Extreme Exposure

  “A man? It’s not that gay guy you were pretending to date for a while, is it?”

  “No, Mom.” Between her mother and Holly, Kara would never be allowed to live that down.

  “Well, who is it? Do I know him?”

  “You might have seen him in the paper. It’s Senator Reece Sheridan.”

  “Oh! Oh, God! I’ll cancel everything.”

  KARA HIT stop on the remote and flicked on the conference room lights. “That’s it.”

  Syd spoke first. “Jesus Christ.”

  “How did the source manage to get this footage?” Joaquin’s face showed the same astonishment and disgust Kara had felt Sunday afternoon when she’d finally taken time to watch the tapes.

  “The source carved a hole in the bottom of a plastic thermos, tucked a video camera inside, and aimed the lens out the hole.”

  Joaquin shook his head. “Man, that took cajones.”

  Tessa flashed her trademark smile, though she looked tired. And no wonder. She’d been up all night covering a S. W.A. T. raid. “At least now we know where the dust is coming from.”

  Kara nodded. “Everywhere.”

  The videos, taped over a period of days, seemed to show the entire plant, inside and out. No matter where the whistleblower had pointed his lens, there was dust. Piles of choking, caustic CKD that blocked catwalks; clung to railings and ceiling girders; and gathered beneath stairs, on top of machinery, in doorways. In some places it looked to be almost four feet deep. As the video showed, all it took was a gust of wind to pick the stuff up and carry it out the door and off-site to places where people were farming, raising children, breathing.

  And then there was oil. Oil leaking from machinery into pools on the floor. Oil sitting in abandoned drums in corners. Oil drums rusting in the irrigation ditch, floating in a dark, iridescent scum.

  “Is there any chance the whistleblower could be arrested for filming this?”

  “Possibly, if they want to claim he was giving away trade secrets. But I doubt Northrup will take it that far. It would only give the company more negative publicity. For now the source is resettled out of state, hopefully far from any harm caused by the health department leak.”

  “What else have you got?” Tom thumped his pencil impatiently on a copy of today’s newspaper. Leave it to him to find discussing a human being’s safety tedious.

  “I’ve started sorting through the documents I picked up on Friday. IT has put together a spreadsheet that will enable me to sort them by date, type of document, author, recipient, and certain keywords. I can log in from home, so I’ll be able to work on it in the evenings and on weekends. Even so, the trick is going to be cataloging them all quickly enough to keep the story moving forward. Seven thousand pages is a lot of reading.”

  Tom frowned. “You need an intern.”

  “I don’t trust interns. I need someone I can rely on.”

  Tessa raised her hand. “I’ll help.”

  “I really appreciate the offer, but your plate is already full enough, Tess.”

  “It’s nothing a gallon of coffee won’t cure.”

  “Count me in,” said Matt.

  Sophie smiled. “Me, too. Show us what you want, and we’ll be all over it.”

  “McMillan, it looks like you’ve got yourself a crew. How about your state source?”

  “I called several times this weekend, left several messages. I think someone has cold feet. Still I’m grateful for the warning. Without this person’s help, Northrup would have gotten away with handpicking which documents we received, and the whistleblower might be exposed to danger.”

  Tom’s pencil tapped. “Anything else?”

  Kara took a deep breath and looked Tom straight in the eye. He was going to love this. “Yeah. I don’t want to make more of this than it is, but someone keeps threatening to kill me, and I’m pretty certain it’s someone associated with Northrup.”

  Kara recounted the history of the phone calls she’d received and how they’d started after she’d filed her open-records request with the state, which, she now knew, had contacted Northrup right away. Leaving out any mention of Reece, she also told them about how the calls had escalated until she’d called the police and how she hadn’t been able to give them any useful information.

  Tom interrupted her. “You were right to keep it to yourself. If the cops starting making phone calls to Northrup, it opens the door for Northrup’s CEOs to find out exactly what you know and where this investigation is leading. And it will generate police reports, and the two big papers get a hold of it and will unleash their armies. You’ll be in a race to break your own story.”

