Murder Inside the Beltway (38 page)

“I’d like you to meet my folks,” he said. “You’d like them.”

“I’m sure I will. Just say the word and I’ll be there.”

As Election Day approached, polls showed that Colgate trailed Pyle. Although the tape’s importance had faded, Pyle’s people worked hard to keep it front-and-center, and succeeded to some extent with sympathetic bloggers and talk show hosts. Jerry Rollins continued to advise the Colgate campaign but found his importance waning as the days went by. His role abruptly ended on a rainy Sunday afternoon when the Porsche he was driving slammed into a bridge abutment. Police estimated he was traveling at close to 100 miles an hour. His obituary was long and glowing, a fitting tribute to one of Washington’s most influential power brokers. Although the insurance company that had written his multi-million dollar life insurance policy initially questioned whether it was an accident or a deliberate crash, they eventually, albeit reluctantly, paid up.

Mae Hatcher sold the house in which she and her husband, Walter, had spent so many years together and in which they brought up their children. While cleaning out the garage in preparation for the move to Florida, she discovered $250,000 in cash hidden behind old tires, oil cans, and other paraphernalia. There was a moment when she considered reporting it to someone, but quickly scotched that idea. Her husband’s frugality had paid off. He’d always provided for them when he was alive, and had done the same after his death. She said a silent prayer in praise of him right there in the garage, and took the cash on the drive to her new life.

And on the November Wednesday after Election Day, headlines proclaimed:

Colgate Bests Pyle in Squeaker
Challenger Closes Gap in the Final Days

MARGARET TRUMAN
has won faithful readers with her works of biography and fiction, particularly her ongoing series of Capital Crimes mysteries. Her novels let us into the corridors of power and privilege, and poverty and pageantry, in the nation’s capital. She is the author of many nonfiction books, most recently The President’s House, in which she shares some of the secrets and history of the White House, where she once resided. She lives in Manhattan.