Capitol Offense (Texas Heroines in Peril) (3 page)

"I thought I'd see if I could pass for
Hispanic. How do you like Miguel Perez?"

"I actually have a cousin with that name.
One of my three-hundred or so cousins."

He smiled again. "The door's locked. You're
safe. Now tell me everything."

Chapter 3

"I suppose I'd better start at the
beginning," Lacy said. "But, hell, where did it all begin?" She
spoke more to herself than to him.

"Just take it easy and try to remember
everything you can."

"Using your courtroom manner on me?" Her
warm brown eyes met his pensive ones, and she felt compelled to go
on with her story.

* * *

. . .It had all begun, she told Mike, on a
typical work day only a couple of weeks before. She had come to
work that morning, just as she did each day, turning her car on to
the Capitol grounds. Dozens of tourists already speckled the well
manicured grounds with overhanging trees and splashing bursts of
flowers in neat parterre gardens.

Although she would never admit it, Lacy
harbored a deep sense of pride each morning as she parked her
modest car in one of the scarce parking slots on the Capitol
grounds, knowing these reserved parking places were at a premium.
She slanted her car into its space and walked the few short steps
to the door of the magnificent structure.

The massiveness of the building's interior
always awed her. It was larger than Parliament and more imposing.
Fifteen thousand train carloads of Texas red granite had gone into
its construction. An army regiment could pass through the vast
hallways. Each hand-carved doorway reached to heights of eighteen
feet. Lacy could never walk through these halls without thinking of
what a bitter, liberal state legislator had said of the building
before she was ever born. "This building was built for giants and
is inhabited by Pygmies."

Lacy thought of her
boss.
Maybe our giant has
arrived
.

She was relieved her correspondence was out
of the way. She could spend the day on the speech the lieutenant
governor was to deliver the following day to a group of educators
in Dallas. Jim wanted to target early childhood. Since improving
the state's day care programs was something she cared deeply about,
she hoped to come up with a unique speech on the subject--not just
the usual enumeration of current programs and professional
recommendations.

When she entered the outer chamber to her
office she heard Suzanne, the secretary she shared with the
lieutenant governor's itinerary secretary, say, "Oh, just a minute,
Miss Blair's just come in."

Suzanne put her hand over the receiver.
"Someone from the lieutenant governor's campaign office wants to
talk to you."

"I'll take it in my office," Lacy called
over her shoulder.

The caller turned out to be Phil Goodson,
the lieutenant governor's gubernatorial campaign chairman.

"I wanted to talk to you, Lacy, about that
day care speech you're doing. Richard and I think it will give Jim
a good opportunity to come out loudly for some new programs. And
that may just help swing a few more votes his way."

"You know I want to see Jim in the
governor's mansion as much as anyone, but as a state employee, I'm
not permitted to direct my nine-to-five hours toward that
pursuit."

"Where do you draw the line between a
candidate's campaign promises and a lieutenant governor's statement
on possible legislation?"

"I wish I knew."

"I'm not trying to twist your arm. I'm only
asking that you do some research and make some noble, innovative
proposals for Jim to recommend."

"I would be happy to do that."

"You might want to talk to Raymond Hawn over
at the welfare office."

"Okay, Phil."

"Try to work up a rough draft for me
today."

She had barely hung up when the intercom
came on.

"Lacy, Richard said he wanted to see you as
soon as you came in."

"Thanks, Suz."

Richard McNally was the one person Lacy
could not keep waiting. She set off immediately for his office,
which was next to the lieutenant governor's. He had been Jim's top
aide since the time Jim tossed his hat in the state-wide political
arena. His duties ranged from working the Senate floor during a
legislative session to sending telegrams of condolence in the name
of the lieutenant governor. He did all the hiring and firing for
the Senate, and he was the man who gave Lacy orders.

Richard's office reflected his wife's
impeccable taste. Rich deep pile in pale gold covered the floors. A
living tree with healthy green leaves stood in one corner of the
room. Handsomely framed historic documents hung on the longest wall
while a recent photograph of the Capitol at night occupied the
greater part of the skimpiest wall. His most prized possession, she
knew, was his photo of George W. Bush with an inscription to
Richard, a fellow Texan. The rugged roll-top desk Richard sat at
was equally impressive. Vivian McNally's scavenging in the
Capitol's basement had turned it up, and the craftsman she hired
restored it to look as it had when a turn-of-the-century governor
had used it.

Richard was locking his file cabinet when
Lacy entered. He put the key in his top desk drawer but did not
lock it. Lacy had always wondered about that file cabinet. She
supposed it contained data on important contributors.

Lacy wondered how old Richard was. His
receding hairline was deceiving. He could be anywhere between
thirty-five and fifty. His sandy-colored hair showed no gray, but a
patch of crow's feet surrounded his bright green eyes. Those could
be caused just as much by hard work as by age, she thought, just as
his chalky skin was due to his constant work indoors more than to
heredity. If he lost ten pound he would look younger, she decided.
He wasn't fat, just thick around the waist.

"How are you today, Lacy?" He settled in his
big oak swivel chair.

"I'd be fine if it weren't for so many
interruptions. What do you guys have against letting a girl do her
work?"

"What I want to talk to you about won't take
a minute. Jim's still barnstorming up in the Panhandle and won't be
in 'till late this afternoon when he's scheduled to make an
appearance at the high school convention meeting here. He wants you
to be his date tonight at the Headliners party, but the problem is
his schedule won't allow him to pick you up--nothing new I know.
But, he did want me to make sure you didn't mind meeting him
there."

"Of course not." Jim was always so
thoughtful, she thought with affection.

"Good. And I don't suppose I need to tell
you to remain mute on the snooping reporters' questions about
wedding bells, do I?"

