh, the, uh, thing is …"

He glanced at Jim Bob by the door, who shielded his face from the reporters and mouthed, "No deficit."

"There is no deficit."

"But—"

He turned away from the Katie Couric clone and searched for friendly faces. He found none, so he pointed at a familiar face, Carl Crawford, the reporter from the alternative Austin newspaper.

"But, Governor, I've obtained confidential documents written by your political advisor, Jim Bob Burnet, that prove the State of Texas is in fact facing a massive budget deficit and that you knew this when you said there is no deficit, as you just repeated."

"There are no such documents, Carl, because there is no such deficit."

Carl held up a stack of papers.

"Yes, Governor, there is a deficit and there are documents that prove it. One of your former employees, Jolene Curtis, gave these to me. You lied."

Damn. The frisky gal betrayed him.

"Governor, she also gave us documents that prove you replaced the entire Board of Pardons and Paroles after they opened an investigation into the execution of Billy Joe Dickson to determine if the state executed an innocent person in order to derail their investigation."

"She did?"

"She did. That's a cover-up."

"A cover-up? That had nothing to do with any investigation, Carl. I just didn't want them to think it's a career."

"Some people think Jesse Rincón might end your career as governor of Texas."

"Who?"

"Jesse Rincón—he might be your Democratic opponent."

"Jesse Rincón? Never heard of him."

"I think you'll hear about him soon enough."

Carl was grinning, as if he had finally found a scandal. Lying about the deficit, executing an innocent man, those are the best scandals he can come up with against an American hero? Please. Bode nodded at the reporter from the Houston paper.

"Governor, have you heard of Hoot Pickens?"

"Sure."

"You appointed him to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality even though he's in the refinery business?"

"Shouldn't the industry being regulated have a voice?"

"They shouldn't write their own regulations."

"Lawyers do that."

"Their lawyers."

"Do you have a question or are you campaigning? You sound like my Democratic opponent."

"Yes, Governor, I have a question: Can you explain how you made a half-million-dollar profit on a land deal with Mr. Pickens?"

"What land deal?"

"You bought a lot on Lake Austin from him two years ago, and you recently sold that lot to his son, and you pocketed five hundred thousand dollars."

"I did? Look, I put all my assets in a blind trust when I was first elected governor, so I don't know anything about that."

"But you know Mr. Pickens is active in Texas politics?"

"My auto mechanic's active in Texas politics."

He smiled and moved on to the next reporter—but he was getting a bad feeling. This wasn't the hero's welcome he had expected. He pointed at a San Antonio reporter.

"Governor, did you appoint Joe Jack Munger to the UT Board of Regents in exchange for a million-dollar donation to your campaign?"

"No, absolutely not. I think it was only two hundred thousand."

He chuckled, but no one else did. His bad feeling increased.
A little help here, God.
He acknowledged the reporter from Fort Worth.

"Governor, we've learned from Democratic state legislators that you're personally rounding up votes for a special bill that would grant your biggest campaign donor—John Ed Johnson, a billionaire—the power to condemn rural land for his water pipelines. Is that true?"

"You're getting your information from Democrats? Those guys will say anything to discredit me because they know we're going to bury them in November."

"But is it true? Are you supporting Mr. Johnson's attempt to condemn ranchers' and farmers' land for his pipeline?"

"No, of course that's not true."