Tess Harper The White House Conspiracy

By Bob Gabbert

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Copyright

Copyright © 2015 by Bob Gabbert

All rights reserved, except as permitted under the US Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher.

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e-Book Edition: May 2015

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

About the Book

Tess Harper is a professor at the National War College when newly elected President Isley asks her to become the National Security Advisor. President Isley’s wife, Margot, confronts Tess right away, because in her mind, the President wants a beautiful woman on his staff for only one reason.

Tess soon learns that Margot has reason to be jealous, because the President’s executive assistant, Faye Bradley, has been his mistress since his days as a cadet at The Citadel.

Early in the first year in office, Tess leads a secret delegation to Geneva on a mission to open a back-channel dialog with Iran. It immediately becomes obvious that the Iranian delegation has been given the United States strategy by someone in the White House.

When Tess begins her secret investigation to find the traitor, evidence points toward the President’s mistress. Is Faye an agent for a foreign power? Does the President know? If he does know, is he also working for a foreign power? As the investigation gets closer to the truth, people begin to die.

Table of Contents

Title Page

About the Book

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Chapter One

When Tess Harper stepped off of the plane in Washington, DC, it was almost as hot as it had been when she boarded the flight in Bagdad, Iraq.

Her father, Senator William Harper, waited next to a white limousine as she was escorted down the Jetway steps by an Army captain. A black hearse waited nearby.

They hugged solemnly. How are you holding up, Tess? he asked with a quiver in his voice.

It’s been a long flight, Daddy. They wouldn’t release him to me until you made that call to the President.

Senator Harper served on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he had the power to get his son-in-law’s body released to his wife, even though it was a war zone.

They stood sadly with his arm around her waiting for the flag-draped coffin to be unloaded from the aircraft. As the honor guard slowly moved the casket toward the hearse, her mind drifted back to June when they got married. She was having second thoughts about marrying a military man even though she loved him deeply.

Captain Thomas (Mitch) Mitchell had said at the time, Tess, I’ve already been to Afghanistan, and I didn’t get a scratch. You won’t have to worry about me going to Iraq, because they’ll have it cleaned up in no time.

It was what he thought at the time; that because he had already served in Afghanistan he wouldn’t have to go to Iraq, but less than two months after their honeymoon, his battalion was ordered to Iraq.

As Tess stood there on the tarmac with her father, it was not much different from that fateful day when she said goodbye to Mitch. He had tried to console her. There’s nothing to worry about, Tess. I’m sure they just want us over there to train the new guys. We probably won’t even see any action. They said that we might be coming back as soon as six months from now.

Then she remembered that nauseating sinking feeling that went through her body that day when those two officers came to her office at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. Mrs Mitchell, we regret to inform you that your husband, Captain Thomas Mitchell, is missing in action.

That same nauseating feeling had been with her ever since, and even more so now as she watched the men carefully loading the coffin into the hearse for the sad trip to the cemetery.

They found his body six days after he was reported missing. They told Senator Harper that Captain Mitchell’s body had been desecrated, and that his wife shouldn’t be put through the ordeal of seeing him like that. The Senator agreed, and Captain Mitchell’s coffin was permanently sealed. Tess didn’t even get a chance to view his body one last time. One day there was a loving email; the next day he was gone. She was 29 when they got married, and four months later, she was a widow.

She was born Tess Perry Harper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on a beautiful spring day in May. Her father affectionately called her Tessie. Even as a small child, she had lots to say about every subject.

She was an only child but not a lonely child, and like other children without siblings who dealt mainly with adults, she developed a wisdom that far exceeded her years. Her parents encouraged her independence letting her choose the clothes she wore, the food she ate, the books she read, and the friends she cultivated. A parenting guide might call the way she was raised as progressive or liberal. Her parents called it love.