"It galls me they bring up a subject like
that when his wife hasn't been dead a year."

"I know. If only they had seen his grief
first hand as we did. But he's doing much better now--with your
help. I wouldn't be surprised if you aren't the next first lady of
Texas."

"You're embarrassing me. Really, there's
been nothing between us." She rose. "I hope I don't see you again
until tonight. I'll be out of my office this morning researching
that day care speech."

Back in her office, she could not help
thinking about what Richard had said. She had thought Jim Chambers'
partiality toward her was out of professional respect. When she
joined his staff he took a great deal of time with her, teaching
her his particular style of speech-making along with his goals,
both legislative and political.

Now she rarely had to consult him before
drafting a speech. She knew when to use chronological order. She
knew when pathos could be used effectively. She knew how to please
him as well as the Texans who had set him up as a demigod.

Now that she thought about
it, there had been romantic gestures on Jim's part. He was never
too busy to think of her feelings. And whenever he was out of town
he called her on the pretext of discussing a speech. On her
birthday he had treated the staff to a lunch at her favorite
restaurant, a Mexican one in the
barrio
of East Austin, and he had
sent her a dozen yellow roses, saying she was his "Yellow Rose of
Texas."

Until today, she had never admitted a
romance could be possible between herself and Jim Chambers. She
pushed those thoughts out of her mind. Even back when his wife was
still alive. Lacy had dismissed any gestures he made toward her.
Especially when his wife had been alive. After all, he's a
politician, she told herself. It's his job to make each person feel
special, each agenda important.

What about the time, she now wondered, when
she first started working for Jim and he called her into his office
and asked her to stand beside him as he looked out over the tree
tops of the Capitol grounds. He had put his arm around her and
spoke solemnly. "We can rule this land, make it a better
place."

Feeling uncomfortable with
his arm around her, she watched him as his gaze fell on the
Governor's Mansion across the street. "What we're going to do is
bigger than Texas," he had said. Why had she felt the
we
was not the
politician's verbal rhetoric? Had he meant
we
as in him and me? she wondered.
But what about his wife?

The frumpy Mrs. Chambers was no longer an
obstacle. She was dead.

Chapter 4

Scanning through her files on day care
programs was of little help in composing the speech, but the day
care section of the appropriations bill gave Lacy an idea. Five
million dollars had been allocated for establishment of a day care
center serving children of migrant farm workers. The federal
government had matched the state's money, each of them providing
two and a half million. The program was being initiated in
Schneiderburg, Jim's old senatorial district.

Since Schneiderburg was less than a two-hour
drive away, Lacy decided to drive there and talk to the program
director and the children. She could take slides for a slide
presentation.

Schneiderburg was the county seat of
Schneiderburg County. The population of the entire county was not
as large as that of most county seats. Most or its residents were
white, but several hundred migrant farm workers made their home
there during harvesting season.

If the city was famous for citrus fruit, it
was even more famous for giving the state Jim Chambers. And giving
the state Jim Chambers had given Schneiderburg several
distinctions, one of them being the modern highway upon which Lacy
was now driving. On the outskirts of the downtown area Lacy noticed
a small shopping center built in the Spanish style with tiled roof
and a multi-arched colonnade. It was called Hacienda Square. From
its name she guessed the shops must all face a central courtyard
like a Mexican hacienda. She wondered if the center was air
conditioned.

Further down the highway Lacy came to the
old town square constructed of German-inspired masonry popular in
the late eighteen-hundreds. Fashioned like most Southern county
seats, the courthouse served as the square around which the old
town was built. Lacy noticed a surprising number of fine antique
shops, dress shops, along with a shoe shop, a drug store, a movie
house and a café with a scattering of hanging baskets and outdoor
tables—all of which were filled.

Since it was nearly noon, she decided to
sample the luncheon fare at the cafe. Though the café's exterior
looked trendy, the narrow interior was pure vintage. Everything
here, from the square chrome-legged tables to the asphalt tile and
neon lights overhead, was utilitarian.

Not wanting to take up a whole table during
this obviously busy lunch period, she took the only available seat
at the end of the counter.

A young Hispanic girl sporting a polo shirt
with the café's logo cleared away the dirty dishes in front of Lacy
and wiped off the counter as a well groomed blonde with long, fake
fingernails and a proprietary air tended the cash register next to
Lacy.

In a deep Southern drawl, she explained they
were shorthanded because a waitress had quit the day before. Lacy
finally gave her order to a young waitress then asked if she could
direct her to the state's day care center.

A blank look crossed the waitress's face.
"Never heard of it," she said.

A middle-aged man sitting next to Lacy spoke
up. "If it's the building you're lookin' for, you'll find it about
three miles down Sheridan Highway, but you won't find nothin'
there. The program ain't actually started yet. Don't reckon it ever
will. Folks around here don't go for spending their tax money on
them Mexicans--"

"Excuse me," Lacy interrupted, "you must be
mistaken. I know a center has been initiated in this town. I'm here
from the capital, and money most certainly was earmarked for that
purpose."

"Well, there's been talk of getting one, and
that old church was bought--"

"Excuse me, honey, but I heard you say you
were from the capital," the well-groomed blonde said to Lacy. "Do
you know our Jim Chambers?"

"I work for him," Lacy said with pride.

"Well, isn't that something, Cecil?"

"Been going to the first Baptist Church with
Jim since he was knee high to a grasshopper," Cecil said.

"Finest boy that ever
lived. That's what I always tell them reporters that come here to
write up about Jim. I was quoted in
Texas
Monthly
magazine, you know," the blonde
said proudly. "Tell me, honey, does Jim know you're
here?"

"No. I'm doing research on day care centers.
The lieutenant governor is giving a speech on child care programs
tomorrow, and I write his speeches."