“Do you really think the truth coming out will do more harm than good?”
“Yeah, I do. But let’s take a step back. We don’t know if what your story says is true.”
She bristled a bit. “How do you know? You haven’t read my story.”
“You didn’t let me,” he shot back. Then his tone softened. “Look, Katie, I’m sorry about what happened with Lesnik. I have no idea if he’s involved with the bad guys or not.”
“Someone gunning him down on the street probably shows he wasn’t involved with them. He knew the truth and so they tracked him down and killed him.”
“That theory has a few holes in it. How did they track him down? Why kill him? Because he might talk about the Russians? But it looked like they wanted him to.”
“We seem to be having the same discussion as last time.”
“Yeah, we do.” He sat back and looked everywhere except at her.
“Why did you come bursting into that hostel?”
“Let’s just say I was having a bad day.”
She gazed at him curiously.
He caught her look. “I went to see Anna’s body at the morgue.”
“Why would you do that?” she said incredulously.
“I don’t know. I felt like I had to. Then I went to her apartment and it didn’t get any better there.”
“All the memories.”
“And running into her parents, and having her father attack me.”
“Good God!”
“But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst part was him blaming me for what happened to Anna.”
Katie sat back, looking stunned. “Why would he do that?”
“If you see it from his perspective, it sort of makes sense. He finds out I run around the world and duke it out with men who have guns. And on top of that he’s told I’m basically a criminal. Then Anna gets shot. My fault.”
Another few seconds of silence passed. “Look, I’m going to hold off on the story. For now. Until I know more.”
“I think that’s a very wise move, Katie.” He paused. “And I appreciate it.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“My plan hasn’t changed. I’m going to find Anna’s killer.”
CHAPTER 64
NICOLAS CREEL WAS GROWING IMPATIENT. He would have thought that the Scribe would have published the story by now. Lesnik was dead; he had told James all. She had the story of the century. The very thing she needed to take her back to the top. So what was the problem?
He had his people place certain tactful phone calls to various sources, including the Scribe. Creel was actually a passive investor in the newspaper and he’d been the one who’d discreetly behind the scenes orchestrated the assignment for her. There seemed to be some tension there, he had learned. She had submitted the story. But they were holding on to it for some reason. Well, he would put a stop to that.
He phoned Pender and explained the situation to his “truth manager,” as Creel liked to refer to him.
“I don’t want to be seen trying to influence the paper, so shake this story loose from them, Dick, any way you can.”
“Never fear, Mr. Creel. I have the perfect way to get it done.”