Tess’ mother was the former Wilda Perry, a beautiful, dark haired woman with fair skin and flawless complexion, and dark, penetrating eyes that sparkled when she was happy. She won the Miss Indianapolis Beauty Pageant and went on to become first runner up for Miss Indiana as a part of the Miss America Pageant. It was while competing for Miss Indiana that Wilda met a young attorney, William Harper, who swept her off of her feet. They married one year later and Tess was born one year after that. Wilda Perry-Harper died of breast cancer at the age of 52 when Tess was 28.

William Henry Harper was the only one of his siblings to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an attorney. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he joined his father’s law firm and probably would have spent his career there had not politics intervened. In 1980, he was introduced to Ronald Reagan on one of his campaign visits. Harper joined the campaign, and in 1981, he went to work in the Reagan White House in the Counsel’s office.

In 1984, he was encouraged by President Reagan to run for the Indiana Senate seat held by a Democrat. President Reagan went to Indiana on two occasions during the campaign and told audiences that he needed Harper in the Senate to help him accomplish what had to be done. Harper won the seat in a landslide and is currently serving his fourth term.

Tess inherited her mother’s great beauty and her father’s personality and height, growing to five-feet nine-inches tall. She was the tallest one in her class throughout most of the lower grades. When she began to date in high school, rather than wearing flats and trying to blend in, she reveled in her height. She wore three-inch heels on a first date as a kind of test a boy had to pass. A boy who was intimidated by her height didn’t get a second chance.

It’s not clear if Tess’ political bent began with her father or was influenced by the many occasions where she was invited to the White House with other children to participate in Easter egg rolls and other such events. Or, it may have been the major world changes that were taking place as she neared college age—the Berlin Wall coming down, the Soviet Union being dissolved.

Regardless of what prompted it, Tess entered Bryn Mawr College on a political science degree program, and while there, she learned to speak and write fluently in French and Russian.

Bryn Mawr College had a long tradition of student self-government, and an honor code that put forth principles all students lived by. Tess became a member of the Honor Board her first year at the college, and she was Head of the Honor Board her last two years.

Tess was a natural leader not only in student government but outside of the classroom as well. She started a tradition of annually painting a statue on the campus of nearby Villanova University with Bryn Mawr colors on the third day of fall each year. She even participated in the joint investigation by the two institutions to determine who the culprits were. Not surprisingly, the guilty students were never found. However, she did end up dating one of the men on the investigating team from Villanova for almost two years, and even considered marriage at one point. When he graduated a year before she did, their ardor cooled as they went their separate ways.

With the rise of terrorism in the Middle East on the front pages of newspapers across America, Tess wanted to learn more about the region. Consequently, when she entered the Harvard Business School to earn her MBA, she became fluent in both speaking and writing Arabic and Farsi.

After graduating with honors, she went to work for General Electric in their Amman, Jordan, office as a government liaison person. She was in Jordan when terrorists attacked America on 9/11. A few months later, she was in a meeting with the King of Jordan when the call came that her mother had succumbed to her long struggle with cancer. General Electric flew her home for the funeral on a company jet.

Tess resigned her position with General Electric to spend more time with her father. She entered Georgetown University for her PhD in foreign relations. It was while attending Georgetown that she met Captain Thomas Mitchell.

Tess had always had her feet planted firmly on the ground, but she knew the day she met Mitch that he would change her life. Two weeks after she received her PhD, they got married. They spent their honeymoon in Paris, and now, a few months later, he was gone.

Captain Mitchell was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

After everyone had gone home following the burial, Tess and her father sat alone in his kitchen sipping coffee.

Why don’t you move in here with me, Tess. There’s plenty of room, and it wouldn’t be so lonely for the two of us.

I can’t, Daddy. I need to be on my own, but I am going to sell my condo and get another one. There are too many memories of Mitch where I live now.

You aren’t going to leave DC are you?

No,—she shook her head and tried to smile—I’m too much like you to leave DC, but I am changing jobs at the Council on Foreign Relations. They’ve offered me a fellowship as a Middle East specialist. I want to try and change our future. We have got to stop getting into stupid wars like Iraq.

