It was possible Jack was more nervous than Derelie was. Her first senior editorial meeting. Her first time sitting in the seat Potter normally occupied. They’d celebrated her promotion with a late meal, a long session of lovemaking that didn’t leave much time for talking through the issues.
And the current issue was how unprepared she was for this. The daily editorial meeting was a shark tank. Madden was the whale shark and everyone else was the fish food he fed on, with two exceptions: himself and Spinoza. It wasn’t a gender thing; it was the economics. Sports sold papers. So did Jack’s stories. Until they moved to subscriptions on the website, that part of the business wasn’t an authority at the table. Yet. The day was coming, but until it arrived, Derelie was plankton.
Today, Spin had another player scandal. There was a heavy dose of city politics, a story on low-cost housing, another on extreme weather events, and one on a major archeological find that came about because a professor got out of his car to take a piss. There was also a feature on driverless cars and what happens if you got hit by one.
Health had the most amusing story for the day about a man who’d farted during an operation and got badly burned when his gas ignited a laser being used in the surgery. The truth was stranger than fiction and they’d had a good laugh, but Derelie flinched when Madden called her name.
“We have a work-life balance story about bringing your pet to work and there’s a start-up that gives staff stay in bed days, headline is ‘In Bed with The Boss’—we’ve got a video interview for that one.”
“And the lovey dovey experiment?” Madden asked.
“I still have to do my part,” Jack said before Derelie could try to take the rap for him.
Madden looked at Derelie. “Stand over him till he does it.” He looked at Jack. “Your Keepsafe story doesn’t run until after the love story, and what’s going on with Keepsafe?”
Not good things. “Someone is getting to the victims. Paying them off. Getting them to withdraw their cooperation.” The story had started to blow up over the weekend. While Jack was goofing off with Derelie, ten of the victims, including the Shenkers, were visited by a lawyer from Keepsafe who explained there’d been a mistake and offered them generous compensation. They signed non-disclosure agreements. They’d been paid to shut up.
“Is it over?” said Madden.
Jack had no idea what was behind the story softening. He was scrambling to find out if someone at Keepsafe knew about his investigation and was moving to shut the story down.
“No.” They had enough still to make a case, unless victims continued to drop out.
“Move up on it like it was hot for you, Jack,” said Madden, and closed the meeting.
Jack was almost out of the room when Derelie said, “Please don’t do that.”
“Do what?” He’d been careful not to show anything of their out of office relationship, remembering to call her Honeywell. He needed to get back to his desk; instead he was replaying the first time they’d stood in this room, an odd couple thrown together to satisfy Madden’s desire to keep Jack in his place. He’d never have guessed what they’d become to each other, thirty-six questions later.
“Speak for me,” she said.
“I didn’t.”
“You did. I get that I’m the most junior person here. I get that I don’t rank and I have to earn my place, but you speaking up for me doesn’t help.”
He didn’t have time to debate this. “Fine.” If he’d had his eye on the ball over the weekend instead of experimenting with love, maybe his own story wouldn’t be sliding sideways.
“Don’t get mad at me.”
He was angry with himself. If the walls weren’t glass, he’d kiss Derelie’s downturned lips into a happier shape. It wasn’t her fault he was tense. “I’m sorry. I was worried for you. I can’t help it. I’ll do better.”
“You mean that?”
“I want to take every punch for you, especially against Madden, but that’s not what you need from me. You have to make your own mistakes.”
“Wow.” He realized how anxious she’d been when her body softened. “I’m really falling for you, Jackson Haley.”
A quick glance to check the corridor outside was clear and he put his hand to her face. He needed to touch her like he needed the cigarettes he was addicted to. “I’m already on my knees, Derelie Honeywell.”
The smile she gave him was worth the risk of exposure.
Next stop, Henri Costa. They met halfway across town, in a dingy bar in a rough neighborhood. It was difficult to know what rattled Henri more, the surroundings he’d chosen, Jack’s impatience, or the fact the story was unraveling. While Jack was in the editorial meeting, fifteen more victims had made contact to say they’d had their cases overturned and received a payout worth more than they were due.
“I don’t know why this is happening. The guy driving this is Kaspersky, he’s a big wheel on the Keepsafe legal team,” Henri said. He didn’t make eye contact, as if he thought not looking at Jack might protect him. “I can’t imagine him making house calls.” But Kaspersky had personally visited eight of the people who’d been denied their coverage. “I’ve asked around, but I’m an accounting manager, there’s only so much I can nose about in claims and legal, before people wonder what the hell I’m doing. I’ve already had pushback. They’ll destroy me if they find out I’ve been leaking information to you.”
“They can destroy you anyway, Henri, and all of this will have been for nothing if it turns out this isn’t fraud, but some system error.”
“But you have evidence of payments to the doctors, Whelan and Noakes. Isn’t that paper trail enough?”