“Of course, they did,” Cate blurted. “This must be what my source had heard. It’s why they fired her. You knew, didn’tyou?”
Joaquin nodded. “Yes—but I wasn’t going to land Mia in legal trouble by giving away supposedly classified information she had shared with me in confidence, not even to my ownnewspaper.”
“Irving’s guys knew, and I assume the FBI and other alphabet soup agencies knew aswell.”
“Yes, sir, but they thought Powell was the perpetrator. They believed what I believed, at least until the end—that Andrew Meyer wasmissing.”
It was time for Joaquin to tell Tom the truth. “I did tip off a police detective to warn him that someone on staff was going to steal the files that Chief Irving was getting from thePentagon.”
Cate glared at him. “Iknewit!”
“I had promised Mia that if she told law enforcement what had happened, she wouldn’t have to worry about facing charges. She trusted me. I wasn’t going to let you land her in hot water—orprison.”
“You cost me astory.”
“Now, I’m dropping that same story in yourlap.”
Cate turned to Tom, her face red with rage. “Aren’t you going to firehim?”
“I didn’t fire you, and you broke the fuckinglaw.”
“He betrayed this newspaper—andme.”
“Your ambition betrayed you,” Joaquin fired back. “You would have burned an innocent woman. All you wanted was a byline anda—”
“Fuck you!” Cate got to her feet, started toward thedoor.
Joaquin reached under the table, took Mia’s hand in his to reassureher.
“Ms. Warner!” Tom’s voice boomed through the room. “If you walk out that door, you’re off the I-Team.”
Cate stopped for a moment, then opened the door anddisappeared.
Tom drew a breath, then glanced through the pages and asked a few questions. “You’re saying Powell, the alleged rapist, was the lootingringleader?”
“Yes.”
Tom closed the folder. “May I keepthese?”
“Yes. Those are copies.” Mia’s chin went up. “I haven’t talked to any other newspapers. I wanted Joaquin’s paper to have the story first. But I did tape an interview with Laura Nilsson that is scheduled to air tomorrow night. She has all the same information that youhave.”
“How isNilsson?”
Laura had worked on the I-Team until Tom’s firing of Holly had prompted her to walk off the job. She was now one of the most beloved news anchors in the nation with a weekly news hour watched by millions around theworld.
“She’s great. Her husband, Javier Corbray, helped uncover the truth about these files so that I could tell thisstory.”
Tom nodded. “The interview airs tomorrow night? Fair enough. That gives us until deadline tomorrow to pull together a story. Thank you, Ms. Starr. We’ll do our best to tell this story right and nail these bastards to thewall.”
He stood. “Ramirez, we need totalk.”
Mia’s gaze met Joaquin’s, and he saw that she wasworried.
He leaned down, kissed her cheek. “I’ll be rightout.”
Tom waited until she was gone. “I thought you weren’t sleeping withher.”
“I wasn’t—at thetime.”