Jake nodded his agreement as Tomlinson began his thoroughly rehearsed statement. Jake knew it by heart. Change. New hope for the state. Use our natural resources, both human and economic. Use the state’s best minds. Develop a new energy system that can lower the taxpayers’ electricity bills, cut the nation’s dependence on oil imported from foreign countries, deliver electricity cleanly, and rejuvenate the state’s coal industry. Jobs, energy efficiency, economic growth, and more jobs.

The audience applauded politely when he finished. Then the moderator turned to Harmon Dant.

With a rueful shake of his head, Dant began, “It’s fine for Mr. Tomlinson here to talk about pie in the sky. He’s so wealthy it doesn’t matter how high your taxes go; he’s got all sorts of fancy accountants and numbers jugglers to protect his money.

“Me, I’m just a businessman. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. I worked for what I got, and I’m still working. But I know what’s important to you folks. Just like me, you’re worrying about taxes, about gang violence in our schools and on our streets, about teenaged girls having babies before they finish high school, for cryin’ out loud, about abortionists murdering unborn children. That’s what important to you, and by golly, it’s important to me, too!”

The audience broke into thunderous applause. Stunned, Jake heard hoots and whistles of approval.

“It’s going to be a long evening,” Glynis said over the noise of the ovation.

Debriefing

DEBRIEFING

Alexander Tomlinson was furious.

“You let him wipe the floor with you!” he raged at his son. “He ran rings around you and you just stood there!”

As planned, Jake had driven to the Tomlinson residence after the debate for a debriefing session, leaving Glynis in the frigidly cold high school parking lot. He had waited, though, to make certain Glynis’s cranky Jaguar started. To his surprise, it purred to life with no trouble. Glynis waved to him as she swung out of her parking space, leaving Jake alone in the dark, cold night.

Now, in the library of the Tomlinson mansion, it was blazingly hot.

Tomlinson and Amy were already there by the time the butler showed Jake into the library. The senior Tomlinson was pacing up and down the book-lined room, a blue vein in his forehead pulsing visibly.

“He’s a nobody!” the old man bellowed. “And you let him make you look like a fool!”

Tomlinson had stripped off his suit jacket. Sitting in one of the library’s capacious armchairs, his long legs crossed, he looked tired, frustrated, and bitterly unhappy.

“He didn’t say anything specific,” the son said. “He just talked in wild generalities.”

“I watched the whole thing on TV,” the father snapped. “I saw the applause he got.”

Amy spoke up. “Dant packed the hall with his own supporters. That crowd doesn’t represent the voters of—”