Gannon - 01 - Vengeance Road by Rick Mofina

Author:Rick Mofina [Mofina, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Suspense Fiction, Murder
ISBN: 9780778326380
Published: 2009-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

36

Melody Lyon held the power to change Jack Gannon’s life. She was quite aware of that fact as she dripped cream

into her tea and resumed reading files on her BlackBerry. The legendary news editor was sitting alone at the

Wyoming Diner in Manhattan. It was late afternoon and

the lunch rush had ended. A tired-looking waitress and a

bored short-order cook chatted at the counter over coffee. Savoring the quiet, Lyon returned to her dilemma. Should she offer Gannon a job, or write him off as a

tragic figure?

Scrolling through his news articles, she reviewed his

brilliant work on the jetliner crash, which had earned him

a Pulitzer nomination, her respect and a job offer. Gannon was an outstanding reporter. He had the innate

talent, instincts and drive to excavate a good story. Skills

Lyon searched for to strengthen her special-investigation

team at the worldwide wire service.

She was disappointed that it never worked out after

Gannon had declined her job offer. Strangely, around that

same period, when they were checking Gannon’s references, the WPA got an anonymous tip alleging Gannon had

a drug problem. She’d always questioned the validity of

that claim and the timing of it.

It was as if someone was trying to prevent him from

leaving the Sentinel.

But that was then.

Now, Lyon found herself in a new predicament with

Gannon.

She and her fellow editor, Carter O’Neill, had one

opening on their special-investigations team. They’d

nearly come to a decision among four strong candidates,

a reporter from Seattle, one from Berlin, another from

Toronto and one from London. Each was a seasoned,

award-winning journalist of the highest caliber. Then, only days ago, Gannon had resurfaced, calling

out of the blue, offering to freelance a story to her. Most people in the business knew he’d been fired from

the Buffalo Sentinel.

“Forget about him, Mel,” Carter said. “Given the recent

history of scandals at major newspapers, the last thing we

need is to bring in a tainted reporter. Our SI team is the

best of the best.”

Still, Lyon, a well-connected force in the craft,

remained skeptical because she knew Nate Fowler, the

Sentinel’s managing editor, had a reputation for being

slimy.

When Lyon measured what she knew about Fowler

against what she knew about Gannon, it didn’t add up. Not

in her book.

Sirens echoed near Madison Square Garden as Lyon

walked west along Thirty-third Street back to her office. She thought carefully about Gannon’s controversy. It

concerned his reporting of a cop under suspicion for the

murder of a Buffalo nursing student, which had led to a

retraction and Gannon’s termination.

If Gannon was wrong, he was finished as a reporter. If

Fowler had somehow pressed him to back off, then there was every chance a bigger story and, more important, an

injustice, would go unreported.

How this would unfold was anyone’s guess, Lyon

thought as she passed a private academy. It was a beautiful stone building a block from the World Press Alliance. The WPA was situated in a twenty-story building in

midtown Manhattan’s far west side, in the heart of the

Hudson Yards. It was close to Penn Station and the Lincoln

Tunnel, and offered views of the Empire State Building

and the Hudson River.

In the lobby, Lyon swiped her ID badge at the security

turnstile and stepped into the elevator.

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