Although Eve trusted that Iris was correct in her findings, her gut told her that she couldn’t totally trust Ethen, even if he was telling at least part of the truth. So far, she knew him to be capable of corporate espionage, which was no small crime. Eve wondered what else he might be capable of. His relationship with her brother further garnered her suspicion. As much as her issues with him were personal, she could not deny the more criminal nature of her brother. More than once he had come home with a police escort and a stern word, and sooner rather than later he ran out of chances and spent time behind bars for petty and teenage rebellion criminal acts. Eve could never understand why Charlie kept on getting into trouble, because every time he would, he would be in even worse trouble with their parents. She didn’t expect that he had grown out of that. In his college years and beyond he got wilder based on what little snippets she could find on him. Charlie had more drunk and disorderly’s than a frat house. Ethen couldn’t be all roses if he was friends with Charlie.

She had combed through the thousands of files on the flash drives. Whatever blackmail they had on Ethen was not on the drive, but all their other blackmail-related crimes were documented thoroughly. Eve suspected that Ethen had erased the file containing the ‘information’ they had against him. She was uneasy that he had gone to such lengths to hide something that he claimed was not even true. Iris had been going through each blackmail document and verifying if it was real or doctored. It turned out that a fair amount of them were real. Eve thought that perhaps Ethen’s was real as well. That worried her. It would have to be something incredibly incriminating if it was real. She wondered just how far he would go to keep it hidden.

Mr. Hartley was impressed with the information that she had gotten. Eve kept Ethen’s name out of her report, because she knew that her boss would question the validity of his claims, just as she had. Mr. Hartley gave her full rein to do whatever she needed in order to break the story. He did require that she eventually name her source. While Eve had Iris look into the files, she decided she needed to do some more digging into Ethen James. Mr. Hartley was a practical man, and he understood better than most the importance of a source. Often times, smaller profile stories could be published with no source, but a story as big as this one needed a source, it needed a face. The right source would lend credibility. When a story this big breaks without a source people can easily assume it was all made up. The problem with Ethen James being the source, people could assume the same just as well.

Ethen James had become a self-made billionaire by the time he was in his mid-twenties. In his teens, he had started the Ethen James Corporation from scratch. Eve was surprised to learn that he had a son. She hadn’t exactly kept tabs on him or her brother, but she did notice when there was something published involving both of them. Judging by those stories she had not expected that Ethen had a child at all, let alone a teen. Ethen had been married at nineteen when he and his high school sweetheart became pregnant. Eventually, it seemed as though the mother of his son had left the picture somehow, as Eve could not find any mention of her in recent years. Although she could find some vague mentions of Ethen’s wife, there were no photos online and her name was never given. Eve dug as deep as she could but was unable to find any information on the ex-wife. It was as though the woman had disappeared without a trace and barely existed at all before that. If there was one thing that Eve knew how to do, it was research. Research was her whole life’s work. It was rare that a mystery arose that she couldn’t uncover, Ethen’s wife was such a rarity. Eve’s wheels turned over this mystery trying to figure it out as she continued her research into the more obvious facets of Ethen’s life.

Ethen had not gone to college until well after his company was founded and doing well. He attended school and earned a bachelor’s degree in business, but did not continue his education. His son was in his early teens and Ethen sheltered him from publicity of any kind. There was not so much as a photo of the boy online. Similarly to how Eve could find nothing on the boy’s mother, she could find just as little about the boy himself.

Eve admired Ethen for protecting his son from publicity. It was so easy to be caught up in the world of print news that it was hard to remember that the people that were written about were real. Eve often forgot that fact and could act callously toward her sources and even on occasion the victims she spoke with about their experiences. It seemed that Ethen had not allowed his son to be caught up in the drama of tabloid journalism. She also softened her opinion of him as she read about how and why he’d started his company. He’d wanted desperately to give his son a good life and had a knack for business. With a small loan from the local bank, he started the Ethen James Corporation in an effort to provide for his wife and child. In interviews, he claimed that he was just lucky. It all had to do with timing; he’d started the corporation at the perfect moment in time that allowed him to skyrocket to success in a short timeframe.

Eve could not even imagine having the wealth that Ethen had. He was one of the richest men in the world. He did not even have to lift a finger should he desire not to. In his household alone he employed over a dozen people. He had maids, cooks, professional organizers, personal trainers, a tailor on retainer, drivers, tutors and a few other jobs that Eve did not even know existed. Some of those employed by Ethen had been interviewed for an article a while back and each of them claimed to love their job completely and could not ask for a better boss. Eve wondered about the legitimacy of their statements but felt warmer toward Ethen regardless. She had always believed that you could tell who a person really was by how they treated the so-called help, and by all appearances, Ethen James was a good man.

