Wanted by My Three Bosses novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Questions in the Lobby

I opened the envelope standing up.

The note inside was one page, in Meredith's small upright hand, with no greeting.

You think you have won. You have won nothing yet.

A friend of mine edits the site that ran your photograph.

She has the nine letters, because I sent them to her last night.

At five o'clock she publishes the payments and the cancelled invitations.

They will read as three rich men paying women to vanish, with a clerk's signature to hide behind.

Nine women will read it. Ask the men what they will say to them.

I read it twice.

Then I walked into Anson's office without knocking and laid it on his desk.

He read it standing, and went the color of the paper.

Gray read it over his shoulder and said a word I will not repeat.

"She planned this before she ever came to the board," Josiah said.

"She sent the letters last night. She knew we would find the log eventually."

"And she wanted the story out first, with her version in it," I said.

"It's five minutes to one," Anson said.

"Then we have four hours."

"We can't stop a site from publishing, Daphne. Our lawyers will say..."

"I don't want to stop it." I held up the note. "I want to be the first person to say it."

They looked at me.

"The reporters are in the lobby," I said. "Twenty of them, at least."

"What do they want?" Gray asked.

"A face for the headline."

"You are not going down there alone," Gray said.

"I'm going down there first. You can stand behind me."

"That is allowed," Josiah said, cautiously. "In fact I think we're required to."

"Anson?"

He did not answer for a moment.

Then he took a blue pen from his desk, and capped it, and uncapped it.

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