Chapter Nineteen
Serena placed her bag on the floor by her desk. “It’s about time.” She reached for the envelope on her desk. It shouldn’t have taken this long to get documents that were public record. She thought about returning to Charmayne Hudson’s office yesterday to make demands. Serena had no problem stirring up trouble, if needed.
She looked around the newsroom before opening the envelope. If what she thought was in here, she was going to pitch the story to Alan James, her news producer. This was the kind of story Serena would enjoy for many months of investigation and right up to the finale. Would this story lead to someone’s arrest, trial, and possible jail time?
The folder that Lance Ryan had given her on Monday was in a locked file drawer. She unlocked the drawer and placed his documents alongside the reports she pulled out of the envelope. With a pencil and ruler, Serena marked both pages to record matching donation amounts.
“Well, I’ll be.” Her eyes went back and forth from one document to the other. There were some considerable differences. Almost a three hundred fifty thousand-dollar difference on what was publicly reported. Where did the money go?
Serena grabbed the papers and stuffed them in a folder. She headed over to an office in the corner of the newsroom and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Alan said. Her news producer looked up from his monitor and leaned back in his chair. As he rubbed his eyes, Alan asked, “What’s up with the Cheshire grin on your face, Serena? This better be good.”
“Good enough to set a fire under my feet. Take a look at these.” She handed him the documents. “Look at my markings and let me know what you see.”
Alan picked up his reading glasses from the desk and placed them on the tip of his nose.
Serena sat and tried to keep from tapping her fingers on the side of the chair while Alan digested the figures.
After a few minutes, he eyed her over his narrow glasses. “Are these documents both supposed to represent the funds raised for the Hudson Housing Development Project?”
“Uh-huh.” She raised her eyebrow. “Not quite adding up, huh?”
“Is your source to be trusted? Is he saying his report is the original? How did he get it?”
Good question! Serena pondered how to describe Lance Ryan to her news producer. She opened her mouth and snapped it shut. Should she admit that she had some reservations about the guy? If she did, Alan wouldn’t let her run with this story. Serena was almost sure there was an underlying reason as to why Lance sought her out to take on this story.
Alan took his glasses off. “Serena, you’re taking too long to answer my question. You don’t know anything about him, do you?”
She closed her eyes. “He’s a bit . . . weird. You have to admit he solidified some suspicions about this widely publicized project. I mean, you saw earlier this week, Mayor Carrington doesn’t want to touch this project. He dodged my questions at the press conference like his life depended on it, but he was very supportive of this project until Bishop Hudson’s death. I mean, come on, the mayor pulled back for some reason. Suppose something came up after the bishop’s death, like some mishandling of funds?”
A thought jolted Serena as she talked. She expressed her thoughts out loud. “You know, the bishop had a sudden heart attack. He was working out deals to move the development forward up until the day he died.”
Alan rocked back in his seat. “Whoa, Serena, let’s slow down. You jumped to a whole other scenario. I agree about getting to the bottom of why the city council is battling over this hot-button topic right now. That’s the real story. We need to be good journalists.”
Serena snapped. “What? I pride myself on delivering the facts, Alan. We do have to ask the hard questions.”
“Yes, but don’t go into conspiracy mode. We have to alert the public to our findings. Do you know how wide and deep the love is for Bishop Hudson in this state, even outside of this state? We need to know more about your source. Not that you will reveal him. But we need to know how he obtained these documents. I mean, what if your source fudged this report, and we shared this with the public? Our heads will be on a platter for reporting erroneous information. You know better, Serena.”
Serena did her best to keep her face looking natural, but she wasn’t too happy with Alan calling her out as if she was some rookie. She smiled sweetly. “What do you suggest, Alan?”
“I suggest you either get with your source again or if you think you can do this without sparking a hailstorm, visit council member Charmayne Hudson. Ask her questions.”
“I met with Ms. Hudson on Monday. She sent me this report four days later.”
“So what do you think? She fudged the numbers?”
“I don’t know. When I talked to her, she seemed convinced that taxpayer dollars were needed for this development to move forward. She could be oblivious to this report with the drastically higher number of donations.”
Alan interjected. “You can’t tell with politicians. They want to protect their image. It’s an election year, and we know how fun those can be when stories like this become public. See what else you can dig up. If you have something more solid, let’s prepare to hit the airwaves with our findings.”
Serena stood. “No worries. I got this story.”
Alan pointed to her, “Keep me posted and don’t get in trouble on this one. You’ve had a few too many close calls in the past, Serena. By the way, the mayor sent in a complaint about you.”
“A complaint?”
“Yes, we’ll let Wes cover the mayor’s press conferences for a while.”
Serena opened her mouth to protest, but Alan held up his hand. “Get to your story, Serena. Bring us something we can actually put on the air.”
She grimaced and closed Alan’s door behind her. Did she really need him to remind her of her past transgressions? She was known to take a story a bit too far, but she had felt each of those times that it was necessary to push toward the edge. Wes was a really good reporter, but she wasn’t too pleased about being pushed out of covering city hall. I guess she finally pushed the mayor over the edge.
Serena headed back to her desk. She was exhilarated by the possibilities of this story, but Alan did mirror the fears she already had. This Lance Ryan fellow could be a problem. Serena thought back to the other day. Lance was lingering around city hall and observed as she entered the elevator with Charmayne. Then there was the creepy elevator ride with him. What was the man’s agenda?
She had two choices to move forward with this story. She could either contact Lance to get him to come clean or touch base with Charmayne again.
Charmayne was a big risk. She didn’t want to go to the councilwoman with the discrepancies. It could backfire badly. Did Charmayne strike her as the kind of person who would be cocky enough to hide the real financial records? She was the daughter of a prominent bishop. Then again, that same prominent bishop was responsible for generating these fund-raisers. What role did the now-deceased Bishop Hudson play in this scenario?
Serena pulled out her phone and looked for Lance Ryan’s number. She found it and dialed.
“What?” Serena pulled the phone away from her ear. She ended the call and dialed again. The same out of service message played. Serena stared at her phone. “Unbelievable.”
It didn’t take long to figure out which direction to pursue first. Her number-one priority was to locate her missing-in-action source, Mr. Lance Ryan.