Dirty Little Liars (12 page)

They continued talking until the detective strode over. “We really need to finish getting a statement.”

Ty and Winston split up and Winston moved on to her. “Where’s the laptop?”

“What?” she said.

“Courtney’s computer. Where is it?”

In all the commotion Juliette had completely forgotten about the whole reason they were there. Juliette pointed to the car. The shiny computer was on the floor of the passenger seat.

Winston moved like a stealthy fly, weaving in and out between clusters of people until he was on the other side of the car. He pulled open the door and grabbed the laptop then slipped it into his messenger bag. The door was closed before the nearest officer bothered to ask what he was doing.

“Just checking for Mr. Chase’s keys. He thought he dropped them during the attack but I don’t see them.”

“One of the officers might have grabbed them,” the officer said before turning to the other uniformed cop and inquiring about the keys. Meanwhile Winston moved back to Juliette.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked.

“One day, I’ll be happy to answer all your questions but I am afraid now is not the time. I need to get you out of here before—”

“Oh my God. Tyler, are you all right?” Courtney’s cool voice rang out through the garage.

“Never mind,” Winston said as he shot a look at Courtney. “If she asks, the two of you were attempting to plan a surprise engagement dinner. Make sure she knows that it was a secret, that Ty asked you not to tell.”

“Okay,” Juliette said. “What about the computer? We still haven’t gotten the video yet.”

“I’m on it. I’ll try to finish with it before she notices.”

Juliette nodded.

Courtney had already cornered Ty and was inspecting his forehead as if she was a trained paramedic. Juliette rose, planning on greeting her, but the moment she stood the world began to spin. Winston grabbed her and eased her back down.

“Can we get a paramedic over here?” he yelled.

“No, I’m fine, just a little shaken up is all.”

“Ty says the guy hit you pretty hard. You may have internal injuries.”

“I do not have internal injuries. It was one punch and it caught me off guard. I’ll be fine with a few Tylenol and some ice.”

But it was too late. The paramedic came over along with Ty and Courtney. The whole group was suddenly talking around her, asking questions and theorizing what injuries she might have. Courtney even brought up the diabetes, asking the paramedics if they should be more concerned about her injuries as a result. Before she knew it the paramedics had whisked her into an ambulance. She played along, though she flat-out refused to be strapped down on the stretcher. Tyler, Winston, and Courtney followed the ambulance and met her at GWU Hospital. Then they began an endless—and in her honest opinion pointless—trek of x-rays and scans.

In the end they determined that she had two bruised ribs, but no broken bones or critical injuries. Though she would have a nasty black and green bruise on her chest. They offered to keep her overnight for observation, but Juliette was certain they were only extending the courtesy to please her high-profile escort and his entourage, so she declined. Then the three of them argued about who should drive Juliette home. Winston finally won out with a
don’t even think about questioning me
look.

Ty gave up and went off with Courtney.

Winston brought the car around to the front entrance of the hospital. Juliette climbed inside, very careful not to put pressure on her right side. Once he checked to make sure her seatbelt was fastened, he gently closed the door and climbed in on the other side. He started the car and drove down the street two blocks before turning into a second parking lot and pulling the car to a stop.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re going to find that stupid video confession of yours right now, before Ty and Courtney get back to his apartment and she thinks to check her email.”

Right. All this could have been avoided if she hadn’t been piss-ass drunk the night before.

Winston propped the laptop against the steering wheel. It whirled to life and a little chime greeted him as he clicked onto the main page. “What email address did you send it to? The school or a personal account?”

“It’s the school one. It was shorter and I didn’t have very much hand-eye coordination at the time.”

“Right.”

He typed in the address for the GWU webpage and then clicked on the log-in button. When it loaded, he typed in Courtney’s username. That part was simple. Everyone’s username on campus had the same format.

“Is this going to work?” Juliette asked. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. Okay, that was part of it. But she had so much on the line. They all did.

