Oppo by Tom Rosenstiel

Author:Tom Rosenstiel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Rena was watching Sedaka. The chief of staff looked like he didn’t know how his friend would answer Brooks’s question. Because he didn’t know? Or didn’t know how much she would reveal?

“If you’re gay, Senator, or bisexual,” Brooks was saying, “you need to tell us now. All the relationships you’ve had. And why you are not married.”

In a quiet voice Upton said, “Love is a part of my life that has in large part eluded me.”

The same phrase she had used in the interview Wiley had found.

It sounded both sincere, Rena thought, and rehearsed.

And it set off his partner even more. “I’m not a reporter for fucking Tucson.com, Wendy,” Brooks said. “So cut the bullshit. You told me when this began that you wouldn’t be intimidated by whoever was doing this. Then don’t be. That means we have no secrets here tonight. Or we are done with this and you walk out the door.”

Upton cupped her hands in front of her, closed her eyes, and said, “I had a relationship in the army. In JAG.”

“Hold on, back up first,” Brooks said. “Nothing in college? At all?”

Upton shook her head no.

“We’re going to verify that,” Brooks warned her, glancing at Liu to make a note for Smolonsky. “So your first sexual relationship occurred in the army? In JAG?”

Upton nodded. “He was another attorney. We tried a case together—on opposing sides. We were both posted in Germany at the time. Then he was sent to Japan, and I was posted in Washington. We talked briefly about getting married. The relationship didn’t survive the distance.”

Brooks said: “We need his name.”

Upton, hesitated, hands still in her lap, rocking forward slightly, then nodded. “Dave Garrod. David. Middle name Paul.”

Ang Liu wrote it down.

“Where can we find David Paul Garrord now?”

“Brussels,” Upton said.

“Tell us about your time with him. How did it start? How long did it go on? Tell me about how it ended.”

Upton told the story stiffly, of a young woman with little experience falling for a superior officer who had a girlfriend in another country and dumped her for Upton, and then both relationships fell apart. It was a distant story from long ago, told the way someone might tell a story about someone else. According to Upton, however, it was the last significant relationship of her life.

They would have someone track this down in the morning to see if Upton was lying about any of it.

“You say this was the most important relationship you had. Were there others? Even casual ones?”

Upton shook her head slightly. There was a moment of quiet. Then Rena, who had not spoken for some time, asked:

“You didn’t answer Randi’s question. Have you ever had a homosexual relationship?”

“What if I had?”

“That’s not the question.”

“The question,” Brooks joined, “is whether someone might try to use it against you. If you have had relationships with women, we need to know now. We need to talk to them and find out if one of them might have given something to someone and whether it’s being used against you.

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