The Candidate Read Online Free

sat down and waited a moment. She was clearly itching to talk but wanted to be polite; respect the enormity of what might have happened. A few inches to one side and the bullet would have hit home. Then they would be planning a funeral, not a talk show appearance. But it was Hodges, not Dee, who broke the silence.
    “What happens now, Dee?” he asked. “I know you must have a plan.”
    Dee’s face was serious. There was no trace of joy or thrill. It was down to business.
    “I’ll issue a statement tonight. Then tomorrow we’ll have you do one of the morning shows. A day after that we’ll soak up all the media we can get and it will be a lot. We keep it straight and simple. Make it personal. Make it all about how you stood tall when the shooting began.”
    Hodges laughed. “Dee, I’ve been a soldier all my life. That’s not the first time I’ve heard gunfire,” he said.
    Dee pumped a fist. “Yes!” she said. “That’s the sort of line you use. You’re a natural, Jack.”
    “What about campaign appearances?” Mike asked. “We’ve got three town hall meetings set for tomorrow.”
    Dee nodded. “Good question. We stick to them. Do the TV around them. They’ll come to us now. We don’t have to change our schedule.” Dee then turned to Hodges. “We keep you in the public eye.”
    A small moan cut through the room. Christine’s shoulders shuddered up and down and her head sank to her breast. Hodges bent down and put his arms around her, whispering something in her ear. Then he looked up and shrugged at them. “She thinks there may be more shooters out there,” he said.
    Dee and Mike glanced at each other.
    “Yeah,” Dee said. “That’s my next question. Sorry, to have to ask this. But you need to tell me everything you know.”
    A look of puzzlement crossed Hodges’ face. He frowned and exchanged confused glances with Christine. “What do you mean?” he asked.
    Dee was blunt. “Who tried to kill you, Jack? I need everything you know. I need the truth and I need it now.”
    Hodges stood up. He may have been wearing a politician’s suit but he looked a military man now. He paused before answering, just the same way that he worked a crowd before he spoke. “I have no more idea than the cops, Dee,” he said. “They say it was a woman. But they have no idea who she is. She doesn’t speak. She has no documents. They think maybe she’s mentally ill or something.”
    Dee nodded. Something in Hodges’ tone seem to imply that further questions would be unwelcome. She smiled. “That line is good enough for me. It keeps things simple. Just your average nutcase in a country full of them. But I tell you this, Jack, when you win this election, you’re going to want to thank her for what she’s done for you. You really are.”
     
     

 
    CHAPTER 3
     
     
    MIKE SAT ON the bed in his hotel room in Des Moines surrounded by a fan-like spread of newspapers. It had all played out just like Dee predicted. Hodges had dominated the media for three days straight, right up until this night: the last Iowa debate.
    The picture of the Senator, shielding his wife from a killer’s bullet, was on every front page in America, before spreading across the world. Overnight, his public meetings went from a handful of bored farmers and a local journalist or two, to banks of TV cameras with standing room only. Through it all Hodges did not change a thing. He opened every meeting and every interview with his familiar phrase: “Let me tell you how we are going to save this country…”
    Mike stared at the newspapers like he was hypnotized until a distant ringing in his ear grew suddenly clearer and he snapped into focus. It was his hotel phone. He picked it up and heard the clipped upstate New York accent of his mother.
    “Hey, sweetie. I thought I’d just check in with you, before it begins,” she said.
    The debate started in a few minutes. The cable news shows were already counting down the minutes, a sea of talking