I agree with you about Iraq. I tried to keep us out of that mess, but you know about those people in the White House; can’t tell them anything.

If their sons or daughters had to die over there, maybe they wouldn’t get us into so many wars, Tess said sadly.

Two years later, Tess invited her father out to dinner. Dad, your assistant called me and told me that you’re thinking about stepping down from the Senate. Is it true?

"Yes. I’m getting tired of fighting those people in the White House, especially that insane Vice President. I pray nothing happens to the President, because that guy is dangerous. He would have us in so many wars. He’s the reason we’re up to our necks in Iraq right now."

When are you stepping down?

At the end of the term. I owe it to the people of Indiana to serve out my term, and I owe it to the Party to give them time to groom my replacement. Twenty-four years is enough. Washington is becoming too… bitter. It’s not like the old days when if you had a disagreement, you met over bourbon and cigars, and found a way to compromise. There’s no compromising with these new people. What about you? How are things going at the Council on Foreign Relations?

Things are going well, but... Tess looked away for a moment and gathered her thoughts. A strange thing has happened. The National War College has offered me a position in their Middle East Studies Department, but I don’t know if I’m qualified. The only thing I really know about war is what I’ve lost.

Nonsense. You know the Middle East far better than most of those yokels in the White House—you’ve lived there, speak the language.

Chapter Two

Several years later, Professor Tess Harper took the podium for her afternoon session at the National War College. Military men and women from all branches of service attended the auditorium-size lecture, including several from foreign countries. There were also several people in civilian clothes in attendance. Through word of mouth at the Pentagon, her lectures had become… let’s not say popular, but noteworthy.

She settled her notes the way she wanted them. "Let’s begin. We’ve been discussing ways in which the United States can avoid some of the traps it has fallen into in the Middle East, and yet still influence what happens there.

"Everyone knows the crux of the problem in the Middle East is the Arab-Israeli war. The media and others like to call it a conflict. That’s like calling the Korean War a conflict. The war between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arabs has been going on almost continuously since 1948, and there is no abatement in sight.

We all have lived with this throughout our lives, so why does it matter to us in the United States? After all, we’re thousands of miles away? It matters, because every problem in the Middle East can be traced directly or indirectly to that conflict—that war. And, what happens in the Middle East affects every country on this planet, even if they don’t get oil from there. As long as oil is a vital resource, the Middle East will be important to us all, and at any moment, events can come crashing down on top of us just as they did on that horrible day in September 2001.

The lecture continued for another hour and 12 minutes. Professor Harper was noted for long lectures without breaks. After the lecture, some rushed out for relief, but most of the people stayed for the Q&A session that followed.

It was almost another hour, before Tess got back to her office. She was just about to relax with a cup of coffee when there was a knock on the door. Yes.

Jessica Honey, her assistant, opened the door and came to her desk. There are a couple of gentlemen here to see you.

Jessica Honey was a cheerleader at the University of Maryland, and even though she was 30 years old, she still had a perky disposition. She had been personal assistant to Professor Harper since she graduated from college. They were complete opposites in physical appearance with Tess having dark hair and a pale complexion and Jessica having sandy-colored hair with a tanned complexion, but despite their 12-year age difference, they were more like sisters than their relative position would indicate.

Tess frowned. Make some excuse. I don’t want to see anyone right now.

You’ll want to see these guys, Jessica said, handed Tess a business card.

The card read: Lionel Hendricks, Senior Consultant, The Isley for President Committee. Senator Isley had just been elected President of the United States. He was putting together his transition team. Lionel Hendricks was expected to be White House Chief of Staff.

Uh, send them in.

Tess got to her feet behind her desk. She was 42 years old now and preferred to greet people, especially men, while standing. The three-inch heels she always wore raised her height to just over six feet tall, and it seemed to intimidate most men. She enjoyed that aspect of her height. Her beauty was also intimidating, but she didn’t admit to it.

