Page 38 of The Rule of 3

“I tried to. Do you want me to call the sheriff?”

“Nah, thanks Opal. We’ll have the bodyguard check him out and get him somewhere to dry off. Now I’m curious.” Tanner hung up and explained the situation to Eli, telling the driver to head back.

They again pulled up to the front of the building and Tanner rolled down the window.

Seeing the mayor’s face, the man hurried toward the car. His progress was hampered immediately, when Tanner’s bodyguard intercepted him. After a brisk and thorough frisking, the guard stepped back with a nod.

“Sorry about that, sir,” began Tanner in a soothing voice. “Can’t be too careful. I understand you’d like a word with me?”

“Yes sir, Mayor Lassiter.” Leaning down for a better look into the car, the man appeared to be bolstered by something as he went on, “I see you have Mr. Whittaker with you too, and I’d very much like to speak to both of you.” He looked around and added quickly, “Privately.”

“Alright then, let’s all head into my office, shall we?” Tanner asked as he opened the door to step out.

“Uh, how about we don’t go in there? I don’t want your assistant to hear this. Is the limo private?” Then the man closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “I’m sorry, my name is Doug Freeman and I am employed by a man who calls himself Colonel.” Doug was a nondescript, middle-aged white guy. Everything about him was so painfully average, he probably never got a second look from a single soul. He was the personification of beige.

Tanner opened the door, let Doug into the car, and instructed the driver to take them home. He didn’t want the risk of anyone hearing this conversation. When Doug opened his mouth to speak, Tanner silenced him saying, “Wait just a few minutes, please, Mr. Freeman.”

As soon as they got to the mayor’s residence, they ushered Doug in, divested him of his dripping raincoat, hat, and soaked shoes, and Eli went to get the man a dry towel for his face while Tanner made him a hot coffee.

When they were finally comfortably seated around the kitchen table, Doug began his story.

“First of all, I feel I owe you both an enormous apology for invading your personal lives.” Neither Tanner nor Eli responded to that, so he continued. “For several years I’ve worked as a private investigator, and, a few years ago, I was hired for a lucrative job by Colonel. I’d never met him before, and everything about the man rubbed me wrong, but my wife was ill and we have four kids.” He took a fortifying drink from his coffee. “He paid me to tail you, Mayor Lassiter, so I did. I am extremely good at my job, if I do say so.” For the first time, the man seemed to be growing a backbone, and the transformation was fascinating. His eyes lit up, his posture straightened, and he suddenly looked in charge—handsome even. “I took a collection of photos of the two of you on a fishing trip you took together and gave the camera with the photos inside to Colonel in exchange for enough money to put a huge dent in my financial troubles.”

Eli’s eyes became angry slits as a vein popped in his forehead.

Tanner’s jaw clenched and his eyes flashed with irritation. He was sure they’d been so careful, but obviously not careful enough.

Doug hastened to add, “I’m terribly sorry for invading your lives.” He raised two hands in a gentle protesting gesture. “Let me explain before you get angry.” He looked between their annoyed faces. “I’ve done my share of taking photos of cheating spouses and dirty business partners, but when I saw the two of you together, I saw nothing wrong. I saw two attractive young men who apparently had a serious relationship. I found no evidence with my research that either of you were cheating on anyone, so I came to the conclusion that Colonel wanted the information for some kind of blackmail. I have since learned about his reputation as a political power broker, and I wanted nothing to do with his dirty deals. That didn’t mean I could turn down the paycheck, however. Our eldest daughter was just finishing college and medical bills were piling up. It was a hard time for us.” He rubbed his face and swallowed the rest of his coffee.

“More coffee?” asked Tanner. He still hadn’t changed expressions much.

Eli hadn’t moved an inch.

“No, thanks, I’m good now. That helped warm me up though.” Doug gave a small smile. “Then I began to hear the rumors and rumblings about your bid for the governor’s race, and I knew for sure, this was Colonel’s way to manipulate. It made me ill.”

Eli finally exploded. He stood and towered over Doug, shaking with fury. “Did you have fun watching, you sick fuck? Did you get your jollies seeing the two queersdo it?”

“Please, Mr. Whittaker, hear me out.” Doug didn’t cower away from Eli’s outburst, though many a man would have. “Shortly after I turned over the camera and memory chip, our daughter announced she planned to marry her college roommate, and I realized how horrible I’d feel of someone tried to exploit her sexuality for their own gain.”

Eli sat down. He didn’t stop glaring yet, though.

“I admit, I did see things I should not have, but I was so disgusted with Colonel… ugh… Whatsisname…”

“We call him Smelzer. That’s his last name,” Tanner interjected.

“Thank you. I hate giving that man any type of honorific that he obviously doesn’t deserve.” Doug took a deep, cleansing breath. “As I said, I gave the photos and the camera to Smelzer. You have my solemn word that not a trace of those images exists anywhere else. I watched him place the camera in his safe myself.”

“That’s a little bit of a relief, at least, but I hope,” deadpanned Tanner, “that you’re going to start in on thegood newsyou have for us anytime now.”

“Well, I actually do have some great news,” Doug said with a tentative smile. “Smelzer hired me to do more surveillance work for him.”

Eli’s eyes skewered Doug as he snapped, “What’s so good about that? You planning to mess around with someone else’s life for him?”

Doug ignored Eli’s outburst, and his face relaxed into a wide grin as he explained, “I came up with a plan for getting the memory chip out of the camera and Smelzer never knew.”

Eli and Tanner’s jaws dropped.

Looking self-satisfied, Doug explained, “When Col… Smelzer bought the camera from me, I had to go buy a new one just like it, but the more recent model of lens on the new camera isn’t as nice as the one on the original. I told Smelzer I needed to switch lenses or I couldn’t do his job as well as he’d like.”

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