“Well, I can pretty easily remove the email from her account, that way she won’t get the link to the video. But because you used an external website to make the video, it means that a third party has a digital copy of your recording on their servers. That will take much more time to hack.”

“But you can do it, right? Or is that out of your league?”

Winston stopped typing on the black and white screen. His eyes narrowed as he studied her. She wondered if she had offended him.

“What did Ty tell you?”

“About you? Not much. He said that you were so good at your job because you did a little hacking as a side hobby. You seem to know what you’re doing, though. I’m guessing this isn’t a side hobby?”

“Let’s just say Ty is my oldest and closest friend. He needed help and I agreed to do so.”

“So which is it? You don’t run campaigns for a living or you don’t hack computers for a living?”

“I’m a freelancer. I do what I want, when I want. Right now, I want my friend to win his senate seat.”

He went back to typing away on the computer. After five more minutes he was in Courtney’s school account. Juliette pointed to the email in her inbox. “That’s it!”

He highlighted it, clicked delete and then opened the trash can and manually removed the backup file. Then he closed the browser and cleared the history. He was just logging out of her account when Juliette’s cell phone rang.

“Where are you?” Courtney greeted her. “Ty and I really need to speak with you.”

She hesitated. “Why?”

“I think I know who was behind the attack. And more importantly, I’ve thought of a way for us to one up them.”

One up them? What was this, middle school?

“I don’t understand.”

“Just come back to my place. I’ll explain everything there.”

Courtney hung up before Juliette could get another word in. She turned to Winston, who was placing the laptop into his black bag. “It sounds as if I am being summoned.”

He shrugged. “You don’t have to do everything those two say. They don’t rule the world. Yet, anyway.”

“I could say the same for you.”

Winston gave her a sad smile. “I don’t do it because I have to, I do it because Ty is my friend, like I said.”

“Yeah, well I care about them too.”

He gave her a “yeah right” look.

“Okay, fine. I barely know them both. But I do care about Ty. He seems like a great guy. I don’t want what happened between us to jeopardize everything he’s worked so hard for. Everyone makes mistakes.”

Chapter 26: Getting Dirty

Courtney was ready for Juliette the moment she stepped into the apartment. She grabbed Juliette by the arm and dragged her over to the dining room table, which was covered in political propaganda. Posters and flyers, postcards, bumper stickers; there was barely any room left for the bottle of vita-water someone was drinking.

“Here’s the thing,” she began and Juliette winced. Never had anything good started with the words,
here’s the thing
.

“I think the Robertson campaign set us up.”

“What?”

Ty shook his head and headed for the kitchen.

“The attack? The convenient charges of an affair? They are doing everything they can to create negative press for this campaign.”

Juliette shook her head. “It could have been anyone.”

“Please, people don’t just randomly get mugged in my parking garage. It’s perfectly safe. The only time the police are even called is if a homeless man wanders into the lobby.”

Juliette shook her head. “That doesn’t mean this is the Robertson campaign at work.”

“It doesn’t matter if you believe me.”

“Then what am I doing here?”

“I want to take a page from their playbook. I want you to infiltrate the enemy.”

Juliette heard the crack of a soda can opening and the gentle fizz that followed. She turned to look at Ty in the doorway. He was holding a can of Bud Light. It didn't seem like his beverage of choice. He met her eyes as he raised the can to his lips.

“And what exactly am I supposed to be doing, once I infiltrate this campaign? I’m not going to be able to get close to any important information. They’ve got plenty of volunteers for the real work. People they already trust, I might add.”

Courtney cocked her head to the side. “I don’t want you to go in as a volunteer.”

Uh oh.
What the hell did she want her to do then?

Courtney moved to the table and shuffled some papers around. Then she emerged with a copy of the Washington Post. The very same one with the photo of her and Ty embracing.

“I want you to seduce him.”