She had never met Hendricks and had only seem him a few times on TV. When he came in, her knees shook just a little, because he was a tower of a man, three inches above six feet, and easily 200 pounds. There would be no intimidating him.

Professor Harper,—he said it as if they had known each other for years—President Elect Isley would like to discuss something with you. I have a car waiting outside.

He didn’t introduce the other man. Instead, he turned and opened the office door and held it as if she didn’t have a choice.

Mr Hendricks, I can’t leave; I have another session this—

We’ve cleared your schedule. You need to hurry, because President Elect Isley is flying to New York this evening to appear on the morning TV shows.

Randolph Scott Isley was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. His father was a powerful senator on two very important Senate committees—Appropriations and Foreign Relations. His mother, Louise Benedict-Isley, could trace her ancestry back to Colonial times.

Because of his family’s wealth and power, young Randolph could have gone to any college in America, but he chose to go to The Citadel where his father was educated. The Citadel is the Military College of South Carolina, located in Charleston.

In high school, Isley was known for his many conquests of girls both rich and poor. He didn’t discriminate by wealth or class or even race as long as they were beautiful, but he did want them to be as young as possible. There were rumors that his father got him out of at least one and possibly two statutory rape charges.

At The Citadel, his reputation with girls continued unabated, and since the college was located in his hometown, many of the girls he dated were still in high school. Two years before he graduated, he met Margot Crenshaw, a 15-year-old girl and a debutante in Charleston society. They secretly dated for almost a year, before they eloped and got married a few days after Margot turned 16. Her parents hotly contested the marriage, but Senator Isley came to his son’s rescue, and the marriage was allowed to stand.

Margot was tall and beautiful with the classical bone structure of great beauties such as the actress, Lauren Bacall. She moved into Isley’s off-campus apartment, and tried to make for him, her idea of what a home should be.

They had been married for only a few months when Isley saw a young girl bending over picking flowers not far from their apartment. What caught his eye—always caught his eye—was the brief glimpse of her underwear when she bent over. He slowed his pace to keep the view as long as possible.

She straightened up and smiled at him. Hi, she said.

Hello. What’s your name?

Faye Bradley, we just moved to Charleston; don’t you just love it here?

You’re very pretty. Where do you live?

A few blocks that way, she said, gesturing over her shoulder. Do you know any kids who live around here who can show me where things are and stuff?

I grew up here; I can show you… lots of things.

"That would be so great!" she said with a huge grin that revealed braces on her teeth.

And thus began the secret relationship between Isley and Faye Bradley. At first, she told him she was 18, and she did act older than her apparent age, but after their first sexual encounter, she admitted she was 16—the same age as his wife.

Isley was in his version of heaven sleeping with two 16-year-old girls, at least until Faye told him she was pregnant, and then heaven came crashing down. Unlike his previous mistakes where his father could bail him out of the jam, this time he had a wife who might find out, and her family was powerful enough to cause all sorts of problems.

Isley was sure he loved Margot, but it was nothing like the ton-of-bricks that fell on him when he met Faye. When she came into his life, it was like his life made sense for the first time, and she didn’t seem to resent the fact that he was married. That would not be the case with Margot.

He went to his father for advice and tried to pretend he was asking for a friend, but of course his father knew the truth. You’ve got to dump her, son.

"But I love her, Father. I really do. When I’m around her, I feel like I can do... anything."

That doesn’t make any difference, Randolph. You dump that girl right now! There hasn’t been a divorce in our family for 200 years, and you’re not going to be the first. You do your duty and do it quickly. He gave his son $1,000. Give her this and tell her to get lost.

Isley didn’t think he could give up Faye, but the one person he couldn’t cross was his father. That evening, he sadly confessed, I can’t ever marry you, Faye, but maybe if you got rid the baby, we could still see each other. Here’s a thousand dollars and a name of someone who can take care of it.

"But, it’s our baby; don’t you love it already; I do."

"Faye, I’m married. I can’t have anything to do with the baby. If you get rid