Read Nik Kane Alaska Mystery - 02 - Capitol Offense for Free Online

representative spends that much to get elected. And I think that you will find earning it isn’t easy. A lot of powerful people would be happy to see Senator Hope convicted of this crime.”
    “How well do you know Senator Hope?” Kane said.
    “Not well,” the woman said. There was something in her voice Kane couldn’t quite identify. “Not well at all.”
    “Then what’s your interest in his guilt or innocence?” Kane asked.
    The woman sipped more tea.
    “How much do you know about Alaska politics?” she asked.
    Kane shook his head.
    “Almost nothing,” he said. “My attitude toward politics was best summed up by the old lady who said, ‘I never vote. It only encourages the bastards.’”
    The woman chuckled.
    “I wish it were that simple,” she said, “but it’s not.”
    She took another sip of tea and set her cup and saucer on a small table at her elbow.
    “When my late husband was young, Alaska was a progressive place,” she said, “but the coming of big oil changed all that. Alaska is now one of the most reactionary states in the nation.
    “It is also becoming increasingly corrupt. Senator Hope speaks out against the reactionaries and the corruption, and that has made him enemies. One of his biggest enemies is, or was, Melinda Foxx’s employer, O. B. Potter. Senator Potter caters to the religious right and to the rich and powerful. The joke in Juneau is that his goal is to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable.”
    She picked up a cookie, broke off a small piece, popped it into her mouth, chased it with tea, and continued.
    “So Senator Potter and Senator Hope disagree on almost everything. And if their ideological differences weren’t enough, Senator Potter also has been featured prominently in two of the more recent scandals uncovered by Senator Hope, and would like nothing better than to see him discredited.
    “Be that as it may, Matthew Hope is the leading light of Alaska’s progressives. Even though he is quite young—in his early forties, I believe—he has been in the state legislature for a decade and is widely rumored to be considering a run for the governorship next year. His loss would be a crippling blow for all of us.”
    Kane understood what Jeffords had been trying to tell him better now. If Hope was the leader of the outs, Jeffords was very much one of the ins. The chief couldn’t be seen to be helping the other man. So why was he helping him, or asking Kane to help?
    “‘A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,’” Kane muttered.
    “I beg your pardon?” the woman said.
    “Sorry,” Kane said. “Bad habit, talking to yourself. Anyway, I take it you are a supporter of this Senator Hope.”
    The woman nodded.
    “Of progressives in general,” she said. “It’s something I inherited from my husband. He was very successful in business, but he never lost the political convictions of his youth.”
    Kane took a sip of his coffee. It was cold.
    “You’re willing to part with a hundred thousand dollars to support your late husband’s political convictions?” Kane asked.
    “My husband left me well provided for,” the woman said.
    Kane got up and crossed to where the woman sat. As he leaned down to set his cup on the table, he could smell the woman’s perfume and feel the heat from the fireplace. He thought he could hear a faint rustling behind him, as if his movement had alerted someone who was watching. A big guy in a very nice suit, for instance. He walked back and sat once again on the sofa.
    “Well, I have to say the money is attractive,” Kane said, “but I can’t see exactly what I can do to earn it. A high-profile case like this will be swarming with law enforcement and prosecutors with ambitions. I doubt they’d let me waltz in and start poking around. And I’m not sure what I could find that hasn’t already been found by the official investigators.”
    The woman’s laugh surprised Kane.
    “The official investigators, such as they