Eve decided that she would give Ethen the benefit of the doubt and see what more he had to say. With the proof that he had of the Melcor Corporation’s dirty deeds, it would be plausible for Eve to still utilize him as a secondary source of her article. Especially since the flash drives had been found to be accurate and had not been tampered with at all. Ethen had to have either very talented plants at Melcor, or they were higher up on the food chain than anyone expected a spy would be. Access to this kind of information was not easy to get. They had to be high ranking to even have access to the servers. Melcor was run as though they held state secrets and each employee had a certain level of security clearance. It took background checks and thorough vetting to even get a job in I.T.

Eve did not have a way of subtly reaching out to Ethen; the only way that he had contacted her so far was by various prepaid phones. She did not have a number where she could access him. Eve knew where he resided, but knew better than to go there to maintain both her own and Ethen’s anonymity. When they’d parted ways at the diner she had told him that before she agreed to print his story she would have to verify that it was real. He agreed that she should do just that to prove to her that he was not lying about what Melcor was doing to people. Eve had requested that he give her a way to contact him once she finished her tests on the flash drives, regardless of the outcome of those tests. Ethen had told her that he would contact her because it was safer for both of them that way. He did not say when he would be in touch with her again, only that she should expect his call. It had been over three days since their meeting and Eve was growing impatient.

Eve decided that she would reach out to Ethen even if it endangered her. With the help of Iris, they tracked down Ethen’s main number. He had multiple phone lines in addition to the prepaid ones he had used to initiate contact with her.

“This is Ethen.” His voice sounded strange on the phone, higher than it was in person.

“Hi, this is… Eva Bridge,” she said, lamely trying to be subtle. There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line. Eve used pseudonyms, usually variations on her real name. She did not even write under her birth name. She had a lot of people that wanted to track her down, and not just those she had crossed in her time as a reporter. She needed to remain hidden from some people in her past that would hurt her should they discover where she was. Eve knew Ethen was already aware of the name she published under, Evelyn Bridgewater, but for both their sakes she thought it would be best not saying her reporter name over the phone. In case there was anyone listening in on their phone call she wanted to make sure that they couldn’t connect Ethen to her. His position was precarious and she wanted to ensure that he was protected.

“Eva, it’s good to hear from you, though I thought I had told you I would call when I had a spare moment.”

Eve could hear how upset Ethen was, although he was trying to hide his frustration behind a normal tone of voice. “I know, but I did not want to have to wait any longer. I needed to speak with you. I have agreed to take the job you offered me.”

Eve and Ethen’s real conversation was only thinly veiled, but if no one was suspicious of Ethen in the first place then they would probably not be paying much attention. Especially considering how many people Ethen had working for him.

That’s good to hear. I’m happy that everything checked out okay,” he replied. “Should we meet to go over the details of the position again?”

“I think that would be best,” Eve responded. She wanted to hear his side of the story again and how he got the information that was on the flash drives. Eve was also hoping that she could somehow talk him into telling her what Melcor was blackmailing him with. She knew that Mr. Hartley would never let her break the story without all the details.

Ethen had to have known about Melcor’s illegal activity long before he went to Eve with the story. It was not the first time Melcor had been accused, but each time in the past the accusers had disappeared or could not back up their allegations. Ethen had been methodical in compiling the evidence he would need to prove the accusations were true. Eve wanted to establish a timeline; from the thorough nature of Ethen’s compiled evidence, it appeared as though he had been looking into Melcor’s illegal activity for long before they threatened him with blackmail.

Ethen agreed to meet Eve again at the Sunset Diner for dinner that evening. Iris was giddy at the idea that Eve’s source was the billionaire Ethen James, one of the most eligible bachelors in the United States.

“Should the opportunity present itself, I would lock him down in an instant,” Iris said, a picture of Ethen pulled up on one of her monitors. She was teasing Eve, although she had to know that the thought had not even crossed her mind.

Eve looked scandalized at her friend. “You know I would never be romantically involved with a source,” she said, offended by her friend’s suggestion.

Iris held her hands up in a gesture of innocence. “I am just saying,” she said with laugh. “Enjoy your date.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “It’s not a date and you know it.” She swatted at Iris’ shoulder.

Iris smiled up at her and gripped Eve’s hand against her shoulder. “You’ll be careful though, right?” she asked with concern.

Eve and Iris had been forced into hiding for what felt like a lifetime when they were younger, running from a dangerous part of their past. Eve had chosen a perilous career and not a day went by that Iris wasn’t concerned for her safety.

“I will, I promise.” Eve extended her pinky finger to Iris, who wrapped her own pinky around it. It was their promise to each other to not only keep the other safe but themselves as well. Though Iris didn’t say it out loud, she wondered if Eve would say hi to Charlie for her if she saw him.