Page 64 of The Midnight Lock (Lincoln Rhyme 14)

“No.”

“It’s when a newspaper or TV station buys the rights to a story with no intention of running it. Basically they lock up the story and the subject forever. You can’t sell it anywhere. That’s what we did with Charlotte.”

“To protect Doyle?”

Whittaker was somberly regarding the brass figurehead of a woman on his cane. “Exactly. He was our friend in Congress. He supported legislation to make it easier for media companies to capture and sell viewer data and harder for us to get sued.”

The memory came back to her. “Wasn’t there a death or something? Related to it?”

“A few months after the story would have run Doyle tried to rape another woman, an intern. She fought back. He killed her. Negligent homicide. If the story had run maybe that wouldn’t’ve happened.”

Silence in the room, so high in the stratosphere that you could hear not a single horn, not a single growl of a truck engine.

“Averell,” Kemp said softly.

But the man would not be deterred. “And then there’s the quality of our reporting. I put ‘quality’ in invisible quotation marks. ADaily Heraldreporter went down to Virginia on a story. It was about a teacher running a satanic cult in her high school history classroom. There were reports of sex and animal sacrifice. A man in North Carolina read the article, drove there and shot up the school. Killed the teacher and a girl in the class, wounded three.”

She shook her head.

“You know how the rumor started? She was teaching her students about the Salem witch trials. That was all. A simple history lesson, but the reporter—with his editor’s blessing—couldn’t resist the satanic hook. Turned out that the teacher was gay and a couple of students in her class came from families that didn’t approve.Theystarted the rumors and just plain lied. The reporter quoted the teacher’s denial, but that, obviously, had no effect on the shooter. I said the editor approved the story, but I gave him full rein.”

Grim-faced, he said, “It was incidents like those that finally madethe decision for me. A month ago I decided it was time to put the empire to sleep. Forgive the long answer to your question, Detective, but I’m not selling to anyone. There are no buyers—except for our production equipment, trucks, computers. I’m liquidating and sinking every penny into a foundation for ethical journalism.”

Sachs jotted notes. Then she looked up. “So unless we come up with another motive, we’ll have to go on the assumption that he’s motivated by revenge for something the paper’s done. The word ‘reckoning’doessuggest that.”

Lyle Spencer said, “I was thinking: If they were different pages with each invasion, it might be the newspaper or company in general he’s angry with. But since he’s leaving the same page, It’s probably something about one of the articles there.”

Sachs had been about to make the same observation. She pulled up the picture of page 3 on her phone again and locked it open.

SECRETREPORTUNCOVERED: AIDSCREATED INRUSSIANLABORATORY

U.S. SENATOR’SINTERNPREGNANT WITHLOVECHILD

BOMBSHELL: ACTRESS’SDIVORCEINVALID; ARRESTEXPECTED

WOMEN-HATINGGROUPEXPOSED

TECHCOMPANYHASPROOF OFILLEGALWIRETAPS BYFEDS TOHELPCAMPAIGN

Whittaker said, “Ever since Doug told me, I’ve been thinking about the stories. Well, can’t be the Russians. They’d probably happily take credit for weaponizing AIDS. The second headline is true,but it’s not thesenator’slove child. We make that clear in the story somewhere. The third one? The actress didn’t fill out a form right in her divorce affidavit, and she was investigated but never charged. And that’s hardly the sort of transgression that leads to psychotic stalkers. The last? Every media outlet fromCar and Driverto theWall Street Journal’s got proof of illegal wiretaps by the feds. That’s used chewing gum.”

“So, the fourth story.”

“I think it’s possible. It’s about the Apollos, a group of Neanderthals who’re anti-feminist. They feel women should stay in the home, et cetera. It’s acceptable to beat your wife if she quote ‘misbehaves.’ Which is anything that displeases the husband. A wife has to have sex on demand.”

“Why do you think this story motivated them?”

Whittaker grimaced. “Again, journalistic standards. Our reporter was … less than diligent. He made up some quotes. Painted themevenworse than they really are. There was a huge backlash and attacks on members of the group—I mean physical attacks. The Apollos named in the story were bullied and beaten up. One of the leaders was shot and paralyzed.”

“So the Locksmith could be an Apollo.”

“Or hired by them,” Spencer pointed out.

Whittaker shrugged, wincing once more. Was it the cancer? Maybe arthritis. Amelia Sachs knew the malady only too well.

Sachs said, “I want the names of everybody the reporter interviewed for the story. The reporter’s name and number too.”

“I’ll get that for you,” Whittaker said.

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