"What, the switch in dates?"
"The switch. I wish you hadn't done that."
"But why? Look, son, I know that with Ken Armstrong dead our whole
approach has to be changed--it's going to be trickier, but it might
even work out better. The Senate knows what's been going on between
Rinehart and me, and so does the President. They know elections are
due next June. They know I want a seat on his Criterion Committee
before elections, and they know that to get on it I'll do my damnedest
to unseat him. They know I've shaken him up, that he's scared of me.
Okay, fine. With Armstrong there to tell how he was chosen for Retread
back in '87, we'd have had Rinehart running for his life...."
"But you don't," Carl cut in flatly, "and that's that."
"What, are you crazy, son? _I needed Armstrong, bad._ Rinehart knew
it, and had him taken care of. It was fishy--it stunk from here to
Mars, but Rinehart covered it up fast and clean. But with the stuff
you got up in the Colony, we can charge Rinehart with murder, and the
whole Senate knows his motive already. He didn't _dare_ to let
Armstrong testify."
* * * * *
Carl was shaking his head sadly.
"Well, what's wrong?"
"You aren't going to like this, Dan. Rinehart's clean. Armstrong
comitted suicide."