Juliette nearly fell over. Ty nearly choked on his beer. Apparently this was news to him too.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” Courtney continued. “It’s the perfect idea. Robertson’s already tried to attack our campaign by creating a scandal.”

“Yeah, but didn’t your friend Melissa take that picture? She’s not a spy for the Robertson camp.”

“There are no friends in politics, Jules. Only well hidden enemies that you have to play nice with.”

“So Melissa’s not your friend?”

“She sold us out. She took that picture and the moment someone came searching for some dirt and offering a little cash she flipped like an Olympic gymnast on steroids.”

It was an odd image, but true, she supposed.

“I don’t know, Courtney. I mean, how do you know he’ll even fall for it?”

“Oh come on, Jules. You’re gorgeous. You’ve got that curvy innocent brunette look that says, ‘I’m the demure little girl next door.’ Right, Ty?”

Courtney turned to look at her fiancé and he fumbled for a moment before nodding in agreement.

“They won’t recognize you from the photo, so it’s perfect. We put you in as a plant. You work to seduce Robertson. We can mic you and Winston can set up some remote cameras in his office. That way when you finally make your move we can get it all on tape. We can leak the sex tape right before the election.”

“Excuse me? Did you just say sex tape? Because I am not having sex with Robertson just so you two can win an election.”

“Yeah.” Ty’s tone morphed from slightly amused to disgusted.

“He attacked you!” Courtney snapped. “He invaded your privacy. If you don’t find a new game plan right now, he is going to crush us in the election.”

“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything.” Ty slammed the can down on the counter and wiped the wetness from his mouth with the back of his sleeve. You’re just jumping to conclusions and assuming that this attack was his handiwork. I’m not sure he’s even man enough to do something so devious.”

“Oh it’s not that devious. You guys only have a few bumps and bruises.”

Juliette stepped in between the two of them, arms in the air, pleading for peace.

“A compromise, I think, for good measure.” She paused to make certain the two of them were listening. “What if I do infiltrate the campaign and try to dig up some dirt on Robertson without sleeping with the man? Maybe I can get you an inside look at their campaign strategy, or give you all a heads-up about any intel he may have gathered on Tyler.”

Courtney crossed her arms over her chest as she pondered the situation. It wasn’t exactly what she had wanted. But it was all Juliette was willing to give. Juliette just hoped it was better than nothing.

“Fine. You get in. You find us some good intel. But I swear to God, if that doesn’t produce any decent results in three days, we’re doing things my way.”

Courtney tossed down the newspaper clipping on an empty chair and began organizing the mass of political swag on the table into orderly piles.

Ty came closer. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked. “You don’t owe me anything.”

Of course she didn’t owe him anything. If anything he owed her. He was the one who forgot to mention his girlfriend, now fiancée, when they first met. He was the one ruining her chances with Covington.

“Relax. I can work my way into Robertson’s circle.”

Chapter 27: Progress Report

Three days later Juliette had made little progress and Courtney was getting antsy. Juliette encouraged her to be patient. To think of it as the calm before the storm. Which would have made for a good analogy, except that Juliette had no idea what the storm would look like or when it might arrive.

Juliette was stepping out of the RNC headquarters when she saw the long black limo parked at the curb and a familiar man standing guard. She didn’t ask if he was here for her. As soon as Zeke spotted Juliette he stepped aside and opened the back door.

She climbed inside. Covington sat alone the darkness.

“How’s my newest intern?” He raised a small silver travel mug to his lips and took a cautious sip as he watched her. Even in the darkness she could see the swirl of steam rise up around his face.

“Things are okay,” she said.

“Just okay.”

Juliette regretted her choice of words. She wasn’t supposed to tell her boss that she was doing an
okay
job. Covington wanted to be reassured that she could handle the job and whatever he planned for Courtney, or the governor, would go down smoothly.

She heard Zeke climb into the driver’s seat and start the vehicle. Within seconds they were pulling out into the traffic.

“Where are we going?” She glanced out the window as the scenery passed by.