ROMANCING MO RYAN (23 page)

Lawrence Dinkle was the managing editor of the Gazette.
 
His office, located on the eighth floor, was a large, open area filled with books and old newspapers and it contained three different conference tables.
 
Dinkle was on the phone when they first arrived, so his secretary ushered them to one of those tables.

Phil pulled out a chair for Nikki and then sat down too.
 
She smiled and told him thank-you, but he didn’t say anything in response.

Dinkle finished his conversation quickly and hurried to the conference table.
 
He was a big, burly man, with a small head and a wide body, and long, grayish blonde hair.
 
He, like Phil, was a liberal from way back too.
 

“That was my son-in-law,” he said as he sat down.
 
“What a jerk.
 
He wants to know why I dislike him.
 
‘You got a year?’ I said to him.
 
Idiot.”
 
And then he looked at Nikki.
 
“And hello to you, Miss Nikki.”

“Hello, Larry.
 
What’s up?”

“You, as always.
 
The vacation girl.
 
Key West I understand.
 
How was it?”

She really didn’t like the fact that Dinkle knew about her vacation with Mo.
 
But when she asked for a week off, and Phil wouldn’t give her the time off, Mo had to intercede by phoning the publisher of the newspaper.
 
The publisher, a friend of Mo’s although their political views were light years apart, was Phil and Dinkle’s boss.
 

“It was okay,” Nikki said.

“Good.
 
Good.”
 
Dinkle said this and glanced at Phil.
 
“Workaholic Phil here is next.”

Phil didn’t even smile.
 
But his broken heart routine was beginning to grate on Nikki’s nerves.
 
“So, Larry,” she said, “what’s going on?
 
What’s this all about?”

“We’ve got an exclusive, Miss Tarver, that’s what it’s about.”

“An exclusive?”

“Yes.”
 

But then he said no more.

“I take it you want me to handle this exclusive?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.
 
“We definitely want you on it.”
 

“Well?
 
What is it?”

“A woman came forward last week.”
 
He said this as if that said it all.
 
Nikki looked at Phil to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
 
Phil, of course, was still too busy sulking.

Dinkle continued.
 
“She clerked for Judge Ryan five years ago.”

Judge Ryan, Nikki thought.
 
What does Mo have to do with this?
 
“Okay,” she said, deciding to simply hear what they had to say.

“To make a long story short,” Dinkle went on, “and I’m sorry to tell you this, Nick, but she says Ryan sexually harassed her the entire time she worked for him.”

Nikki could feel an ice cold chill slowly creep up her spine when he said those words.
 
Ryan sexually harassed her.
 
Ryan sexually harassed her.
 
“Ryan sexually harassed her?” she asked.

“That’s what the woman is claiming, yes.
 
And she told a very compelling tale too.
 
But, of course, Mo Ryan is a well-respected jurist in this community and we couldn’t just take her word for it.
 
The implications of what she’s saying, geez, it could be the Florida version of Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill.
 
So, being the good journalists we are, we decided to sit on the story until we could get some corroboration.”

Nikki’s heart sunk.
 
When it rained, it poured.
 
“Another woman?” she asked.

“Yes.
 
She came forward yesterday.
 
She, too, worked for Ryan some years ago and her story and the first woman’s story are eerily similar.
 
A check of employment records confirms that both women worked for Ryan at different times and both, just as they claimed, quit suddenly after having worked less than three months in the first case, just one month in the second.”

Nikki sat stunned.
 
Mo sexually harassing somebody?
 
It wasn’t possible.
 
She knew it had to be a mistake.
 
She also knew instinctively that this so-called “exclusive” had liberal dumpster diving written all over it, a veritable gold mine for the Gazette, just the kind of trash on Mo they were digging for.
 

“Who are these women?” she asked Dinkle.

“That’s what we need to find out.
 
We want to be fair to Ryan.
 
Our publisher, who’s a very close friend of his as you know, made that perfectly clear.
 
Just because the women came forward is not enough.”

“And what do you mean they came forward?
 
Did they just wander in from the street out of some incredible civic duty, or did we wander out there and drag them in?”

“What do you think?” Phil asked bitterly.
 
“Ryan’s no great man, Nikki.
 
Face it, all right?”

“They came to us, Nikki,” Dinkle said.
 
“After, of course, we made it clear that we were interested in any information on Mo Ryan.
 
It’s no secret that the Gazette’s editorial board doesn’t support Ryan’s nomination.
 
We think he’s bad for the Court, we think it’s bad for civil rights and women’s rights and gay rights and every right imaginable, and we’ll like nothing better than to see that nomination derailed.
 
Of course we would.
 
But when we go public, it will be with irrefutable evidence.”

Nikki’s heart was pounding.
 
She wasn’t sure if she could deal with this right now.
 
Not after her week in the Florida Keys with Mo.
 
Not after their decision to go all the way together.
 
“What does all of this have to do with me?” she asked.
 

Phil sighed.
 
But Nikki wasn’t thinking about his vindictive behind.
 

“We want you to personally check out both stories,” Dinkle said.
 

No he didn’t say that.
 
He knew she was in Key West, not alone, but with the very man he just asked her to attempt to smear.
 
“Me?” she asked, her face so shocked that it made Phil’s frown.
 

“Find out what kind of women we’re dealing with here.
 
What’s the motive?
 
Do they know each other? Is this some kind of scheme to derail Ryan’s nomination?
 
That’s what we want from you.
 
And yes you, Nikki.
 
We chose you because you’re his friend.
 
You’ll go in biased, and that’s what I want.
 
Because if these women can convince you, then we figure we’ve got a genuine story here.”

“And if they don’t convince me?” Nikki asked.
 
She knew even then Dinkle was blowing smoke up her ass.
 
Those women weren’t about to convince her of anything but their own twisted grudge against Mo, and Dinkle knew it.

“If they aren’t convincing to you, then we move on.
 
But you’ve got to give a compelling reason for us to move on.
 
None of that
I just don’t like them
nonsense.
 
But we have faith in your belief system.
 
You won’t fall in line if it’s bullshit.
 
That’s another reason why we chose you, Nikki.”

Nikki just sat there.

“And another thing,” Dinkle went on.
 
“This story must remain under wraps, not even the judge himself is to hear a word of it, until the investigation is complete.
 
Understand?”

They didn’t know what they were asking of her, and apparently they didn’t care.
 
They just wanted the story.
 
But Mo had told her repeatedly to never let their relationship get in the way of her doing her job.
 

“Understood,” she said.

“Good,” Dinkle said, a tight smile on his face.
 
“Wonderful.
 
I knew we could count on you.
 
I told Phil we could.
 
You’ve always been a team player, even in Cleveland they say you’ve always done the right thing in the end.
 
And you’re an ambitious young lady, too, which is vital in our profession.
 
That’s what I like about you.
 
You have that killer instinct. You’re an equal opportunity destroyer.”
 
He said this and laughed.
 
“You don’t let anybody get away with anything, especially those dogmatic conservative ideologues like Ryan.
 
So we’ll look forward to your report, Nikki.
 
Have a nice day.”