Page 73 of Where There's Smoke

“He’s a plant,” I said, barely whispering.

“A plant? You mean like a mole or something?”

I nodded. “It’s not unusual. I’ve never run a campaign without at least one or two showing up.”

“So why not cut him loose? He’s a volunteer anyway.”

“Because if I do, Casey’s camp will just send in another one. As long as this kid’s still on staff, I know where Casey’s eyes and ears are, and I can control what he sees and hears.”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

“Exactly. But not close enough to let him hear important strategy info.” I nodded toward the closed hotel room door. “I don’t want him here for tonight’s meeting. When he gets back, I’ll have you brief him. Feed him some bullshit to take back to Camp Casey.”

Ranya grinned. “Do I get to make up the bullshit?”

I laughed. “Of course.”

Her grin broadened. “This, I can do. Who knew a meeting would end up being more fun than hanging out with Jesse and his family?”

“You blew them off for this meeting?”

“Fuck no. I wasn’t invited. You think those people would dine with the help?”

“And it doesn’t bother you when they snub you?”

Ranya laughed. “Snub me? Oh God. I should thank them for it. Yeah, they think they’re better than me, but because of that, I don’t have to sit through their god-awful family gatherings. Ever heard the phrase ‘they put the fun back in dysfunctional’? Whoever coined that phrase was talking about the Camerons, I fucking know it.”

“You’re probably on to something.”

“Of course I am. Now are we going to have this meeting or not? I need some time to come up with Greg’s bullshit.”

I chuckled and slid my card key into the reader, then opened the door. “After you.”

“You’re such a gentleman,” she said with a smirk as she walked past me.

“Was that sarcasm?”

“From me?” She put a hand to her chest and gasped. “Well Inever.”

“Uh-huh.”

We exchanged glances and both laughed, then went in to join the rest of the staffers. Ranya found a place to sit on one of the two beds, and I leaned against the wall beside the table on which I’d spread several notebooks of poll results and other pertinent data.

“Casey’s going full-bore on this smear campaign,” I said once I’d called the meeting to order. “The Repubs are behind in the polls right now, so he’s getting desperate. He’s probably got people sniffing around every place Jesse’s ever set foot, looking for any hint of anything. I want the same effort put forth to find dirt on Casey.”

David straightened. “I thought…” He drew back slightly.

“You thought what?”

Clearing his throat, he tried to look relaxed. “I, um, I thought we weren’t going the smear-campaign route. Smearing Casey, I mean.”

“We’re not. What I want to do is capitalize on any Casey weakness as a Cameron strength. Casey has a damned overdue library book, I want to know about it, and I want the public to know Jesse’s never had a late book in his life.”

“Well,” Tina said, “the contrast between Casey and Jesse’s respective marriages is a good place to—”

“No,” I said, probably a little sharper than I should have. “That’s already out there. Find anythingelse. Now, the Republicans are also harping on Jesse’s colorful college history. All the crap about Jesse being a screwoff in college, even though he’s already addressed it and admitted to it. It doesn’t seem like a big deal when you figure in how long it’s been, how well he did in graduate school, the fact that he’s never denied it, and things like that. And it’s actually alienating Casey from college kids, so in a way, it’s backfiring on him.” I paused. “Problem is, rumors like that can put a bug in the voters’ ears to start, consciously or not, questioning the validity of Jesse’s academic qualifications and his legitimacy as a mature, solid candidate.”

“Like Clinton and whether or not he inhaled?” Carla, another staffer, asked.

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