made, in fact, I was on the phone, trying to figure out where that money belonged, because I knew it wasn’t mine. I took detailed notes during the conversation.”
He pulled out his notebook. “Okay, let’s have the names.”
“Mr. Temple. He’s a vice president. He’s the one I spoke with most recently. The others are written down at work. I’ll e-mail them to you.”
“Okay. We’ll do this the slow and painful way. Sure you don’t want to just tell me the truth now?”
“I can’t confess to something I didn’t do. Don’t you see? Someone is trying to ruin my reputation. And they’re using you to do the job.”
That statement made him pause. What if she was right? What if someone had made Raleigh Shinn the target of a smear campaign based on lies, making Griffin a patsy? If he went public with something he hadn’t independently verified—and thank God he wasn’t that stupid—he would be in the unemployment line and possibly the defendant in a libel lawsuit.
Part of him wanted to turn loose of Raleigh. She seemed genuine. But if he let go of this story now, after he’d promised it to CNI, he wouldn’t have a shot at the anchor job.
Unless…unless he figured a way to turn the story to his benefit.
Maybe, if Raleigh thought he was on her side, she would let down her guard. “I’ll talk to the bank employees,” he said, trying to inject some sympathy into his voice. “If someone is trying to ruin you, we have to stop them.”
“We?” She looked at him as if he was crazy. “There’s no ‘we’ here. I believe our business has concluded for now.”
“Raleigh, maybe you don’t realize the seriousness of what’s going on here. You could be in danger.”
“Please.”
Griffin sat up straighter. If she was telling the truth, this could be an even better story than he first thought. Someone was going to a great deal of trouble to ruin Raleigh Shinn and, by inference, the whole of Project Justice. Why?
He took out his notebook. “Who are your enemies? Whose bad side have you gotten on lately? Who might want to hurt you?”
“Oh, no. You’re not turning this into another story.”
“We could help each other,” he pointed out. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I can figure out who’s doing this and stop them before he or she does permanent harm to your career.”
“I don’t partner with journalists.”
“You don’t understand. I’m being considered for a national TV job. A hot story like this would help me land it. And I could give Project Justice some positive press.”
“Talk to our public relations coordinator, then.”
But he could see the indecision playing on her face. She knew he could slice and dice her in the press, or make her look like Joan of Arc.
“If you’re really innocent of any wrongdoing, your cooperation could—”
“No,” she said suddenly. “I want you to leave. We’re done.”
That’s where Raleigh was wrong. She didn’t know it yet, but things between them were just getting started.
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