Chapter 20
To say things were a little chaotic over the next few days, would have been, a great
understatement, but salvation came in the form of Ruth Lyman. She arrived in the Twin
Cities the day Josh was released from the hospital and vowed to stay as long as they
needed her. This enabled Donna to make the business trips she needed to without
worrying about Jenny alone in a hotel suite with 4 children and an aggravated Josh
Lyman.
But while Donna felt much better leaving under those circumstances, Josh did not like
the circumstances at all. Jenny he could overrule on Donna’s rules, but Ruth Lyman;
forget about it.
“Ally, will you hand me the remote please?” Josh asked his oldest daughter.
“Grandma says you’re not supposed to have it.” Ally replied.
“Okay…how about you pick up the remote control and changing the TV to channel
31?” Josh tried another tactic.
“Is that CNN?” Ally asked.
“Uh…I’m not sure. Why don’t you switch it and we’ll check?” Josh suggested.
Ally started to reach for the remote when Ruth Lyman came in and gave him ‘the look’.
“Tell me you are not using this innocent child to break the rules.” Ruth pulled Ally to her
side.
“I have been completely cut off from the world, Mom.” Josh complained.
“You watched one hour of the news this morning and I gave you the paper to read.”
Ruth countered.
“A slightly edited version of the paper.” Josh corrected and held up a paper that
resembled Swiss cheese more than a newspaper.
“We have to watch your blood pressure very carefully for the next week still.” Ruth
explained like he hadn’t heard it a million times already in the 5 days since he’d been
released. He actually wished Donna were back. He had…ways…of persuading her to
bend a rule of two.
The hotel phone rang and Ben rushed to get it. Tori beat him to it by 2 feet.
“Lyman residence.” She answered. “He can’t come to the phone right now, can I take a
message?”
Josh rolled his eyes and moaned.
“Uh-huh…uh-huh…Okay, bye.” Tori hung up and picked up her notebook.
“Who was it, kiddo?” Josh asked sweetly as she scanned the names on her page.
“He’s not on the nice list.” Tori shook her head.
“Just tell me who it was.” Josh begged.
“Sorry, Daddy. It’s a bad guy.” Tori ran back to her grandma. “Can we make slice and
bake cookies?”
“Sure, go get them from the fridge.” Ruth decided. “Josh, just sleep awhile.”
“Sure.” He said sarcastically. All of a sudden, his cell phone, pager and hotel phone
went off at the same time.
“Dad, it’s a reporter from the Star Tribune. He wants to know if you have a comment.”
“Comment on what? The medical care in Minnesota?” Josh asked back.
“I don’t know.” Ben answered then spoke into the phone again. “What did you want a
comment on?”
“No, Ben, don’t ask what- Just hang up okay?” Josh instructed and Ben immediately
disconnected the call. “Good, now-“ The phone started ringing again before he could
finish the sentence. Ben ignored it and picked up the pager.
“It says call MN state party office.” Ben read off the pager.
“Bring me the phone Ben.”
“No.” Ruth declared.
“Mom, it’s a phone call not a marathon. Give me the phone Ben.”
Tori came running back in. “It’s too noisy Grandma, make it stop.”
“Daddy?” Ally asked. “Can you talk to somebody from CNN?”
“What?!” Josh tried to sit up quickly and paid the price for it.
“He can’t come to the phone right now, Ally.” Ruth answered.
“It’s too loud.” Tori complained again when Josh’s pager continued to beep and his cell
continued to ring.
“This one’s from Lou.” Ben read again. “She’s says to answer your damn phone.”
“I’ve NEVER liked that…woman.” Ruth muttered.
“Grandma!” Tori covered her ears and shouted.
“Ally, turn the cell phone off and take the hotel phone off the hook. Tori, you go in the
girl’s room until everything gets quieter; play your CD.”
“Wait a second. Obviously something has happened.” Josh argued.
“You don’t need anything spiking your blood pressure or your heart rate.”
“YOU are spiking my- Let me call Donna at least.” Josh countered.
“This one’s from Julie!” Ben read the next page. “Please call. I don’t know what to tell
them.” He read.
“Tell who?” Josh asked. “Never mind. Hand me the cell.”
“Donna said no work calls.” Ruth reminded both males.
Ben looked from his dad to his grandmother, then brought the phone to his dad. “One
call won’t hurt.” He told his grandmother.
Josh winked at his son and started the phone up again. “Mom, I promise to stay calm.
Will you please look after Tori? I can’t get over there so well. With a final warning look,
Ruth went to settle her granddaughter down.
“There’s another page from Billy.” Ben announced looking down at the pager. “It says,
turn on CNBC and call me.”
Ben ran to get the remote and turned on the television. ‘Breaking News’ was scrolling
across the screen. Ben, anticipating his dad’s request, turned up the volume.
“Do you have any more details from Minnesota, Allen?” The anchor asked the reporter.
“There’s a lot of rumors, but as I noted earlier, the only facts we know for sure are the
following. Democratic Congressional hopeful from Minnesota, Warren Taylor, has been
indicted for fiscal malfeasance in connection with his tenure as Mayor of Red Wing
Minnesota. According to papers filed with the court this morning Mr. Taylor allocated
city funds in excess of $300,000, to businesses he himself owns in exchange for
services for the city. However, the city can find no records of the services being done
other than the receipts from Taylor’s companies. In addition, these were no bid
contracts and Taylor did not reveal his relationship to the companies in question.”
