Do You Want to Know a Secret? (36 page)

Joy handled herself
impressively. She had studied hard about AIDS and it paid off. She fielded questions of the anchorpeople on the morning shows with ease, grace and earnestness. She had been somewhat surprised that no one had raised the Bill Kendall bequest at the first three shows. Then she got to KEY.

The interview started out routinely enough. Eliza Blake asked her about the status of the fund-raising effort. Joy was proud to report that the American people were being enormously generous. The contributions were flowing in to the AIDS Parade for Dollars Washington post office box.

“Still, Eliza, until there is a cure or a vaccine, there is so much more to be done. So much to be done for those living with AIDS. It’s a disease that doesn’t care if you’re male or female, rich or poor, black or white, old or young. Pediatric AIDS is particularly heartbreaking. This afternoon, I’ll have the opportunity to tour AIDS facilities in Newark that have implemented programs to help.”

“Why Newark?”

“New Jersey ranks third in the nation, behind New York and Florida, in the number of pediatric AIDS cases. New Jersey also has the highest percentage of females with AIDS. The state has been forced to deal with AIDS and to be innovative in its programs. And the Catholic Church has provided more hospital beds for AIDS patients than any other institution in the country. There’s a lot to learn there.”

“Mrs. Wingard, following this interview, you are scheduled to tape some public service announcements on AIDS and your fund-raising effort. Here at KEY, we’ve noted with interest that our own Bill Kendall left $100,000 to the AIDS Parade for Dollars in his will.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Eliza detected a tensing of Joy’s jaw. She decided to remain silent for a few moments and see if Joy would continue on her own, but the candidate’s wife just stared back. Eliza had the feeling that Joy was daring her to insinuate anything else. In that moment, Eliza decided not to push any further. There would always be another time.

“Did Bill Kendall have a particular interest in AIDS?”

Joy Wingard went with what she and Nate Heller had planned. She hoped it didn’t sound rehearsed. “Bill Kendall was a fine human being. He was interested in just about anything that affected his fellow man. We had talked about various charities. As you probably know, he did a lot of work as a supporter of the developmentally disabled. But he was one of those who realized, early on, the scope and seriousness of the AIDS threat.”

The theme music began to play. Eliza thanked her guest and teased to the movie review coming up after the commercial. Joy Wingard undipped the microphone from her shrimp-colored linen suit and rose from the couch, taking time to shake Eliza’s hand and smile graciously. Eliza mentioned that she was working on a story on the Wingard fund-raising effort and would be following her to Newark later in the day.

“If I can help with your story in any way, Eliza, please don’t hesitate to call on me.” Beneath the gracious words, Eliza thought she detected a tightness in the candidate’s wife’s voice.

Chapter 77

Hearing himself paged
, the orderly stashed another ravaged patient against the wall of the busy hospital hallway and went to the house phone.

“It’s me.”

“I’m not supposed to receive personal calls at work!”

“Sorry, couldn’t reach you before this. I’ll be brief. Joy Wingard is going to be there today. Just keep your eyes open.”

“Don’t I always?”

“True.”

“Hey, Peter, while I’ve got you on the phone, I’ve been thinking. You didn’t pay me enough for that bit of info on Bill Kendall. If I spread that news around, I could make
a lot more.”

“Okay, okay,” came the resigned response. “How much more do you want?”

Chapter 78

“You were wonderful
this morning, darling. I got to the office early and watched you on all four shows. There wasn’t a question that you didn’t answer well. I was very proud of you.”

Joy was sitting in a small KEY studio, practicing reading from the Teleprompter her public service announcement scripts when the call from Win was put through. Before she could answer, he continued.

“Today is all yours. Since I have to be here in Washington for Senate business, you’ll be our representative out there again today. Your performance this morning was a terrific start. Go get ’em, sweetheart.”

Win dealt best with the concrete. He didn’t do well with suggestions and nuances. Joy concluded that the Bill Kendall questions hadn’t bothered Win at all.

Nate Heller, on the other hand, had not missed any of the subtleties of Eliza Blake’s questioning. Wanting to be there when the PSAs were taped, he met Joy as she was entering the studio. Having watched the interviews from his hotel room, he too had been delighted with the way Joy conducted herself. But he had not been thrilled with Eliza’s probing.

“Damn her,” he hissed, corralling Joy to the corner of the studio. “Damn her and her nosy questions.”

“Come on, Nate. She was just doing her job.”

“Oh, wonderful. ‘She was just doing her job,’ ” he parroted. “Aren’t you the benevolent, understanding one?”

“I think we should be thankful that no one else asked the same question. It’s really a fairly obvious one.”

Nate considered her words. “You’re right. I guess we were lucky. Besides, there isn’t anything we can do about it now. Maybe that’ll be the end of the Bill Kendall factor.”

“Wishful thinking, Nate?”

Nate’s eyes followed her as she broke away from him, crossed the small room, mounted the platform and arranged herself carefully in the speaker’s chair behind a curved gray Formica-topped desk. “No, thank you,” was her response to the KEY makeup woman. She preferred to do her own. The voice of the director came from a speaker in the ceiling. He was watching her on his screen in the control room. He told her that she looked sensational, and asked the cameraman to tighten up on her just a bit.

Unexpectedly, Joy realized that she was not nervous. In fact, she was getting a charge out of the tension in the studio as everyone concerned prepared to tape. She liked this better than a live interview. If she made a mistake, they could just tape again and she could fix it. She had nothing to lose.

Chapter 79

In a large office
three hundred yards away, Eliza sat with her boss. She explained to Yelena Gregory what she had found in Bill Kendall’s computer notes.

“So I’m here today, uncertain about
what
to do. This thing and its implications are big, and I want to talk about how I—we—should proceed.”

Yelena nodded, her broad face somber. “You’re right. If I don’t seem surprised at what you’ve told me, it’s because Range already talked to me.”

Eliza felt a pang of something. Annoyance? Betrayal? What was Range trying to pull, anyway? Telling Eliza in no uncertain terms that Bill’s affair was Bill’s business and then rushing to talk it over with Yelena.

Yelena was quick to respond to Eliza’s unspoken doubts. “Please don’t get the wrong impression, Eliza. Range wasn’t coming to me behind your back. On the contrary, he was concerned that he had come down too heavily. He was second-guessing himself and he wanted another opinion on how to deal with this.”

Somewhat appeased, Eliza decided to let the Range Bullock issue rest, at least for the time being. “Well, what did you and Range decide?”

Yelena rose from her seat, walked around the big desk and rested her imposing figure on the edge of it. She ran her large hands through her closely cropped hair, pulling it back from her face in an expression of beleaguered contemplation.

“I considered this all last night. Didn’t sleep much, thinking about it. What is our responsibility here? Someone’s got to draw the line somewhere as to what is personal in a public figure’s life. It’s a tough, tough call.” Yelena paused, rising to look out the window onto the city street. She turned back to face Eliza. “But my inclination, at this point at least, is to agree with Range. Bill Kendall and Joy Wingard’s affair—if, indeed they had one—isn’t something that the country needs to know about to make a decision on Haines Wingard’s ability to govern.”

Eliza didn’t like the intimation that the affair was something less than real. But she also felt somewhat relieved. The buck had been passed, and Yelena had made her decision. Eliza was grateful that the older woman was there to turn to; her wisdom and years of experience were reassuring. Eliza really didn’t want to invade Bill’s privacy either.