Shattered (Michael Bennett #14)(22)

I parked more than a block away. Part of it was stealth, part of it embarrassment at the car I’d rented. After I maneuvered my way out of the car, I took a moment to straighten my shirt and pants.

My research on Donald Minshew was slim. He had no arrests, but the lobbyist had been censured twice for reasons that weren’t clear to me. Fat, balding, and a little over fifty, with the red face of a serious drinker, he looked in his pictures like a caricature of an oil lobbyist.

And he was obviously rich. Not just I have a vacation home rich, more like I have a Gulfstream to fly to my private island rich. I already hated him.

I rang the bell and waited by the wide oak front door with hand-etched frosted glass. One side of the door had an etching of an oil well gushing oil. The other side was a wild horse rearing up.

There were two different security cameras as well as a Ring video doorbell. I knew I was being observed from inside the house. After almost a full minute, I heard several of the locks on the door move.

I was momentarily surprised when a beautiful woman with wild reddish hair opened the door and said, “May I help you?”

“I, um…” Her blue eyes locked onto mine. I guessed she was in her late thirties. She had a slight bump in her nose from a break years ago. It gave her an interesting profile. Finally, I was able to spit out, “I’m looking for Donald Minshew.”

The woman didn’t say a word. She just stared at me. Eventually, she said, “And you are?”

I fumbled to grab my badge quickly. I pulled it from my rear pocket and showed the badge with the credentials to her. She welcomed me inside. She had the kind of long, droopy robe I’d seen only in movies. It was almost like she was playing a role.

She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “I’m Don’s wife, Ellen. Just curious, what’s a New York City detective want with my hubby?”

“Just a few quick questions.” I didn’t want to give away any hints just yet. I changed the subject. “You have a lovely home.”

She turned and took my arm. “I’m very proud of this place. My husband won’t be home until around eight-ish. Can I give you a quick tour? Of course, this is just our home while Congress is in session. Our main house is about forty minutes outside Dallas. That’s where we have a little bit of land and some horses.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I do have some questions. You think I could meet your husband at his office?”

“Why would you want to do that? I assume you want to talk about my relationship with Emily Parker. Don really doesn’t know much about her.”





Chapter 28



I tried to hide my surprise as I stared at Ellen Minshew. She was clearly a woman used to shocking people. For some reason I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction.

She led me onto a patio, where we sat at a round glass table. The backyard was more spectacular than the front. Ferns hung from branches of some tropical tree. I had no clue what they did when the temperatures dropped. I was still trying to get a read on this woman. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t playing me. I tried to focus on what she had said. Her “relationship” with Emily was all I could think about.

Without any obvious orders or movement from Mrs. Minshew, a young woman brought out a pitcher of iced tea. My host sat across from me like we were at a garden party.

She said, “When I first met Don, he was an oilman. That was over fifteen years ago. I’d just graduated from Yale with my economics degree. I sensed the change in the oil business and shifted Don into lobbying. You can’t believe how much lobbyists get paid.”

I glanced around the lush backyard. I thought I could believe how much they were paid.

I said, “Sounds like you’re the brains and, forgive me, your husband’s just the front man for this band.”

“That’s a beautiful analogy, Detective. Aren’t you as sweet as peach pie? Don’s got a few tricks up his sleeve too. We work well together. He knows the right people and I know what to say.”

“Obviously you guessed correctly that I want to talk about Emily Parker. How did you meet her?”

“At one of the endless parties here in the district. She struck me as an interesting and intense young woman. We hit it off almost immediately.”

“Did your husband have much interaction with her?”

“Don doesn’t have much interaction with anyone who’s not connected to the House or the Senate. He knew Emily and I were friends, and that’s about it.”

“If I may be frank, Mrs. Minshew, I heard a rumor that Emily and your husband were an item. Now you’re saying that wasn’t true. You and she were an item. I didn’t realize that Emily was interested in women.”

“Emily was interested in a lot of things.”

“But not your husband.”

“I never said our relationship was sexual. We were close friends. We liked the outdoors and marveling at how immature men could be. You know, the usual.”

She winked at me like she was making certain I understood she automatically included me in that assessment.

She said, “It was fun to let people think she was sleeping with Don. In fact, she and I had a lot of laughs about it. Emily was a good friend who was smart enough to not care what people thought.”

Now she leaned across the table toward me and put her hand on my forearm.