“How is this going to affect the Congressional campaign there, Allen?”
“We don’t know. Calls to the party chair have gone unanswered and Taylor’s staff is
refusing to comment. There has been no comment from the candidate himself, but we
understand that he has retained counsel.”
“How was this discovered?”
“The City Accountant, who was the subject of an IRS investigation, admitted to being an
accessory in order to reduce his sentence, and provided the authorities with testimony
as well as documentation. Apparently, the money was only being channeled through
Taylor’s companies before being deposited in several off shore accounts.”
“Fascinating story, Allen. We’ll be waiting for your updates.” The anchor announced.
“There you have it; the latest on the Minnesota Congressional race thrown into
disarray only a short time before the state convention. We’ll bring you more news and
information after this break.” They cut to a commercial and Ben turned to see a very
wide smile on his father’s face. Josh’s cell phone rang in his hand. He tossed it to Ben.
“Answer it.” The grin never left Josh’s face and now spread to Ben’s.
“Josh Lyman’s office.” Ben answered. “I’ll see if Mr. Lyman is available for the MN party
chair.” Ben raised his eyebrows at his dad who nodded in response. “One moment
please for Mr. Lyman.” Ben had seen his mom and dad do this for one another many
times before.
Ben took his time walking back to his dad and handed him the phone, the trademark
Lyman smirk on both their faces. Josh turned the speaker feature on so Ben could
hear the conversation too.
“David Strauss, what’s up?” Josh asked congenially.
“I…uh…heard you were involved in a serious accident, Josh. How are you?”
“Nearly died from complications; hemothorax if you’re interested.” Josh shook his head
at Ben to negate what he was telling David when he noticed his son’s eyes grow wide.
“But that was all last week.”
“Yeah…okay…I’m glad you’re doing better now.” David fumbled about, trying to find a
way to broach the subject of Taylor’s legal trouble.
“Yep, much better. But I’ve been bored out of my mind. Donna is limiting my work. She
cut me off from TV and newspapers!” Josh exclaimed.
“That must be killing you.” David joked relieved in his thinking that Josh hadn’t heard
the news yet.
“It was, until my son took pity on me and turned on cable news just now. You wouldn’t
believe the story they’re running about your candidate!”
“Our candidate.” David corrected.
“Yours, you egotistical ass. I made it clear after I met with him that I wouldn’t touch him
with a ten foot pole.” Josh said seriously. “I heard he’s got a lawyer now. You should
really funnel all questions related to the investigation through the lawyer.” Ben leaned
closer and gave his dad a high five.
“Funnel all the questions- You can’t be serious. That man-“
“Your candidate.” Josh corrected this time.
“Taylor is finished. Even if he’s eventually proven innocent it will be too late and the
Republicans will have one more seat in Congress.”
“Man, I’d hate to have to report THAT to the national chair.” Josh smirked and shared a
look with Ben who was listening with rapt attention.
“Okay. This is payback right?” David guessed. “For how we treated your team and your
candidate?”
“Weren’t you the one who told me this is just politics. It’s nothing personal, right?” Josh
threw David’s own words back at him. “I don’t know what I can do for you at this point
David.”
“You can get in touch with Julie Peterson and get her back in Minnesota so I can talk to
her.”
“I’ll get right on that; after hell freezes over. Anything else?”
“Shouldn’t you at least ask her? What if this is something she wants?” David tried.
“What makes you think that a) she wants to talk to you and b) she’d be willing to leave
her new job to come back and run to save your ass?”
“She has a new job? In one week?” David sounded like he was hyperventilating. Josh
thought it was prudent not to mention Julie was working for Lyman consulting at the
moment.
“She impressed a lot of people during her run. She’s been highly sought after. I think
you should approach the guy who finished last. What was his name again?” Josh asked
facetiously and Ben burst out laughing.
“Moron. His name was moron.” Ben noted.
“Can you keep your children off the phone?” David muttered. “What do you want from
me, Lyman? Do you want me to beg?”
“It wouldn’t hurt.” Josh was really enjoying this. “What would that sound like exactly,
Strauss? Let me hear how you’d phrase that.”
“Fine. I’m begging you to help me get Peterson back here to run as the Democratic
nominee.” David said through clenched teeth. “Will you have her call me?”
“No.”
“What?!” David screamed. “You want this seat to go to the Republicans?
“Don’t be ridiculous, you supercilious bastard. I’ve taken more seats for Democrats
than you can count.” Josh took a deep breath and winced at the pain. Ben was
mouthing ‘what’s supercilious’ so Josh mouthed back, ‘look it up kiddo’ before returning
his attention to Strauss. “Of course I don’t want the seat to go red. But you’re not going
to be talking to her. I will ask her if she would CONSIDER giving up her new prestigious
job to come back here and save your sorry ass. I’ll call you after I’ve spoken to her.”
“Soon?” David pushed.
“I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. This conversation has sucked the energy from my
recovering system. I think I need a nap.” Josh yawned for affect and Ben chimed in.
“Time for your medicine, Dad.”
“Got to go, David.” Josh said laughing lightly.
“But when will you call?”
“When I’m up to it.” Josh replied cheekily. “Stay close to your phone.” He advised
before disconnecting the call.
“That was so awesome!” Ben exclaimed.
“Very well played, young man. Bravo.” Josh ruffled his son’s hair.
“Now what?” Ben asked.
“Now we call Julie.” Josh found her number on his speed dial and hit send.