Flash

"Unfortunately, I don't have time today to take my revenge on Sloan, although, perhaps, at some point in the future, I may get an opportunity to do so."
    "Revenge for what, Eleanor?"
    "Where to begin?" Eleanor pursed her lips. "Shall we start with the fact that your uncle left only forty-nine percent of Glow to you instead of the entire business?"
    "What does that have to do with anything?"
    "I thought you were smarter than this, Olivia. Use your head. I had a choice of several highly experienced campaign consultants. Why do you think I chose one who lacked a track record?"
    "Todd?"
    "It wasn't just his policy ideas that interested me, you know." She chuckled. "It was the fact that, through you, he was connected to Glow, Inc. A company that stood to make a great deal of money during the next decade."
    Understanding hit Olivia in a sickening wave. "And you're going to need a lot of money if you go for the White House, aren't you? For God's sake, don't tell me you somehow arranged for Uncle Rollie to die in that balloon accident?"
    "No." Eleanor's laugh was deep and throaty. "I saw no need to take that risk. After all, he was a very old man. He was bound to drop dead or retire soon. Either way the company was supposed to come to you. I didn't know about his arrangements with Jasper Sloan until after his death."
    "None of us did. Are you telling me that you expected me to finance your political career?"
    Eleanor shrugged. "You have a reputation for seeing the possibilities when it comes to other people's futures. Look at what you did for Logan Dane and Crawford Lee Wilder. And you do have a thing about taking care of family."
    Olivia was incredulous. "You figured that if you married Todd, I'd feel obliged to help finance your political aspirations? For his sake?"
    "Why not? You would be ensuring Todd's future, not just mine. Your brother would have been famous. The Chantry family would have been connected to the White House, to power. What sister wouldn't have financed that kind of career?"
    Olivia stared at her. "Eleanor, for a smart woman, you amaze me. That is some of the craziest logic I have ever heard."
    "No, it wasn't crazy. But if the plan had failed, I had a fallback position." Eleanor came to a halt next to the podium. "If you had not proven cooperative, I would have arranged to get rid of you. In which case control of Glow, Inc., would have gone to Todd."
    Olivia could not catch her breath. Eleanor was right. Todd was the only other person in the Chantry family who could have handled Glow, and everyone knew it. Even if she had arranged for shares in the company to go to every member of the Chantry clan, she knew her relatives would have left the running of the business to Todd.
    "But it didn't happen that way," Olivia pointed out desperately. "My uncle took on a partner. Sloan now owns controlling interest in Glow."
    "Yes. That was a shock. I tried a quick, surgical strike to get rid of Sloan while he was out of the country. I thought that any investigation of a deadly accident involving a tourist would be superficial at best on that backwater island."
    "You tried to murder Jasper?"
    Eleanor smiled grimly. "Unfortunately, Dixon failed me on that occasion. I did not want to risk another attempt here in Seattle during the campaign. There was too much media attention focused on all of us. I decided to wait until after the election before making another move to get rid of Sloan. But things got complicated. First Gill tried to blackmail Dixon—"
    "And then Todd decided he didn't want to marry you after all."
    "Thanks to you." Eleanor's fingers tightened on the gun. "You talked him out of it, didn't you?"
    "He made his own decision."
    "Bullshit. You ruined that plan, too, just like you ruined everything else."
    "Why do you keep blaming everything on me?"
    "
Because other than myself, you were the most powerful piece on this damned chessboard
." Sudden rage infused Eleanor's voice. "
You were the only one I worried about. Everyone else could be managed
."
    "The way you managed Dixon Haggard? You used him all along, didn't you?" Olivia whispered. "You took advantage of his obsession with you. I'll bet you convinced him to murder your husband, didn't you?"
    "Dixon is a fool, but he has one great attribute. He is blindly devoted to me." Eleanor smiled tightly. She had the rage back under control. "Unfortunately, now that he has been arrested, I can no longer depend on that devotion. His lawyer has advised him to stop