Page 15 of The Fallen Man

“The hotel was helpful about handing over his phone call logs, and I managed to get his cell phone records.”

“Jackson! That is not legal!”

“It is,” said Jackson. “Ish. He’s dead with no next of kin. That puts the Right to Privacy in a very gray area.”

“Mmm.” There was so much disapproval all in one note.

“Unfortunately, the calls to hisspecial friendin DC went to a burner phone.”

“That doesn’t mean whoever he called actually has any influence,” said Eleanor, but she sounded less confident.

“Agreed. On the other hand,” Jackson said, “if we could find out who it was, we might have a clue as to who is looking into the Absolex hearings.”

“Yes, they would, which would just be too convenient for us, and therefore I’m even less inclined to believe in such things.”

Jackson laughed. “Your pessimism is at a nearly Ukrainian level.”

“I always got along well with Evan’s mother,” said Eleanor reflectively. “Perhaps that’s why.”

Jackson knew that the rest of the family had never met his mother, but sometimes it felt like Evan was the only one who remembered that she had also been Ukrainian. It had been their first point of commonality when he’d entered the family. The girl last night in the alley had also had the aura of stand-offish Ukrainian pessimism that Jackson found profoundly familiar and refreshing all at once. Perhaps that was why he’d wanted to find her. Or possibly it was the profoundly desirable ass that had walked away from him.

“Perhaps so,” said Jackson. “Do you want me to look into the Congressional stuff?”

“No, I think that’s best left to me. Backstabbing senate gossip is the kind of thing my staff lives for.”

“All right,” said Jackson. “I’ll keep digging on the Granger files then.”

“Might as well,” she said with a shrug. “How are the children doing?”

“Aiden and Ella completed the partnership deal between DevEntier and Zhao Industries. They told me to vote on something. I voted. Apparently, now I have thirty million more dollars.”

Eleanor gave him an exasperated look. “The stock value went up two hundred percent overnight.”

“That is what Evan said,” agreed Jackson.

“You don’t care a bit, do you?”

“Nope,” said Jackson cheerfully. Eleanor shook her head. He never knew how to explain that too much money was meaningless. He could buy the things he wanted, and after that, it was useless to him.

“How are Evan and Olivia?”

“You mean, besides engaged?”

Eleanor beamed, and Jackson thought he’d rarely seen a happier expression on her face.

“Thank you for all the texts and pictures last night. I don’t like to attend such parties, but I like to be included in the news. They looked very happy.”

“They were both floating on cloud nine,” said Jackson.

“I really wasn’t sure she was the one for him,” said Eleanor. It was the closest Jackson had ever heard her get to an admission of being wrong.

“I was,” said Jackson, knowing his voice sounded too firm.

“I hate that she’s Ralph Taggert’s granddaughter, but I love how she loves Evan,” said Eleanor, meeting his eye, stare for stare.

“I know,” said Jackson, relenting. “It’s unfortunate that your most hated political rival has any tie to this family, but so far, Olivia’s deal with him is holding. She and Ralph don’t speak, and he’s left all of us out of any of his rhetoric.”

“It has been rather refreshing to have him attack me on my record for a change,” said Eleanor.