Friendly Fire: A Nik Byron Investigation by Pawlosky Mark

Author:Pawlosky, Mark [Pawlosky, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781954854635
Amazon: B09QQNB5DS
Goodreads: 61949881
Publisher: Girl Friday Books
Published: 2023-03-07T08:00:00+00:00

Part III

Fallout

Chapter 28

June 15

Working off-hours and nights, it took Nik nearly three weeks to plow through the thousands of pages of Bullwhip documents that were sitting in his condo’s spare bedroom. The task was staggering, even with the zip drives the anonymous Pentagon source had hidden in the files. Discarded pizza boxes, sandwich wrappers, and empty cans of Dr Pepper covered the bedroom floor by the time he finished.

Fortunately, Nik had some alone time on his hands after he and Sam had a heated exchange at a DC bar following her surprise courtroom testimony. Nik was furious she had not tipped him off about her appearance and the discovery of the trail cam, while Sam was unsympathetic and contemptuous that Nik felt entitled to the information.

“Maybe I’m old-school, but no one ever handed me stories when I was a reporter. I had to dig and fight for every one I got,” Sam had castigated Nik.

“That’s not fair, Sam. It’d be different if we weren’t seeing each other. Don’t you get that?”

“Grow up, Nik. We’re not in junior high.”

“I looked like an ass, with no help from you.”

“You don’t need my help, Nik. You manage well enough on your own,” Sam said belittlingly.

“If that’s the way you feel, Sam, maybe this thing between us ain’t such a good idea.”

“You’ll get no argument here,” she said dismissively and took a sip of wine.

Nik tossed two twenties on the bar. “Screw this,” he said and walked out.

Now, sitting in his condo, Nik regretted the row and blamed himself. He sighed, picked up another file from the endless pile, and started reading again.

Mia had offered to help Nik sort through the mounds of paper, but he had declined. Over the years, Nik had developed his own particular method for surveying and cataloguing records, and he didn’t have the time or patience to explain the labor-intensive process to others.

When working on an investigation that involved extensive documentation, it was Nik’s practice to begin by constructing a series of concentric circles that placed the subjects⁠—in this instance, Geoffrey Tate and Yukon⁠—at the center of the bull’s-eye. Each circle that emanated from the middle contained additional names that represented potential sources and avenues. The lines were color coded to reflect the number of times a person, company, or record was mentioned, and the closer the line was to the center, the more relevant the lead.

When he was done, Nik had no fewer than eighty-three potentially promising targets⁠—not an insignificant number, but manageable, especially if past was prologue. Nik had found that the first 25 percent of the names on a list produced 99 percent of the material he needed for a story. If that experience held true this time, he’d only have to track down twenty or so sources.

The process, though tedious, had the added benefit of allowing Nik to see interlocking relationships he might otherwise overlook. Three such connections here jumped out at him immediately.

One was Thomas Polk, the former CEO of a Silicon Valley company

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