Jack offered to get us drinks. I decided to get a scotch. It left me time to talk to Bev about Brandon.
“Have you heard anything about the rape kits?” I asked.
She got a sad look.
“As a matter of fact, I received a call today. It looks like all the rapes are related to three individuals. Now that there’s a link, they’re going to reopen the cases and look at them with fresh eyes. They’ll run the DNA found through the database and hope for a match. The problem is that none of the men they suspect has ever had their DNA tested, so far as they know.”
“So, why don’t they just take Brandon’s DNA and test it?” I asked.
“It’s not that simple. Unless they get more evidence, it’s all just circumstantial. His dad would stop any attempt to take it against his will. I realize it sounds bleak. But now that the police are taking this seriously, I trust they’ll figure things out and get him and his fellow rapists in the end,” Bev predicted.
Jack came back and had Governor Higgins with him.
“David, Max was delighted with you and the band you suggested. We had about double the turnout we expected,” the governor shared.
“Max owes my grandmother. She’s the one who talked me into this.”
“She sent me the video of you at the Zoning Board meeting. You’ve got your grandfather’s flair. If he had your looks, he could have run for president,” Governor Higgins predicted.
“Heck, if you had his looks, you might win this thing,” Bev teased.
He gave her a look and then smiled.
“You might be right,” he admitted.
“I saw you huddled in the other room. Anything happening?” I asked.
“My eventual opponent in the general election is a jerk. There was an incident in California today where a couple entered an office building and shot a bunch of people. It looks like a terrorist attack. He’s all up in arms that I don’t have any plans to combat terror in the state. I think if he had his way, we’d have our National Guard roaming the streets, enforcing an after-dark curfew,” he complained.
“Well, there is the cheesehead issue,” I said, which got me some curious looks. “I think we need a fence to keep them out of the state.”
“Oh, dear God! I can imagine you as governor someday. I just hope I’m dead and buried before that happens,” Governor Higgins said.
About that time, Senator Dixon, and his daughter and my lawyer, Ms. Dixon, came up. The governor told them my plans for a fence to keep the cheeseheads from Wisconsin out of our state.
“If you need any federal money for your plan, let me know. I think I might be able to get the votes for something like that,” Senator Dixon said.
“Dad, don’t encourage him,” Ms. Dixon said.
There seemed to always be one in every crowd who had to be the fun police. My platform for governor was starting to come together. I would have to work in something for the Hawkeyes and the perverted Show-Me-State bunch. And what the heck was a Hoosier, anyway? We might need a really long fence to solve all those problems. I might start local and see what we could do to keep the yahoos from Eastside out of our town.
Brook sent me a text to tell me that her mom had just done the bed check. She suggested I might want to wrap things up.
“Well, I gotta go,” I announced.
I think they all might have suspected something, but at the moment, I didn’t care. Senator Dixon told me he wanted to have breakfast with me as I said my goodbyes.
◊◊◊
“We need to talk,” Brook hit me with when I came into the room.
“Yes, we do,” I fired back, surprising my friend.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“You first,” I said as I flopped on the bed and gave her a smirk.
“What are we going to do about our parents going on spring break with us?”
“My best guess is we’ll suck it up and live with it. I’ve never been able to talk my mom out of anything she really wanted to do. I have a bad feeling she wants a vacation,” I said.
“What if you told her you wouldn’t pay for her to go?” Brook asked.
The poor girl had no idea who she was dealing with.
“Why don’t you try that with your parents?”
She pressed her lips tight together as she realized that was never happening.
“Come here,” I said.
Brook crawled up on the bed and put her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her.
“When was the last time you took a family vacation?” I asked.
“Three years ago.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the point. I wanted you and me to have fun,” Brook admitted.
That made me chuckle, and she lifted her head off my shoulder so she could look me in the eyes.
“I’m serious,” she whined.
“When have you and I not had fun?” I asked.
“I meant sexy fun.”
“Brook, they can’t watch us 24/7. Even if they do, I plan to spend a lot of time with you doing fun things. I seriously need a vacation where I’m not working. Since my freshman year, I’ve been away for Christmas and spring break, working. Even at school, I get up early to run, classes all day, practice baseball,
