“So you think insider trading between Jefferies and Latimer happened, but not because Jefferies was so fond of Jacob. You think Latimer blackmailed Jefferies into giving him insider information, or Latimer would expose potentially damaging information about something that happened at that sleazy party?”
“It’s plausible, isn’t it?” Burt asked excitedly.
Harper put her elbow on her desk and rubbed her eyes, thinking furiously.
“It’s still very thin, Burt. You don’t have anything.”
“I know, but there’s something there. I can smell it. Something that makes it worthwhile to keep digging, right?”
“You never said what happened to Gina Morrow,” Harper said.
“She checked out of the hospital two days after the party.”
“And what else? There’s no other mention of her that you could find?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to find her, though,” Burt said
A feeling of trepidation went through her. “I don’t suppose your friend gave you a copy of the official incident report regarding Gina Morrow and the party at Jefferies’s house?”
Burt grinned widely and pulled a piece of paper from his notebook. It sailed onto Harper’s desk.
“That was risky of your friend,” Harper said, staring at the faxed report.
“She’s a very good friend,” Burt said with a knowing smile.
“Not good enough of a friend to go public with her name, though. Get me another participant that will go on the record that Jefferies was throwing a hooker party, preferably involving underage prostitutes and illegal drugs.”
“No one is going to admit to being at a party like that!”
“Get me evidence of some kind of argument and falling-out between Latimer and Jefferies afterward that might indicate bribery as a motive for insider trading versus patronage on Jefferies’s part. And those things are just more simple building blocks to a story, Burt. At the moment, you’ve got absolutely nothing,” Harper said, standing.
“There’s no way! There was never evidence of a falling-out between Latimer and Jefferies,” Burt said, flying out of his chair. “If there’d been evidence of that, it would have come out in the SEC investigation.”
“Exactly.”
“Come on, Harper. You have access to Latimer. You could just ask him why he refuses to associate with Jefferies.”
“I’m not asking him anything,” Harper fired back. “This isn’t a newsworthy story, Burt.”
“How can you say that when—”
“I can say it easily. Because the fact of the matter is, unless we get a confession from Clint Jefferies or Jacob Latimer that they were involved in insider training, there is . . . no . . . damn story,” she said succinctly, tapping on her desk. “Do you think you can get a confession from Jefferies or Latimer?”
“Of course not, but what about that police report? Doesn’t that mean anything?” He pointed angrily at the fax on her desk. Her gaze bounced off the piece of paper, and then zoomed back. She snatched up the report.
“Charleston, West Virginia?” she said hollowly, reading part of the printed address of the police department at the top. Shivers tore through her.
“Yeah. What’s wrong?” Burt asked, startled. “I told you Charleston. That’s where my friend finished school and where she works: the Charleston PD. Jefferies had a huge vacation home on a nearby lake there. He’s sold it since, but that’s where the party in question happened and where Jacob Sinclair worked for him. Why do you sound so surprised?”
She struggled to find her composure.
“I thought you meant Charleston, South Carolina, earlier, that’s all.”
“Why would you think that?” Burt asked, puzzled.
“Charleston, South Carolina, is a lot bigger town, isn’t it? I just assumed,” Harper eluded, waving her hand impatiently to distract him. In truth, she’d been put off the mark by the fact that Jacob had told her he’d grown up in South Carolina. Jacob had certainly never mentioned West Virginia. That would have stuck in her head, for sure.
“Look, you’ve got a long, long way to go if you want a credible story,” she told Burt, clearing her thoughts with effort. “I won’t risk you implicating the paper in a lawsuit,” she said with a sense of finality, handing Burt back the police report. She knew on the outside that she appeared calm. On the inside, her limbs tingled unpleasantly and a strange ringing had started in her ears.