He stood up and smiled smarmily. He spoke like an English gent too. “Eleanor, yes. Glad to make your acquaintance. Forgive my furtiveness; Gerald doesn’t usually pass my details onto new reporters.”
He glanced over her shoulder at where Adam, Dylan, and Joseph were now forming a wall of muscle behind her.
Eleanor gestured to Joseph. “I’ve managed to bag myself a celebrity, so Stinger’s been impressed with my work so far. Stinger mentioned that you work with several journalists within News Scape – is that correct?”
Max lowered his voice. “One must be discreet about such connections.”
“Oh… but you do have a long list of infiltrators who you can buy information from, right? People in the IRS, corrupt government officials… even some local cops, I hear?”
Max glanced to the side shiftily. “We’re not usually quite so candid about it, Ms Davison. You might want to keep your voice down. You never know who might betray you.”
She smiled sweetly. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m very new to this. Why don’t we sit down and talk discreetly?”
He smiled paternally. “Yes, okay.”
Eleanor sat with him on the leather couch. The men remained standing, looking fiercely intimidating in their suits. Eleanor’s gaze brushed over the black leather briefcase handcuffed to Adam’s wrist. Max glanced at the men and shifted uncomfortably.
Eleanor summoned up her sweetest demeanour. “The thing is, I’ve uncovered a great story – it could actually be the scoop of the century. But I need you to confirm if it’s true.”
“Right, okay. Well
, why don’t you tell me more, and I’ll see what I can do?”
“Alright.” Eleanor inhaled and looked directly into Max’s eyes. “So, there’s this guy called Blair Robertson who owns a newspaper and employs an editor called Gerald Stinger. Together, they framed a reporter – Bob Crowe – I think you know him? He was using illegal means of acquiring information and he went to prison. Anyway, Bob knows that every other reporter in the company is also bribing, blackmailing, and coercing to get information for their stories. So where do you come in? Well, it’s been suggested that the person who’s been feeding them this information has shady contacts with phone companies, corrupt government officials, and even a few bent cops. I was wondering whether you might like to help me to find out more about this? Huh? What do you say? Max?”
Max was staring at Eleanor with his mouth open. He’d gone very pale.
“What’s the matter, Max?” Joseph said stepping forward. “No comment?”
Eleanor hardened up, allowing her true feelings to gush out. “Look, you know you’ve broken all sorts of laws. You’ve even been hacking Joseph’s phone – or someone you paid has. We’ve told the police, and they’re very interested – and they’re not the sort of cops you can bribe. So I have a deal for you: if you give us the list of all the other reporters who you’ve helped – as well as all the corrupt infiltrators – then maybe the police will overlook some of the charges against you. If you testify against your little cronies, it’ll potentially shave years off your own incarceration.”
Max was much tougher than he looked. He glared into her eyes. “You’re stupid and naïve to think that I would ever help you with this. We own the police. You’re getting yourself into very deep water here.”
“You don’t own all the police,” Dylan said. “A friend of mine is high up in the NYPD. He’s incorruptible. He’s interested in truth, justice, and a nice big promotion.”
Max shook his head assertively. “Do your worst. I’m not ratting on my contacts.”
“I’m sure they’d happily rat on you,” Dylan said.
Max bit his lip and glanced away.
“While you’re thinking about that…” Adam said. He stepped forward and removed the handcuff from his wrist, then he placed the briefcase on the couch between Max and Eleanor, opening it with a flourish.
Max gasped. The case was full of bundles of freshly-minted bills. Adam grinned, clearly enjoying the negotiations – tycoon businessman that he was. “Face it, Max,” he said. “You’re going to jail. But if you give us the names of all the reporters who’ve used your services – with evidence against them – then we’ll give you this nice little nest egg for when you come out. What do you say?”
Max’s mouth gawped like a hooked fish thrashing around on the riverbank.
Joseph threw his hand to his hip, making him look powerful. “And we’ll need some dirt on Blair Robertson himself. He’s going to try to squirm out of this by threatening to blackmail us – he’s knows something about my brother that I need kept quiet. So we want something to keep his mouth shut. Okay?”
Max’s shoulders crumpled in defeat and he rubbed his eyes.
“So what do you say to our little deal, Max?” Eleanor asked. “Yes or yes?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next evening – after the private investigator had finished his second secret liaison with Ellie and given her all the info she needed – Joseph leaned against the sink in the disused kitchen at The Big Society offices and gazed up at the high ceiling. He felt so light and free. He was using this downtime to compose some lyrics about how totally fuckable Eleanor was. But he couldn’t lie to himself – his love for her resonated deeply within his bones. He’d been admiring her from afar for months, but now that he’d discovered the person she really was, he was falling hard. He’d always been inspired by her as his muse – their flirty banter had made him incredibly productive over the last six months. But now that he was getting to know her properly, there were dirty, sexy love songs to write in her honour. He grinned as he imagined throwing her over his shoulder and bringing her back here for a quick fuck right now. But she had work to do…
This place reminded Joseph of an old industrial factory. The pipework was exposed and there were metal shafts running along the lofty ceiling and down the walls to the grubby floor. The neon lights were stark above, and everything shone with silver and grey – other than the old cracked red floor-tiles, which had definitely seen better days.