  “Then again, you can’t break a story if you’re dead.” Tessa glared at Tom.

  Kara could have hugged her.

  Tom’s retort was razor sharp. “Novak, you know these threats never amount to anything. McMillan has just allowed this guy to get under her skin. The last journalist killed in Colorado was exposing lunatic white supremacists, not greedy businessmen. No one with half a brain would attack a journalist. McMillan knows that.” Then his gaze shifted to her. “But if it makes you feel safer, McMillan, talk to security.”

  Kara had known he would make her feel like a fool. “No. That won’t be necessary.”

  CHAPTER 13

  * * *

  KARA HURRIED to her desk, juggling a dozen file folders, a turkey sandwich, her cell phone, and a fresh cup of tea. It was two in the afternoon already. In four hours, Reece was coming to take her to his cabin for three days. And right now all she could think about was lunch. “So a bag house filters the air to keep dust from being released into the environment?”

  Mr. Marsh’s voice crackled with static, but she could still make out his answer. “That’s right. So if it’s not working, the dust escapes.”

  “It looks like it hasn’t been working for quite a while.”

  “That’s right. It wasn’t running right the whole time I was there—more than two years.”

  “I really appreciate your answering all my questions. You’ve been a big help. Are you and your family feeling safe and settled?”

  “Yeah. My wife is happy to be back in her hometown, but I don’t like it when I’m between jobs like this. Makes a man feel useless when he can’t provide for his family.”

  She could hear the frustration in his voice and searched for the right words. “If it helps, what you’ve done here will probably save lives. If that’s not the work of a real man, I don’t know what is. You’re a hero, Mr. Marsh.”

  For a moment he was silent. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Talk to you again soon.” She ended the call, dropped the folders onto her desk and, unfortunately, her cup of tea with them. “Shit!”

  “Potty mouth.” Holly came up behind her, wearing a dress of bloody Valentine’s red. “Oh, you have made a mess, haven’t you?”

  Kara pushed past her, hurried to the paper towel dispenser above the drinking fountain, and thrust several paper towels into Holly’s hands. “You going to help or just stand there?”

  A few dozen paper towels and five minutes later, the mess was cleaned up.

  Kara opened the tea-stained folder that had taken the worst hit and held up dry pages. “At least it didn’t ruin the documents.” She looked up to find Holly staring at her, a piece of paper in her hand. “What?”

  “A Depo Provera shot?” Then Holly’s lips curved in a knowing smile. “Who is he?”

  Kara grabbed the receipt from the women’s clinic out of Holly’s hand, crumpled it, and tossed it in the trash. She’d stopped by the clinic over her lunch break on Tuesday, determined not to make the same mistake twice. Apparently, she’d left the receipt on her desk. “None of your business.”

  Holly put her hands on her hips. “Oh, come on! I tell you everything!”

  Kara sat and tore the plastic wrap off her sandwich, so hungry she felt shaky. “Yes, you do, and I wish you didn’t. Don’t expect me to do the same.”

  Holly l
ooked stricken. “Well, if you don’t want to know about my life, just say so.”

  Kara hadn’t meant to hurt her. “I’m sorry, Holly. Really. You know I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just more private than you are. Can you keep a secret?”

  Holly glared at her. “Of course.”

  “Let me at least get a few bites of this sandwich in my stomach, and I’ll tell you.”

  REECE CLOSED his office door and locked it. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

  Carol plopped several file folders on his desk, sat, and took a deep breath. “It’s a damned mess, Senator. As far as I can tell, we’ve got a handful of senators who are deliberately overcharging the taxpayers.”

  “How so?” Reece rounded his desk, sat down, and grabbed his notepad and a pen.

  “Well, you all get paid your salary, and you all receive a per diem for every day the Senate is in session, which is January through May, and for each day business calls you in to the Capitol outside of session.”

  “Right. The per diem is supposed to help compensate for travel and other expenses.”

