Deadline by James Anderson Page B

Northwestern University in Chicago. Like many reporters,
she started her career in campus journalism and worked on a couple
of small dailies in Illinois before joining the Daily
Express.
    She had been hired as part of the
paper’s campaign to hire more racially mixed reporters to reflect
the city’s growing ethnic diversity. But Pierce was much more than
a beauty queen and affirmative action hire.
    Pierce was a talented reporter and
writer, a bit green around the edges, but one who showed great
potential for development into a first-class journalist.
    Young had been very impressed at her
clippings file and her job interview. He had no qualms about
offering her a position as a junior reporter.
    “ Quite the story you have
here, Miss Pierce. It will blow City Hall wide open. You’re
accusing Mayor Dandridge of taking $500,000 in kickbacks and
Councillors West and Daniels of receiving $150,000 each from Tridon
Developments to support the $34-million harbor front condo
project.”
    “ Yes, sir,” replied Pierce
in a soft voice, almost a whisper. “The project was only narrowly
approved by city council – by three votes – in the face of a strong
opposition lobby by an environmental group. The developer bought
off these three council members and their votes were crucial to
city approval of the project.”
    “ I need to know your
sources and how reliable they are. Do we have the adequate
documentation to back up these charges? We’re about to accuse the
Mayor of this great city and two of his colleagues of being crooks.
It would be nice if we were right!”
    “ Yes, sir. I have copies
of the deposits to offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. I have
two sources – one is an accountant for Tridon who is appalled at
the illegalities. My second source is a former executive employee
fired by Robert Peterson, the president and CEO of
Tridon.”
    “ Sounds good.” Young
nodded his approval.
    “ I’ve been very thorough
in this story, sir. We have them dead to rights. This deal stinks
so high the stench is overpowering. The story is especially timely
given Mayor Dandridge’s campaign pledge of honesty and integrity in
politics.”
    “ Good, very good,
Donna-Marie.” Young smiled. “This is a fine piece of investigative
journalism. We’re flying it by Legal to cover the paper’s ass, but
if the legal beagles give it the green light, you have a
career-making story here, young lady. We’ll run it in tomorrow’s
paper. You have a great future in journalism. Now, get out of her
and get back to work. Brace yourself for when the shit starts to
fly and I want you on the follow-up stories. Hopefully we’ll end
the political careers of these three sleazebags and send them to
jail. Good job.”
    “ Thank you, sir. This is
why I became a reporter in the first place. I want to thank you for
the opportunities you’ve given me.” Pierce left the room with a big
smile of satisfaction on her face.
    Young returned to the work at his
desk, but within a few minutes he was interrupted by a knock on his
door.
    His secretary Denise Taylor stood in
the doorway. “Excuse me, Mr. Young, but there is a young lady out
here who says she is your daughter.”
    “ Megan? Send in her right
away Mrs. Taylor.”
    Young came out from behind his desk
and hugged Megan when she entered the room. “Sweetie, what brings
you down here? Is anything wrong?”
    “ On the contrary,
everything is just fine, Daddy. Sorry to disturb you at the office,
but since I was downtown I thought I’d drop in to give you the
wonderful news.”
    “ What news,
princess?”
    “ I had lunch with Dennis.
Things went swimmingly. He flew all the way up here to apologize.
He wants me back. I still love him, Daddy. Perhaps he deserves
another chance. He wants me to fly back to New Jersey with him
tomorrow.”
    “ Whoa there, girl. Not so
fast. You just left this jerk yesterday and here you are less than
24 hours later willing to forgive and forget. Don’t be in such