Page 26 of Kiss Kiss Bang
“Be wary, Miami has a putrid smell of algae this morning.”
“Really?” She hadn’t stepped outside yet. “Okay.”
“See you soon,” Mark said, hanging up. Shortly after, Tom arrived and Olivia headed out to drop off Sophie at school and then make her way to the hotel where she was supposed to be giving a speech.
* * *
Olivia was used to speaking in front of large crowds. She stood behind the podium and smiled and began talking. She spoke about her major platform points which were education and the local environment. First she gave the crowd her well-known history working at the school board and all the groundbreaking changes she’d made during her tenure. She promised to continue to fight for the children, especially funding programs to help the special education initiatives she’d created. She was a big advocate of innovative approaches for children on the autism spectrum as well as alternative teaching methods for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder while trying to avoid medication whenever possible. She understood how it wasn’t always possible, but before going that route, she wanted parents to have tools available to them in the public school system. There were pushbacks, even in her own party, regarding the cost it would take to run these programs, but her budgets were rock solid and she believed in this wholeheartedly.
Then, came her other big platform. The Everglades Preservation Project. This was causing the most pushback, more than any gun control initiative and even more than some controversial bonds that had been proposed. There were some big-time lobbyists, mostly within the sugar industry, who wanted to carve out thousands of acres of the Everglades. She, on the other hand, wanted to get back miles and miles of land from the sugar industry in order to build new dams, which was one of the ways to control the algae. She was also a big advocate of regulating the sugar farmer’s pesticide run-off into the Florida waterways. The toxic algae that had sprung up a few months earlier was causing the environment to be pushed forward as a major topic of the campaign and she had been hard-nosed about her stance. Luck was on her side, as messed up as it sounded, because the horrible stench outside was a perfect segue into the conversation. There was no way anyone could deny that the pollution was a real thing when they couldn’t walk outside without being hit head-on with the sickening smell.
When she was finished with her speech she was received with a standing ovation by most. Not all. The few boos, however, didn’t overshadow the success of the morning.
What had made Olivia climb the political ladder so quickly was the way she’d gotten through to her constituents. She was firm in her platform but listened. She had compassion where her opponent tended to be somewhat removed and a bit callous. She could see the other side’s point even if she didn’t agree with it, and that helped her get through to them because she anticipated every move, every posture. And at the end, she may not have gained their vote but she’d definitely gained their respect. And eventually, as it was with politics, when her opponent screwed up, the scales would tip in her favor. At least that was how she ran her campaign. It wasn’t the customary way, but it was her way, and Mark and the rest of her staff supported her one hundred percent.
“That was great, Livie,” Mark said as he led her off the stage.
“They were tough,” she said, looking down at her phone.
“We expected that. Still, you held your own.” They walked briskly to the car as he read something on his phone. “The polls are looking favorable.”
“Good. Good. Is lunch with John and Muriel still on?” John was a local commissioner who’d been very supportive, and Muriel was his wife.
“Yes. Let’s go, we’re running a little late.” Mark looked around for her Lexus. “Where’s Tom?”
The driver slash bodyguard wasn’t working out so well. Maybe Joey had gotten into her head and made her open her eyes, but Tom wasn’t great. At all.
He was never around when she needed him, like during his smoking break at the fundraiser. Truth be told, she’d been opposed to having a bodyguard to begin with, but it was customary to have one and Florida, being such a populous state, sometimes the crowds were overwhelming.
On one occasion, when she’d been swarmed by cameras while having dinner alone with Sophie, she’d relented. “He was by the left wing of the stage while you were speaking. I told him to bring the car around,” Mark said. As he was pulling out his phone to call Tom, the car pulled up.
Olivia pointed. “Come on, he’s here.”
Tom jumped out of the car and around to the passenger side to open the back door for Olivia. When she didn’t have to drive, she preferred to sit in the back with Mark and get some work done from the car.
As soon as she stepped inside she gasped, her palm covering her mouth.
“Oh my God!” She held out her hand to stop Tom from closing the door.
“What is it, Ms. Russo?” he asked.
She pointed to the back of the leather seat. Carved into the black leather in jagged edges, the seat’s stuffing spilling out, it said LIAR.
Mark ran around to the other side of the car and opened the door. “Shit,” he gasped, looking at the back of the driver’s side passenger seat where the word WHORE was carved into the leather.
“Outta the car, Ms. Russo,” Tom demanded, pulling her out.
Whore?
Liar?
Her hands and legs began to tremble.
There were photographers around and she didn’t want to draw attention, but they were leaving a conference full of local politicians and Tom, a big hulk of a man, and Mark, her older but also very fit advisor, were both standing with phones in hands, talking, arms flailing, looking not at all calm, cool, or collected. “Stay back, Ms. Russo. Police are on their way.”
“You didn’t check the vehicle before you drove up?” Mark asked. Olivia didn’t know much about bodyguarding but that seemed like a logical thing for him to have done.
“It’s a four-door sedan. There wasn’t anyone in the backseat or anything.” She supposed that was true. Why would he check the back of the seats? But how’d they get inside?
