Page 31 of In This Moment

Encouraging him, she nodded, focusing on him, their food forgotten.

“Over time, I had built quite the reputation as taking no punches. Politicians, their staff? They’d take my calls and talk, all the way down to city council. Had quite a few informants and back door entrances to get a scoop.” His gut clenched even now, thinking how far he’d fallen.

“There was a small county upstate, and a mayor some say the attorney general was grooming to replace him upon retirement. Elected position, but it may run uncontested or a plug would get the job done. There was also a secretary of state and a few commissioner bids up for reelection soon, and many lower positions. High political climate. All over the news. Speculation. Accusations on all sides. I’d been covering it periodically over the span of six months.”

He rubbed his jaw, thinking how to explain. “Something wasn’t right with the upstate situation, though. I could feel it in my gut. Because of other crap going on, that story was moot as far as everyone was concerned. I mentioned it to my editor, and she gave me the clearance to go.”

Exhaling, he leaned back in his seat. “The mayor came from a rags to riches family. Hush-hush on how they accumulated millions. Seedy business transactions. No trail on why the attorney general might be interested in this guy.” He shrugged. “I wormed my way into the mayor’s office, doing a series of interviews over the following weeks. He thought the attention would help his career down the road, so he complied. Meanwhile, my informant in his office was feeding me intel to blow the whole thing wide open. I slowly trickle these into my column three days a week. Drunk driving charge at age twenty-one that paralyzed his passenger? Swept under the rug.”

“If it bleeds, it leads.”

“Yep. Started with that story for that very reason to begin opening his web of lies.” He stared at his half-eaten food, hating himself. “Everything the informant told me panned out. An extramarital affair where he forced an abortion on his mistress. Racism slurs. Five articles total. Meanwhile, the community was in an uproar and my stories were getting national attention.”

A humming noise, and she offered a sympathetic pout. “This day and age, the public almost doesn’t care anymore with the way sides are divided.”

True story. “Either way, this guy was shady as shit.” He shook his head. “My man on the inside had proven to be a confidential reliable source. Even though I looked into everything he fed me, he’d been right.”

Graham paused as his stomach rolled. “I was such an idiot. Things had gone cold for a few days. One night, I’m packing my suitcase in the hotel, ready to head home, thinking I’m done, when the informant called. He told me our guy had made his millions in a drug ring with legit businesses as a front. I’d dug into his financials prior, and they were off, but could never put my finger on why. I took the deets to my editor, who told me to go with it.”

“Oh, no,” she breathed, eyes wide. “The source had bad info?”

“The source had his own agenda, using me as a pawn. I wrote the story.”

Hand trembling, she covered her mouth. “Oh, wow.”

He slammed the rest of his margarita, wishing it was bourbon. “He gained my trust. I wrote. All facts. Until they weren’t.” Graham rubbed his eyes, nauseous. “They were in on it the entire time. All of them. Informant, mayor, and I suspect, the attorney general.”

Her jaw dropped. “They figured some of his past would come out if he obtained higher political office.” She slowly shook her head in awe. “Why not use you to do it, then discredit one story, rendering all your articles suspicious.”

“Yep.” And Graham fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

“That’s horrible, but you didn’t know. You had a source telling you otherwise.”

“Didn’t matter. Extremely high-profile case, because I made it so, and then I reported bad intel. They filed a slander suit against my newspaper. I was fired in dramatic fashion. And my informant? He announced his run for city council two weeks later.”

Her hand slapped the table. “Holy crap.”

“Yeah. The paper redacted all the articles and issued a public apology. The lawsuit was settled in under a week with a payout. My reputation was ruined.” He rolled his head to stretch his neck. “I laid low for six months.” He’d had to use all his money in savings and part of his 401K to stay afloat. “Figured I’d apply elsewhere when things died down.” But they didn’t die. Every place he’d applied had said he was a liability.

Abject sympathy he didn’t deserve stared back at him. “I’m so sorry.”

“My fault.” That was life. His life.

Her expression said she disagreed. “Journalism has been listed as one of the worst careers in America for three years in a row because of environment, low salary, stress, and long hours. You went to your editor with the story. You wrote the facts as you knew them. You had a source for information. You did your job.”

Yet, here he was, in Small Town, Nowhere, America, editing a newspaper where his sole reporter had better concepts and execution in her pinkie than he did in his whole body.

Regardless, he appreciated her reaction. To be honest, he was more than a little concerned she’d hate him. “Thanks.”

She took a sip of her daquiri. “Your editor should’ve had your back instead of throwing you under the bus.”

Maybe, but with a lawsuit and all the negative media, he couldn’t blame her. “She did what she had to.”

Staring awfully hard into her drink, she tilted her head. “You applied for the Gazette position, then? After waiting for things to blow over?”

“Eh, for the most part.” Nowhere else would hire him. “Forest had just gotten his divorce and came up for a long weekend to visit. I told him what happened, and he mentioned your mayor was looking into filling an editor position. I had Gunner call me, and we did some interviews via video chat. He knew about the scandal, but didn’t seem to care. He just wanted to get the Gazette overhauled.”

“I’m glad he knows, just so it doesn’t come back to bite you.”

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