  Carol fixed him with a serious look above her wire-rim bifocals. “But a handful of senators, including our Senate president, seem to be charging a per diem as if it were part of a full-time salary.”

  “How can they get away with that?”

  “Basically, they just claim to have been here and they get paid for it. The forms aren’t part of any permanent record, so there’s no paper trail to prove who has claimed what or whether they were truly here on business or not.”

  “And someone like Devlin, who lives in Aurora, can simply turn the Capitol into an extension of his living room and make lots of extra money at the taxpayers’ expense without anyone being able to prove anything.”

  Carol nodded. “That’s it exactly.”

  He glanced at his watch and leaned back in his seat. His education bill was scheduled for first reading on the Senate floor in forty minutes. “Well, hell, Carol. If we can’t prove anything, I guess that leaves us with fixing the system to prevent this from continuing. If I’m not mistaken, that will require a change in state law. Someone will have to introduce a bill.”

  The older woman smiled, a devilish gleam in her eyes. “Devlin will crucify you, sir.”

  Reece grinned. “He’ll try.”

  KARA RUBBED the kink in her neck, her eyes on the page. When her phone rang, she picked it up without thinking. “Kara McMillan.”

  “You think changing your number makes any difference to us, little girl?”

  She clicked record, but she was at work now, not at home. It wasn’t fear she felt, but anger. “You know, on top of being an annoying asshole, you’re a sexist pig, aren’t you? Do your bosses at Northrup know you treat women like this?”

  For a moment she thought he’d hung up, but then she heard his breathing. So her rage had taken him by surprise.

  “You’ve been warned, bitch.”

  “Oh, that’s original.”

  He hung up.

  “Dammit!” She slammed down the phone and stood.

  “Him again?” Matt looked up from his computer screen. “Sounds like a sicko.”

  “Yeah.” She glanced at the clock. She had thirty minutes until she needed to pick up Connor. She grabbed her water bottle and headed for the water cooler.

  She’d gotten through almost eight hundred pages since Monday—a drop in the bucket. Tessa and Sophie had been taking a few files each at night and working from home. Matt had slipped in a few hours of data entry yesterday. Between the four of them, they’d made it through about one third of the total.

  It had been slow going at first, while she worked her way through the jargon and the abbreviations. She wasn’t a mining or cement-manufacturing expert, and she had no idea what a “bag house” or a “nine belt” was. With the whistleblower’s help, she’d be able to move through the material more quickly now. She’d been relieved to hear he and his family were safe and sound. That was one less thing for her to worry about.

  She reached the water cooler, bent down to fill her bottle, and found herself looking down at three pairs of women’s shoes in addition to her own. She looked up and found herself surrounded by Tessa, Sophie, and Holly, who all smiled at her with that unmistakable look of women who know a secret. “Holly!”

  “I didn’t tell them anything!”

  Kara stood upright and glared at her friend.

  Sophie slipped an arm around Kara’s shoulders. “Don’t blame her, Kara. We’re investigative reporters. We’ve known something’s going on for a while.”

  “Oh, bless her heart!” Tessa’s voice dripped with sweetened southern sarcasm. “She wants to claw our eyes out!”

  Realizing she wouldn’t make it back to her desk alive, Kara gave in, feeling very much like she was in high school again. “I’m spending the weekend with Reece Sheridan at his cabin above Estes Park.”

  “Senator Reece Sheridan?” Sophie gaped at her.

  Tessa looked amazed. “Oh my God! I had to interview him once. He was such a sweetheart—and sexy as original sin.”

  Sophie leaned closer. “How long have you been seeing—?”

  “What’s going on?” Matt walked up behind them.

  Tessa glared at him. “You thirsty, Matt? No? Then scoot. We’re women. We gossip.”

  Kara saw her chance and took it. “That’s all for now. I have work to do.”

  Three disappointed groans turned to excited whispers as Kara pushed her way through them and made her way back to her desk. But her pulse was beating a bit faster.

