Operation Mockingbird Read Online Free PDF Page A

the system by none other than Commissioner Suarez.
    Several moments passed when Matt didn’t say a word. But soon the temptation became overwhelming. Dana was nowhere in sight, and Macallan was doing the thinking. As the commissioner reached for his companion’s wine and turned around to pass it to her, Matt called to him.
    “Excuse me, Commissioner Suarez.” His voice sounded loud, even to himself.
    Some people around the bar turned to look at him, others averted their eyes even as they stayed conspicuously within earshot.
    Matt lowered his voice but continued. “Is it true that your office spent $28,000 at the Organ Grinder in SouthMiami and, in particular, on a professional dancer by the name of Kiki Calle Ocho?”
    Matt could see the horrified looks on the faces of those in the crowd. The onlookers alternated between shooting glances at Matt to stealing looks at Suarez. The commissioner’s date was smiling, basking in the attention and the glow of the warm bodies pressed around them, oblivious to the fact that this might not be the type of attention that one should crave.
    Suarez turned slowly toward Matt as he continued.
    “I spoke with Ms. Calle Ocho. She says she’s a close personal friend of yours.”
    The smile became a grimace as the right corner of Commissioner Suarez’s mouth began to jerk. The right eye joined in and there was a veritable concert of uncontrolled activity taking over the man’s face. Matt offered his nemesis his most engaging smile and took another sip from his own glass. Matt briefly looked away as he returned his glass to the napkin on the bar and reached for a small notepad in his suit jacket pocket.
    Matt turned back toward Commissioner Suarez just in time to see the man throw his head and glass back, inhaling the liquid. He flung his glass to the ground and he lunged at Matt, slamming him against the back of the bar.
    Matt stumbled and then pushed back. The two men fell into the crowd. A woman screamed, and the onlookers in the crowd scrambled away. The men crashed to the floor. Suarez punched and kicked from underneath, as Matt tried to deflect the blows while at the same time pushing himselfup and off the other man. Matt was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a blunt object.
    Everything after that was a bit of a blur. Matt was jerked up to his feet, escorted to an exit by two very large men and was unceremoniously thrown out of the building. Out on the sidewalk, Matt inspected the damage done to his rented tuxedo. One torn pants pocket. Missing bow tie. His head throbbed and he felt an egg rising on the back of his head but he supposed it could have been worse.
    He looked around, not surprised to see that Commissioner Suarez wasn’t standing on the street with him. He thought briefly about going back inside but quickly acknowledged that none of the socialites inside, including his date, would be missing him.
    The next day
The Chronicle
published Matt’s story reporting on the events that had transpired the night before. The day after that, though, after receiving several phone calls from Senator Suarez, the commissioner’s older brother and a powerful statesman, the paper put Matt on temporary leave. Management was impressed with his gutsy recklessness, or so they said behind closed doors. But the paper was the subject of intense pressure from several local politicians and many loyal constituents of Commissioner Suarez who all suggested that Matt was harassing a prominent politician who was being unfairly persecuted by the federal judicial system, a system that was clearly biased against Hispanics.
    Matt didn’t know when things would die down. For some time he had been thinking about traveling to the Middle East. Right now was looking like a really good time.He wasn’t sure how long it would be before some politician or star athlete found himself embroiled in a very public scandal and for Matt’s rather public “interview” of the commissioner to be forgotten. Matt