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“Tell me,” Alyssa said softly.
My words bumped up against each other in my hurry to get them out. “Alyssa, I don’t want you to feel obligated to do this. If the idea makes you nervous, just tell me and I promise not to hold it against you.”
She nodded.
The waitress set our drinks on the table. We waited until she was gone before continuing our conversation.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Some traveling.”
She listened intently with her head cocked to one side.
“Philadelphia and a place in Wisconsin.”
“To see . . .”
“I need you to go see two women. They are sisters, but neither one of them can know that you’re in touch with the other one. You’ll have to lie and say that you’re an official person from the committee that awards the Pulitzer Prize. You’re there to investigate the background of a reporter who is in line to receive that prize. Understand?”
“Is this reporter really i
n line for a Pulitzer?”
“No.”
She looked wary. “This sounds illegal.”
“I don’t know if it is or isn’t,” I told her frankly.
“Go on.”
“You’re investigating the background of a woman named Tiffany Nixon.”
“Isn’t she the reporter who is always writing about you?”
“Yes. And the two women you’re going to see are both her sisters. She hates them enough to write about it and I’m hoping that they feel the same way. I need anything bad they can tell you about Tiffany . . . something that would interest the editors of the Comet.”
She whistled. “Holy shit!”
I continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “Alyssa, you’ll have to work fast and you can only visit each house one time.”
Alyssa swallowed a huge gulp of her drink. “When do I leave?”
We clicked glasses in a toast.
32
A NEW DEAL
Blackmail focuses the brain.
Would I ruin Tiffany Nixon’s career if she didn’t play ball? Was I capable of living with the guilt that would accompany such an act? I couldn’t help going over and over the possible karmic results of blackmail, unsure of how big a price the universe would force me to pay.
Alyssa didn’t turn up much, but combined with certain inconsistencies that had arisen from my fact-checking, it was enough for me to proceed.
How should I approach Tiffany Nixon? I weighed my choices carefully.
A letter sent through the mail was one way to do it. But I would have no way of gauging her reaction. It was also a piece of physical evidence that could be turned over to the district attorney.
