The Mormon Candidate - a Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

but the bottom part —the threads that would screw into the fill-in hole in the gas tank —seemed disproportionately large.
    He took paper napkins, grabbled each end , and tried to detach the cap from the threads part. It took some wriggling, but the y started to turn in opposite direction s until the thread s section separated from the chrome cap, which had its own original thread s stamped in . It appeared that the original cap had been made for a smaller tank opening and was fitted with a larger threads part to fit a larger opening .
    He set aside the two pieces.
    Taking a sip of c h a i, Ben turned on the iTouch . No password was required. He checked the e-mail folder. It was empty. Same with text messages . Past sites visited on the Internet had a list of addresses, all of them for the Washington Post news website. He clicked on one of the links and an article appeared.
     
    Presidential Candidate Joe Morgan to Speak at Watergate Hotel :
    In an appearance jokingly dubbed ‘I’m not a crook ! ’ GOP presidential candidate Joe Morgan will deliver a speech tonight at the Watergate Hotel , where burglars paid by the Nixon reelection campaign once broke into the headquarters of the Demo cratic National Committee .
    Morgan is expected to sprinkle a few potent jokes meant to emphasize the stark differences between the dirty politics of four decades ago and his own campaign to ‘Restore America’s Soul . ’
    The fundraiser , at $10,000 per attendee, comes with a seven-course meal and a video presentation of the candidate’s achievements as a single-term Maryland governor and a successful business man . A Mormon bishop and a rabbi will say a joint prayer in line of the first-ever Mormon presidential candidate ’s declaration that he’ll govern the country “on behalf of all faiths . ”
    With the elections only weeks away and his lead in the polls widening every day, the campaign’s aggressive fundraising reflects GOP confidence that victory is at hand – provided there’ s enough cash to continue dominating the airways with anti-incumbent commercials while making sure that nothing happens between now and November to disrupt Morgan’s confident march to Pennsylvania Avenue .
     
    Checking a few of the other articles Zachariah Hinckley had read on his iTouch , Ben found that they all deal t with the presidential elections, particularly with the GOP candidate and his rising prospects of winning the White House.
    Moving on to the iTunes memory , he found a bunch of songs , mostly eighties and a few military marches.
    He put the iTouch down on the table, disappointed. It was an older model, which explained why Zachariah Hinckley used it a s a music player on his Harley. He must have carried a phone as well, which Porter probably had removed after the accident. But he had used the iTouch to surf the Internet for articles about Joe Morgan. It was o dd, but unlikely to be related to the accident or the elusive Ducati.
    Using his iPhone, Ben called Fran at her Maryla nd State Police office.
    Her voice mail came on . “ You’ve reached Lieutenant De Lacourt at the H ate Crimes U nit. If this is an emergency, dial nine-one-one. Otherwise, leave a short message.”
    “ Hey . It’s Ben Teller . I found an iTouch near the accident site at the Marine Veterans’ R ide today. I’ll stop by tomorrow to drop it off.”
     
     
    A fter Ben finished his c ha i and read some of the newspapers left by other customers , a question occurred to him: If there was nothing to Zachariah’s iTouch but a music collection and a paltry Internet surfing history , why had Porter rush ed back f or another search? And why had Porter conducted such a detailed search to begin with?
    Having reported from many other accident sites, Ben knew how police operated. In a multi-vehicle collision, investigators focused on recreating conditions to figure out the trajectories and examine mechanical components for failures that could have contributed to the