Life of Secrets by Bowen Greenwood Page A

She
flipped on the TV to a news program.
    On the screen,
she saw her old pal Mike Vincent being interviewed on one of the head talk
shows.
    "Rich
could have changed things," he said. "Right now, we've got this
situation in American politics where far too many politicians promise whatever
is popular when they're running and then do whatever the establishment says
when they get to Washington. Rich West was different. He could have made our
politics great again. That's why I put my own life on hold to help his
campaign. I believed in him. He was a leader to me. More than that, he was a
friend."
    The anchor
asked, "Senator Lance Reeder was Senator West's choice for Vice President
on his ticket. Do you think Senator Reeder will become the top of the ticket
now?"
    On the screen,
Vincent replied with a shrug.
    "It's too
early for me to think about that. I lost my best friend. I just don't
know."
    Chambers flipped
through other channels, looking for news about the investigation. Political
speculation about the race didn't help her much. She wanted to know what the
Secret Service and the FBI were up to but none of the channels had that. She
could find lots of biography of Rich West and Lance Reeder and lots of
speculation about what would happen at the party convention that was only a
couple weeks away, but none of that gave her a tactical advantage.
    Briefly, Alyssa
considered calling Matt. He had to be in the thick of this story. He had to
know something about what the federal agents were up to.
    In the past
year or so, Matt had gotten so much easier to deal with. The prospect of
talking to him was easier now. It could even be attractive. It was possible to
hold a conversation without him hinting about wanting to date her. Oddly,
Alyssa found herself wanting to make the call.
    But in the end,
she didn't. She couldn't. Within hours, she was going to be splashed all over
every TV as the accused assassin. If Matt hadn't already heard terrible things
about her past, he soon would. And Alyssa couldn't stand the thought of trying
to explain to him about that fire she'd caused – the story she'd burnt up. Just
when he was finally turning into a decent guy, if he learned that...
    She clicked the
TV off, wishing she had learned more than the fact that Mike Vincent and Rich
West were good friends. She knew they were allies but never imagined they were
as close as he indicated on that interview show.
    Chambers
worried her lower lip between her teeth. If Mike Vincent felt like that about
Rich West, what was he going to do when the FBI started blaming her for West's
death? Their old deal about keeping each other's secrets would go right out the
window.
    All of her
anonymity was going to evaporate very fast. She knew it, and she knew that the
only way out was to attack the problem.
    She saw three
different options. First, perhaps someone had killed Rich West just to frame
her. It was highly unlikely, but it had to be considered. Second, it might have
been simple coincidence that the assassin had done his work on the very night
she was stealing the files of the West campaign. Chambers was too paranoid to
believe that. Finally, and most likely, the assassin had planned his murder to
coincide with Chambers' B&E, with the explicit intent of leaving an obvious
suspect to take the heat off him.
    It was the last
option Chambers liked best. It was how she would do it, if she were planning an
assassination. Always find a patsy if you can. She had done it before, though
not for a murder.
    For this theory
to work, though, the assassin would have to either know when she was going in
or know someone who knew. So who knew she was going in? Well, Gunter for one.
But he had proven in the most dramatic way possible that he was not the one who
was trying to frame her.
    The other
person who knew was Thomas Wheeler.
    Several months
ago George Pierce, her old comrade in skullduggery, had brought along a third
person to one of their occasional meetings. He had