Election by Brandt Legg

Author:Brandt Legg [Legg, Brandt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781935070306
Publisher: Laughing Rain
Published: 2018-01-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-One

The day after Christmas, Hudson spent a few hours in one of his hardware stores. Melissa thought it was a bad idea, but he told her it would help to clear his mind before they hit the campaign trail again the next morning. Schueller and Florence were back catching up on their lives, with full Secret Service protection. Fitz and Hudson had agreed the “kids” could sit out December and rejoin the campaign in January.

The Secret Service and Vonner’s people had doubled protection around the store, and yet somehow, they didn’t bother the customers too much. Most of the locals were respectful of Hudson’s privacy, although quite a few of them couldn’t resist wishing him well when they found him on the retail floor.

“Can you tell me where to find a plunger?” a woman asked him from behind. “There’s a big clog of . . . stuff that I’m trying to clear up.”

The familiar voice filled him with dread and despair. Hudson turned slowly. “I have nothing to say to you, Ms. Raton.”

She smiled big and pulled her head back as if surprised. “Oh, come on, Hudson. After all we’ve been through and you’re still not calling me Fonda.”

“I could call you all kinds of things, but ‘Fonda’ isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.”

She laughed. “I’ll bet.”

“I’m serious,” he said, moving past her. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“Oh, I think you do.”

“Well, you’re wrong.”

“Really? You don’t want to talk about Rochelle Rogers?”

Hudson froze.

She walked around to face him. “See, I thought you’d—” His expression, much more panicked than she’d expected, surprised her. It looked like genuine fear, but then she decided it was more like terror. Fonda moved in for the kill. “What about Thomas Gouge? Or Cabot Schifflet? Wade Allen, Mooney Moore, Louis Rich, Michael Plummer, Richard Hirsh—”

“Wait.”

“Oh, I’ve got more,” she said. “Seems Vonner and Booker Lipton aren’t the only criminals you associate with. In fact, you have twenty-one people with criminal records working for your hardware stores—ex-cons, felons, all kinds of baaad people. Even two of your army buddies went on to serve time. And this Gouge character, he’s got an ugly record. It’s three pages long. I have it right here. Do you want to take a look?”

Hudson shook his head.

“Apparently, you two were good friends back in the day. Were you also friends with Rochelle Rogers? Did you know she killed the governor of Ohio?” She smiled as if she’d just given him a cupcake. “Yes, of course you knew.”

Hudson noticed several customers listening. “Gouge and Rochelle went to the same school as I did. She was a few grades back.” His mouth was clumsy and dry. The words stuck in the back of his throat, seemingly trying to push through dust and cobwebs, as if he were forcing them through time. “The others are good people. I’ve always believed in giving folks a second chance. We have a program to help them get back on their feet.” Hudson stared off to a display of hinges and locksets, suddenly feeling dizzy.

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