Mr. Thomas Stepforth Sr. was not just hanging out with his wife in Washington just to be there for her, although he knew it meant the world to her to know he was close by and available as she went through all the processes of getting beyond a murder attempt that had claimed her home.
But there was heavier work for the billionaire to do … darker, too.
Mr. Stepforth knew the country he lived in … Mrs. Stepforth was a quiet and yet outspoken Black woman on the subject of white supremacist domestic terrorism, but the United States had been lenient about such terror against Black women and girls for centuries. Since it was a White man who had attempted her murder, a White man scorned in his romantic advances, there would be forces that would be working to get him off.
So: Mr. Stepforth had called his favorite private investigator in addition to keeping the Lofton County Free Voice abreast … the Free Voice was making sure the facts of the case, including the video Mrs. Stepforth had captured of the attempt on her life with ALL the necessary evidence, was in front of the public.
But Matthew Whitman had powerful friends among Mr. Stepforth's old enemies … in fact, a good number of them had been engaged in a competition to see if they could get on with Mrs. Stepforth as revenge for how he had bested them in business. Mr. Whitman had moved on to killing as revenge, and failed, but still: he had friends who would cover for him in order to cover for themselves, and pull strings in the criminal justice system.
So: Mr. Stepforth had called Mr. Jetson Black, Virginia's finest Black private detective and among its finest, period.
Mr. Black officially divided his time between the Innocence Project in Charlotteville and training the young journalists of the Free Voice in investigation techniques; he was 55 and semi-retired as an investigator, but he took on cases that interested him, and there was still quite a lot that interested him.
The attempted murder of Mrs. Stepforth interested him before Mr. Stepforth had even asked, and he had been glad to come up to Washington with two of his proteges and get to work on the billionaire's dime, because Mr. Whitman was involved with some other matters that Mr. Black and his circle of associates were looking into. Those matters had started blowing up almost as soon as Mr. Whitman's ranting and raving before and after his arrest had become public knowledge.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Black met with Mr. Stepforth and they got down to the bottom of the case.
“I have bad news and I have good news, Tom,” the investigator said – the men knew each other well and counted each other as friends. “The bad news is that Matthew Whitman is never going to go to trial or be convicted.”
“What? With all the evidence? What kind of accursed protection does he have in Washington – is he involved with The Family or something?”
“Exactly the opposite. They removed the protection. He is dead – found dead in his cell this morning, in a way that he could not have done himself.”
“What?”
“The cell he was placed in has an old tunnel under it … that's a long, long story in and of itsself, but, let's say that people much, much higher than the guard there had determined he was going to have to be killed before he was through booking. The tunnel was used and Mr. Whitman was ritually slaughtered in bed. He talked too much. The point has been made.
“The good news is that your old business enemies forgot they were just pawns too. Five of them have been caught up for the charge of murder, because they let themselves be out in the open talking about who they were going to hire, and three of them are connected with the hitman chosen – a retiree from Blackwater, mind you.”
“The gift that keeps on giving, that Blackwater.”
“That man is in a race with the U.S. Marshals as we speak, because he's also involved in some white supremacist militias the FBI is wanting to get hold to – so, let's just say that between the evidence we have collected and the FBI has collected, you and Mrs. Stepforth and the bones these men have to pick with you will be the least of their concerns.”
Mr. Stepforth considered this.
“Of course I am delighted,” he said after a long moment, “but I also don't have any grasp of the depth of the relationship Velma had with Mr. Whitman. Obviously she rejected his advances, but was he someone she considered a friend before that? I just don't know how she is going to take this.”
Mr. Black smiled slightly.
“You'll know how to break it to her, although you have to consider that it is already 2:00, and chances are that our favorite blogger will be telling you about it by the time you meet her for dinner.”
“Right … I keep forgetting … she's a lot like y'all investigative newshounds in Lofton County.”
“We can't wait until she joins us … I've been meaning to congratulate you on your reconciliation.”
“Thank you, Jetson. It's work, but I do believe I am settling in on thinking of the world not only from my perspective, but also trying to see hers.”
“You are doing well,” Mr. Black said, “and here's something to ease your mind; Mr. Whitman and your wife moved in the same society circles, and he had gotten her number because of an interview she had needed to do with him seven years back. He always flirted when they encountered each other at events afterward, but he had all kinds of other women, and never got anywhere with her. It speaks to the level of delusion that he even thought he had, but Mrs. Stepforth is apparently one of those women who is so kind and warm that a man could fool himself.”
“She surely is,” Mr. Stepforth said. “I would have needed you to investigate the entire last year of my marriage to give me a clue that anything was wrong and she was going to leave … but I guess Matthew Whitman isn't the only man given to delusion from time to time.”
“Occupational hazard,” Mr. Black said. “Women are a deeper mystery than all the other things of earth. A calm and quiet one is what we men all say we want, but we forget: it takes a lot more work to know the mind and moves of a woman like that.”
“Mr. Whitman and I have both learned … Velma is an equal opportunity teacher, although I thank God the cost of my tuition was much lower!”