Page 39 of The Rule of 3

“What does the lens have to do with the memory card in the camera?” asked Tanner.

“Nothing at all, but I was able to pull out the card without Smelzer seeing me do it.” He looked from Tanner to Eli, grinning. “I’d been practicing sleight of hand!”

Eli still looked skeptical as he demanded, “What if Smelzer decides he wants to check the camera again after you messed with it?”

“He won’t. First of all, he doesn’t know the first thing about how to work a camera, and second, he saw the photos once and declared then that he never wanted to look at them again as long as he lives. He’s a horrible homophobe and treated the whole thing like it was going to turn him gay or something just by looking. Believe me, he does not want to look at those images a second time.”

Tanner had a worried look on his face when he asked, “When did you do this? Recently?”

“Yes. I did it this morning,” Doug answered in a firm voice. “I’ve just been waiting for an opportunity. When I saw that you’d won the primary, I knew it was time.” Doug looked seriously into Tanner’s eyes and stated, “I want you to win this election, Mayor Lassiter. My entire family plans to vote for you. If something should happen and those photos ever leaked, it would kill me to know I’d done anything to ruin a good man’s career. I wanted to get that chip from the camera, and I want you to know you are free and clear of a threat from Smelzer.”

Squinting at him, Tanner said, “Thank you, Mr. Freeman…”

“Call me Doug, please.”

“Thank you, Doug,” Tanner began again, “for your support at the polls.” He looked into Doug’s eyes and asked, “But how did you know that Eli and I knew about the camera and the blackmail scheme?”

Doug gave a wide smile and a wink. “I told you, I’mverygood at my job. And not all of the investigation I do is for pay. Anything you need to be scoped out—I get it done. No one is ever the wiser.”

“Then why are you telling us all of this?” demanded Eli.

Letting out a long breath, Doug replied, “It’s my way of apology. I could have just done it and left it alone, but I wanted to make sure both of you had peace of mind.” Doug reached into his pocket, produced the memory card, and handed it to Tanner with a smile.

“Now what are you planning to do? Aren’t you worried about Smelzer once he figures out what happened?”

With a broad smile, Doug answered, “My wife has family in Sydney. So, if you’d please have your driver take me back to my car, I have plans to catch a redeye tonight with my entire family. We’re heading to Australia for an indeterminate length of time.” He looked happy as he finished, “We’re all ready for an adventure. Oh, and I assure you, we all mailed in our absentee ballots already. We all voted for you.”

Later that evening when Zoë got home, she found her men sitting in front of the glowing fireplace with three glasses of wine on the coffee table. A digital camera sat next to the wine. As soon as she saw her men, a broad smile lit up her face. “Let’s see it!” she demanded with a grin.

The photos made things abundantly clear that it was Tanner and Eli, but Zoë announced with a small grimace, “Looking at these makes me feel too much like a peeping Tom. I much prefer the real thing where I can reach out and touch you.” She scooted the camera away on the coffee table and took a sip of wine.

After a couple of minutes of reminiscing about the great fish they’d caught on that trip, Tanner took the memory chip out of the camera and tossed it into the fireplace. They watched with satisfaction as it melted away to nothing.

“Are you completely sure this will get rid of Smelzer and his conniving?” Zoë asked nervously.

Eli grinned and Tanner chuckled, “Don’t worry. We have more ideas on how to deal with that old buzzard.”

Chapter 32

Tanner’s Uncle Fred Lassiter placed a call to Smelzer. “I have some great news for you,” he announced magnanimously—and quickly. “We’re going to be sending a photographer and reporter over to your distillery to record me discussing sponsorship consideration for your application to the KDA. This doesn’t happen very often, so you ought to be very proud. Very proud, indeed! Congratulations.”

Smelzer’s snarly voice sounded even worse than usual when he grumbled, “It’s about time.”

Fred wondered if the man’s parents had ever tried to instillanymanners in him when he’d been a kid. He also wondered whether Smelzer caught onto his ambiguous wording. Probably not—the guy was such an egomaniac he would hear what he wanted to hear… hopefully.

Still grumbling, Smelzer demanded, “How long does the application process take once you’ve sponsored me? I don’t want to wait for all eternity, ya know?”

“Well,” Fred hedged, “these things happen in all good time. We’ll do our very best to streamline the process for you to get the paperwork completed. I understand from my nephew that your product fills a particular niche, so that’s certainly in your favor. He made an extremely strong case for your bourbon and sang your praises to the moon, so I for one am quite anxious to try it.”Lies. Fred wondered if his nose was growing.

“Hmmph. Yeah,” Smelzer grunted. “When is this supposed to happen?”

Fred took a deep breath and mentally crossed his fingers for the new lie he was about to tell. “I’m going to be out of the state for a while, so the first we can do this is the fifth of November.”

“Well, that’safterthe damned election!” spluttered Smelzer.

“Yes, it is,” answered Fred smoothly. “What of it? Whoever becomes the new president has no bearing on your application, does it? Am I missing something?” He had to stifle a laugh—the old coot was so transparent.

“Nah. I guess not,” Smelzer backtracked. “Why can’t y’all get over here today and take care of it?”

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