The Darkness - Jason Pinter [79]
told me there was a quid pro quo with the man who kidnapped her and threatened her daughter. She would have
to do something for him in order to keep her daughter safe.
Now I knew what that quid pro quo was. And why
it was asked.
The blond man, the same one who'd killed Brett
Kaiser, had told her to write the article. He'd gotten her
all the information she needed, perhaps even fabricated
a few quotes, and those were her "unnamed sources."
I'd never seen Paulina scared, and I'd never seen her
lie. In the last few days I'd seen both. And they scared the
hell out of me.
Whoever the man was that asked her to write the article
knew that it would create an automatic demand for the
product it featured. Paulina's weapon was words, and
he'd given her ammunition to forge something dangerous and potentially deadly.
I had to tell Jack. This was getting too big. This man
had scope and vision and knew exactly what getting to
Paulina would do. Jack needed to know.
And he was staring right at me. Knew full well I was
thinking something.
The Darkness
225
But to my surprise, the look on Jack's face wasn't full
of wonder at what I was thinking...it was one of disappointment because he knew I was hiding something.
"Time to spill it, Henry," he said. Jack's face turned
to stone. This was a look I hadn't seen before, and immediately I felt awful, lying to the man I'd idolized for
so long. The man who'd been my partner on this story,
who was motivated to come back to work because of
what I'd uncovered.
I left that man in the dust, but now he'd caught up to me.
"After the explosion at Brett Kaiser's apartment..." I
said, trying to look at Jack but finding it hard. Finally I
met his eyes. "I got a call."
"From who?" Jack said. He said it as much just to get
me to admit it as he did to find out the answer.
"Paulina Cole."
If Jack's face had been stone, this caused it to crack a
bit. His eyes opened wider, mouth opened just enough to
show the surprise on his face.
"Paulina," he said. "Why in God's name..."
"She was kidnapped," I said, the dam bursting. But
truth be told, it felt good.
"Kidnapped? By who? And why the hell would she
call you?"
I could see Jack's eyes reddening, but his anger at
learning the truth was now tempered by his desire to
know the full story. And he'd get it.
"She doesn't know," I said. "But the man who did it
threatened to kill her daughter."
"You know I always kind of assumed Paulina was
some sort of devil spawn. I'm moderately surprised to
learn that she has a reproductive system."
226
Jason Pinter
"She thinks the guy who did it has connections in the
NYPD. He said if she went to the cops he'd know."
"So she goes to you because you know cops you can
trust."
"Partly, yeah."
"So what does she want from you?"
"To help her find the man who did it."
"And in return, let me guess, you get the story."
I nodded. "That's right."
"Jesus, Henry," Jack said, tilting his head back, wiping
his forehead with the tips of his fingers. "The story she
wrote this morning, did you know it was going to run?"
"No, I swear I didn't."
"But?" Jack said.
"But she told me she had to do something for him.
That was the deal for him not to harm her daughter. My
guess is the story this morning was what she promised,
what he made her do."
"That would explain why the cops don't know anything and why nobody would go on the record. Strange
that for an article about a potential drug epidemic nobody
from the narcotics division was quoted, or even knew
about it."
"Or why the cops patrolling the streets haven't heard
about it."
"Today," Jack said, taking a breath, "was the comingout party for this drug. Paulina's story was the spark to
get the Darkness into the mainstream. A cover story in a
major New York newspaper will be read by over two
million people, and another few million will see the
headline and remember it."
"Word of mouth," I said. "Best marketing in the world,
and they got it for free."
The Darkness
227
Jack lowered his head. "They used us."
"There's