Page 27 of Dirty Politics

“No,” he said. “I blame my researcher for that.”

“That’s the problem with outsourcing.”

“Delegating,” he countered.

“Right,” she said, with a smile. “You’re a Harvard Law grad too.”

“Yup. A few years before your time. Why didn’t you take a job out of school?” he said. “You could have worked anywhere.”

She shut her eyes for a moment. She didn’t like talking about this.

“My younger sister,” she said. “She got cancer.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, softly.

She nodded. “Both of my parents needed to work. I came home to take care of her.”

“How is she now?”

“In remission,” she said. “Thank god.”

He smiled. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said.

“It’s BV90,” she said.

He was lifting a forkful of food toward his mouth and stopped short.

“The plant near our house; it started using BV90,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “There’s so much cancer in my town. My sister was only ten when she was diagnosed.”

“Shit,” he said. “I’m sorry. I wish you had told me earlier.”

“Well, you didn’t seem to want to listen when we first met,” she said.

He sighed. “That’s probably fair. I’m sorry.”

“BV90 is not just in Carson. It’s everywhere.”

He placed his fork down and leaned back.

“I have to do something,” she said. “People are dying.”

“That’s why this bill is so important to you,” he said.

She nodded.

“Ok, you’ve done a good job of getting public support, but we need more information,” he said. “If we can show a pattern with other towns, we may be able to win over the votes we need.”

She blinked away tears and sat up straighter.

“I want you to gather information for me,” he said. “And, let’s arrange a trip to your hometown. I want to see this for myself.”

Her heart soared.

“If we get enough information, I have some contacts atThe Times,” he said. “We can leak it to them. Maybe they can even do some more digging.”

He rested his arms on the top of his head and stared up at the ceiling. Liv had so many questions, but he seemed deep in thought, so she stayed silent. After a few minutes, she couldn’t help but stifle a yawn; she’d been working since the early morning with no breaks.

“It’s so late,” he said, checking his watch. “Are you going to head home?”

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