Leeds’s people had chosen the ballroom of the Sheridan Hotel, downtown. Every major news team in the state was there, and even reporters from several cable news networks had shown up. Jake saw CNN and Fox News cameras among the local crews. But the ballroom was so big that the audience of reporters and camera teams looked sparse. Not smart, Jake thought. Somebody in Leeds’s organization didn’t think this through. They should have partitioned the ballroom or used a smaller space to make the place look jammed.

A local anchorman was blathering about the campaign and Franklin Tomlinson’s late surge to pass Leeds in the polls.

“Oddly enough, it was last week’s Hallowe’en blackout that moved Tomlinson solidly ahead. He’s been pushing for MHD power generation, and the experimental MHD generator in Lignite kept that whole region of the state alight and warm when most of the other power generators in the state failed.”

Tomlinson Senior nodded vigorously at the TV screen. “Damned right,” he said loudly. Then he turned to Jake and told the others, “And there’s the man who advised my son about MHD.”

Jake felt downright uncomfortable as the rest of the old men in the library smiled at him. All those expensive false teeth, he thought.

“And here comes Senator Leeds,” the TV anchorman said, a note of excitement in his voice.

Jake saw that a stocky, middle-aged woman in a dark pants suit came up to the lectern with Leeds. Her complexion looked Hispanic to him. As the senator stood before the microphones, she took up a position behind him in a posture that reminded Jake of a soldier: chin high, spine straight, hands clasped behind her back.

Leeds smiled his toothy smile. “Thank you all for coming out on such short notice. I have an important announcement to make.”

He hesitated, then half turned toward the gray-haired woman. “I’m sure you all know Ms. Yolanda Quintero, head of the regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Jake leaned forward in his chair.

“Ms. Quintero has been investigating the deaths of Professor Arlan Sinclair and his wife. There’s been a lot of insinuations made about these killings and the influence of organized crime in our state. I’m here today to tell you that the killers have been arrested and will be brought to trial.”

Perez and Monster, Jake thought. They’re going down for it.

His eyes narrowing, Leeds went on, “This election campaign has been marred by deliberate smears and outright falsehoods trying to link me with organized crime. I’m here to tell you that these smears are totally false. As Ms. Quintero will explain to you, my office has cooperated fully with the FBI and I have been cleared by the FBI of any connection with organized crime.”

The elder Tomlinson laughed. “That’s right, keep repeating it. That’s what we want to hear.”