Deadline by Stephen Maher Read Free Book Online

by his caucus.
    Jack’s phone vibrated again, and he pulled it out of its holster. It is against the rules to talk on a cell phone in the gallery, so he clicked the do-not-answer button, and looked at the screen: Ottawa Police Service. He stepped out into the hallway and called his voicemail.
    “Mr. Macdonald, this is Detective Sergeant Devon Flanagan, of the Ottawa Police Service. We’d like to speak with you as soon as possible about Ed Sawatski. Mr. Sawatski suffered an injury early this morning and we understand you were with him last night. So it’s urgent that you call us.”

    After Pinsent’s questions, when the Opposition critics stood to ask routine questions about their files, in the government staffer gallery above the floor of the House, Ismael Balusi slid down on the wooden bench to chat with Dave Cochrane, chief of staff to Jim Donahoe.
    “Pretty good, eh?” he said.
    Cochrane looked over at him.
    “Jesus, the old guy has some moves,” he said. “I can’t believe Pinsent attacked him on that, today. Are we writing his lines?”
    “I’m not sure we could write lines so dumb,” said Balusi, and stifled a giggle. He looked nervously over his shoulder at the House of Commons constables, who were supposed to make sure everyone in the galleries listened to the debates in silence.
    “Meet you in the hallway in a minute,” he said.
    Donahoe nodded his agreement.
    Balusi was leaning against the wall in the narrow hallway that runs behind the galleries, reading emails, when Cochrane came out.
    “How’s Donahoe doing?” asked Balusi.
    “Good,” said Cochrane. “We think we’re starting ahead.”
    “We ought to be ahead, but that wasn’t great today. ‘I’ll leave speculation to the speculators.’ Mowat looked a lot smoother. He had better lines.”
    Cochrane didn’t respond for a minute. “We didn’t think we’d need lines so early. We didn’t think it would leak.”
    “All the rules are out the window now,” said Balusi. “We’ve got to adjust our thinking. Who do you think leaked Stevens’ announcement today? Cui Bono? Got to be Mowat. We got to be thinking the same way. It’s the difference between the winner and the loser. Having the right lines at the right moment. Controlling the agenda. Looking good when the other guy looks stupid. Today our guy looked stupid and the other guy looked good.”
    Cochrane sighed. “You’re right. We’ve got to pick up our game, but there’s no reason to panic. We’ve got half the cabinet locked up, De Grandpré is going to run. You think those red Quebec Tories are going to go to Mowat in a convention? That family values shit doesn’t go over so good in la belle province .”
    “Yeah,” said Balusi. “I know. But De Grandpré will go with whoever he thinks the winner will be. Right now, he likely thinks he can win, the dumb fuck. Same with Thompson. In the end, these guys will go with the front runner. Right now they don’t know. It would be a good time to give them a sign.”
    Cochrane laughed. “You’re not going to get an argument from me. Got any ideas?”
    “Maybe,” said Balusi. He bit his lip and looked around. “Quebec. There are seventy-five riding associations there. Most of them have a dozen Conservative members at most, and each of those riding associations has as much weight in a leadership race as Calgary Southwest, which has, what, 3,000 members? It’s the easiest way to get a head-start. They should like your guy. He’s an old Tory, like them. They sure won’t naturally gravitate to Pastor Mowat. If I were you I’d send your guy to Quebec, meet with some of the old Bleus, get them on side. You line up enough riding associations, you’ll have Mowat beat before he gets started.”

    Ashton grimaced as she followed Sophie into the hospital room. She wasn’t looking forward to this.
    Ed Sawatski’s parents were beside his bed, the mother looking desperate and scared, holding her son’s hand. Her husband was