“Up to that point, the judge was prepared to consider the matter overnight and come back tomorrow. You could see he wasn’t happy with Mr. Fox and decided to go ahead and rule in favor of Duke,” Ms. Dixon said.
“He’s on the ballot?” I asked.
Everyone was nodding and had a big grin. It felt like we’d pulled a huge prank.
“Yep, and then it got better. We challenged Mr. Fox’s signatures. As I told you, it was rumored that he didn’t officially have enough. The judge asked the Supervisor of Elections what her findings were. She confirmed that Mr. Fox was short signatures and recommended that he be removed from the ballot,” Ms. Dixon said.
“And …?” I asked impatiently.
“Duke is running essentially unopposed,” Grandma Dawson revealed, ignoring our felonious incumbent. “You missed the congratulatory call from Governor Higgins only a minute ago. He asked if Duke would endorse him. I told him we would have to get back to him.”
I gave her a confused look.
“You can’t just say ‘yes.’ We need to get something out of this,” Ian explained.
I would never understand politics. Then I smiled.
“The Cubs just made the World Series. Their first game is tomorrow in Cleveland. Do you think we can get tickets like last year?” I asked.
“It looks like he’s starting to figure it out,” Grandma Dawson said.
“Wait, I know one of the owners,” I remembered. “I need to find his info and give him a call.”
Bill Carl and I had met in Chicago at the fundraising dinner in the spring for Governor Higgins, Senator Dixon, and Bev Mass. I’d enjoyed talking to him and his wife. I would have to look him up and see if we might finagle some VIP access. Maybe I could get Duke to throw out the first pitch … with my help, of course.
Greg stuck his head in from the living room.
“I want to go,” he said, making his claim to any extra tickets I could snag.
“We could make it a guys’ outing,” Dad suggested.
“I’m a guy,” Ian chimed in.
“I’m your girlfriend,” Brook announced.
When I heard that, I blinked a couple of times, and then the light bulb lit. She’d just told me her decision. I wrapped my arms around her and gave her an inappropriate kiss. Both Ian and Dad cleared their throats to remind us where we were.
“It’s a school night, and we should get going,” Ian announced, ruining my plans.
I thought the best part was supposed to be the make-up sex. It sounded like that was off the table. I explained to Brook that I needed to finish the conversation with Tami that she and I had started this morning. That meant that Brook and I would talk tomorrow. I doubt either one of us was thrilled, but she understood.
Fritz came in as they left. He took Cassidy, Dad, Peggy, and me to the office. I was surprised when Scarlet joined us.
“She has a suggestion,” Dad said to head me off.
“I talked to the police, and they still don’t know who Lucas is,” Fritz said, referring to Peggy’s date. “They’ve asked the FBI to get involved because the Feds have more resources, and they believe he’s a foreign national.”
“What makes them think that?” Peggy asked.
“He has a tattoo that’s written in Ukrainian,” Fritz said, and then paused to let that sink in before he continued. “I copied the information from the thumb drive to another one. Luckily, I used an old laptop to be safe. Whatever was on the thumb drive trashed it and tried to hijack the laptop’s Wi-Fi connection to link to the Internet. If it’s okay with you, I would like to send it to my friends to examine. When I explained what it did, they were very interested.”
Dad pointed at Scarlet to join the conversation.
“I think you need to be mindful that you might have something valuable here and make sure you have an ownership interest in the software. I wouldn’t just give it to anyone. We don’t have the expertise to figure out what’s on that thumb drive. If it’s even half as good as I suspect, you need to protect your interest. If you don’t have some kind of deal in place, they might simply take it from you.”
“She has a point,” Fritz said.
“I’ll let you all figure that out. Ms. Dixon needs to get involved because I doubt any of us would know how to protect ourselves in a transaction like this,” Dad said.
“I agree,” Fritz added.
I was proud of Scarlet for jumping right in like that. From the way Dad acted, he was impressed with her. I hoped that was an indicator that she would be an asset.
◊◊◊
Chapter 33 – Babygate Monday October 24
The meeting wrapped up, and I asked Scarlet to stay so we could talk.
“How’s everything going?” I asked.
“It’s a
“We talked about pulling in one of those little travel trailers on my grandma’s farm. My mom had other ideas,” I teased.
“Your mom has been great. She took me to your daycare, and we signed up Carol. She was fascinated with all the other kids running around. I doubt she took her nap. That was why she was so cranky when you came home,” Scarlet explained.
“I thought I’d lost my touch for a moment.”
“She knows who her daddy is.”
