Page 6 of Hidden

“Thanks, Joe. You rock. I guess I’ll forgive the trashy outfit comment. What about the rumor that this is a second attempt?”

“Still working on that one. He’s the director of the CIA, so death threats really aren’t breaking news with this guy.”

Someone else across the newsroom shouted Joe’s name and Carrie waved him off. “I’ll start calling people too. Thanks again.”

With a flurry of typing, she fired off three e-mails to people she knew with contacts in or around the CIA. Then she put in a call to Gina Whitman. Might as well take her temperature on this if they were going to be working together.

“Hey Gina. It’s Carrie Davenport. What’s your take on this Upwood story?”

“First tell me you’ll have a drink with me tonight to discuss the EP job. I want you, Carrie.”

Carrie chuckled. “Sorry, friend. Can the drink be Red Bull? I’m running on cat naps right now.”

“Of course you are. You say it like that isn’t normal for you.”

“What can you tell me about Upwood?” Carrie brushed past Gina’s unwanted observation about her sleeping habits.

“What makes you think I know more than you?”

“I’ve been in a strip club all night. Humor me. I’ve heard you have a high-up CIA source.”

Gina sighed. “I’m not even going to ask about the strip club. My source is NSA, not CIA. Alphabet soup is hard to keep straight sometimes. All I know is someone dropped a bomb at Upwood’s doorstep. He was home with his wife and son. Now he’s at work and his family has been whisked off to safety somewhere. Word is he’s fighting the protection detail, but apparently someone tried to mail him a bomb a few days ago. You remember that mail truck that caught fire? Investigators finally uncovered that the package with the explosives in it had Upwood’s address on it. He managed to keep that one out of the news, but this time nosy neighbors gave the press a heads up about police at his house. Not that a reporter with a police scanner wouldn’t have picked it up on their own.”

“So, since he’s gotten two bombs delivered, the President is forcing a detail on him?” Carrie typed furiously as Gina rattled off answers to her questions.

“Exactly. Plus, there was an upswing in the amount of hate mail and death threats a week before the first bomb. We can’t put this on the blog yet. My team is still working on confirmation of sources.”

“Understood. I’ll let you know if I verify first.”

“Thanks. Get some sleep and then let’s get that drink. I want you on my team, Carrie.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I’ll call you about drinks. And I’m thinking about the job.”

Gina let out a whoop of triumph, then said goodbye. Carrie returned to examining the photographs. She flipped one over and noticed a stamp on the back. It was a date. She turned the rest face down. They all had similar stamps. Were these the dates the photos were taken? If so, some of them were from before she visited the Doll House, but others were from the same nights that she had been there, including the one of Corbit Upwood.

She glanced down the long corridor between the row of cubicles to Tom’s office door. It was time to clue her boss in. He wouldn’t be happy about her taking on another dangerous assignment, but she had to go where the leads took her and this was the hottest lead she’d had in a while.

Before she ruined Tom’s day, she stopped at the break room and chugged a cup of coffee. Five minutes later she was knocking on her boss’s door frame since his door was wide open.

“Come in, Carrie.”

“Hey Tom. I need to run something past you.” Carrie shut the door behind her. “And I need you to know I did not go looking for this.”

Tom groaned. “OK. Hit me.”

“I think Corbit Upwood is running a human trafficking ring.”

Tom sat up straighter.

“I’m listening.”

Laying the photos and note from the anonymous tipster on the coffee table in front of her, she motioned for Tom to come look. As she made her case, she watched his face to see if he was going to shut her down or let her run with it.

The editor crossed his arms over his chest and was silent for a long minute after she finished.

“I’m not saying you don’t have something here, Carrie, but Corbit Upwood is a powerful guy. He’s been in Washington for decades. You don’t just decide to publish a smear piece on this guy without some serious evidence, and so far, you don’t have that.”

Carrie held up her hand. “I’m not saying I post anything yet. Let me run with the original piece you asked me to write along with the things I wanted to add. I’ll make it a series and give myself a reason to go back to the Doll House. I’m just asking for permission to look into the anonymous tipster.”

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