  Sexy as original sin.

  And Kara would be spending the next three days with him.

  REECE LIFTED his duffle bag into the back of the Jeep, running through a mental list of preparations. He’d driven up with groceries, flowers, and an extra load of firewood yesterday after getting out of session. Then he’d spent a few hours tidying the place up. He’d remembered everything.

  Except condoms.

  “Damn!” He unlocked the door, climbed into the driver’s seat, and glanced at his watch.

  If he hurried and mid-town traffic wasn’t too bad, he’d be able to swing by the drugstore and be only a few minutes late. Either way, he had no choice. He needed to buy condoms—the biggest box of condoms he could find.

  KARA THREW an assortment of long johns, turtlenecks, and sweaters in her bag, not sure what she should take. How cold was it up there? Would he expect to go hiking around or cross-country skiing? What should she bring to sleep in—her old flannel granny gown or something sexy?

  Unable to decide, she threw them both in, together with five pairs of her warmest socks, a pair of slippers, two pairs of mittens, her laptop, and the files she’d brought home from the office.

  “Mommy, when is Lily coming?”

  Kara looked at her alarm clock. Her mother was running late. “She ought to have been here by now. Are you all packed and ready to go?”

  Connor nodded and pointed to his little suitcase, which sat by the door, his favorite teddy bear on top.

  “Why don’t you watch a little Sponge Bob until she gets here?”

  Kara settled him in front of the TV, finished packing, and then slipped into the bathroom to have one last glance in the mirror. She’d gotten home a bit early, jumped in the shower, shaved her legs, and gone over her skin with the lavender sugar scrub Reece seemed to like so much until her skin was bright pink and silky smooth. Then she’d blown her hair dry, put on her makeup from scratch, and dressed in jeans and a burgundy-colored turtleneck. For a treat, she’d worn a lacy black thong and matching bra—something she hadn’t done in ages.

  It had been so long. So long.

  Was that fear she saw in her own eyes? She supposed it was. Could she really blame herself for feeling nervous, even afraid?

  She knew Reece well enough to know he would go out of his way to make this weekend enjoyable for her. What she didn’t know was what that would do to her. She couldn’t afford to lo
se herself over a man again, couldn’t afford to lose her balance. Not this time.

  She had just zipped her bag and was carrying it down the hallway when the front door opened and her mother’s voice rang through the house.

  “Where’s Connor?”

  “Lily!” Sponge Bob forgotten, Connor ran to his grandmother.

  Kara watched them hug. Despite her eccentricities, Lily McMillan loved her grandson.

  “Look how much you’ve grown! My goodness, you’re growing before my eyes!”

  “We went to see the dinosaurs at the museum, and I saw the T-rex!”

  “You’ll have to tell me all about that.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I really appreciate it.”

  “I’m happy to help out.” Her mother leaned in closer, whispered. “Especially if it means you’re going to get laid. Where is this man? I want to meet him.”

  Kara felt a rush of horror. “Oh, no! God, no! No. I’m not ready for that yet. Connor, do you have everything? Let’s get your coat.”

  Her mother raised a finely penciled eyebrow. “So you’re going to hustle me out the door?”

  Kara met her gaze, feeling both guilty and determined. “Yes, I am. I don’t want you to read his aura or align his second chakra or probe his past lives. I don’t know what he’d think about that, and I don’t want to find out.”

  When the doorbell rang, Kara almost moaned out loud.

  Her mother shot her a look of triumph and marched straight toward the door.

  Kara beat her to it. “I’ll get it.”

  She opened the door, and the butterflies in her stomach collided. He wore Levis and a black cable-knit sweater that contrasted sharply with his blond hair. The faintest whiff of aftershave preceded him through the doorway.

  “Kara.” He ducked down and brushed his lips over hers.

  The kiss made her lips tingle, but with her mother watching, Kara couldn’t help but feel self-conscious. “Reece.”

  “Reece!” Connor dashed across the room, his face bright like sunshine.