A Dangerous Affair Chapter 47

Tom has to face Hamilton-Brown

As soon as Brick knew that Tom and Stephanie were back in the office they were summoned to see him. Tom was horrified to see that Hamilton-Brown was also in Brick’s office when they entered. Hamilton folded his arms and glared at both of them as they took a seat.

“Under no circumstances are either of you to work on this story anymore,” Hamilton said, looking from one to the other.

“It doesn’t look as if we will need to anymore, we have the information we need from Carlton’s daughter in law,” Stephanie informed him, failing to add that they hadn’t yet actually spoken to Samantha. Well they would, and then they would have the information…she hoped.

“Did you take my daughter into that house?” he barked suddenly at Tom.

Tom’s eyes widened for a second before he replied. “I got her away from the damn house, although I had a job doing it. We followed the daughter in law to a country club.”

“This stops here,” he pointed a finger at them. “I don’t care what information you have.”

“But I can write the story now!” Stephanie exclaimed. “We don’t need to go near Carlton again.”

“No! You write that story and you’ll have Carlton hunting you down! You’re not writing the story!” he said, raising his voice at her.

She glared at him and he glared back. She could tell him to go to hell and she’d go to another paper who would only be to happy to print the story. She thought about telling him just that but decided against it. It wasn’t the time or the place. She would have it out with him at home. If they had one of their shouting matches there the people in the office outside would hear.

“We’ll talk about this later,” she finally said.

“You won’t change my mind,” he said simply, before turning to Tom. “Don’t you have some other work to be getting on with?”

Tom shrugged and rose out of the chair to leave the office. Stephanie went to follow him but was halted by her father.

“Stephanie, I want a word with you.”

Tom turned to see the office door close behind him. He ran a hand through his hair and headed for Stephanie’s desk, pulling out the piece of paper with Samantha’s telephone number on it and scrunching it into a ball.

Minutes later Hamilton came out of the office and strode out of the main exit. Stephanie appeared afterwards, looking tense and angry.

“Where’s that telephone number?” she asked Tom.

Tom cringed. What the hell had he got himself into? “Steph,” he began with a warning tone.

“I don’t want to hear it Tom. I’m writing that story even if I have to sell it to another newspaper, now give me the number,” she ordered, holding out her hand.

He sighed and handed her the ball of paper that was still in his hand. He didn’t like doing it, mostly because Hamilton was right, it was too dangerous. But then what had they gone through all this for then? Besides, Stephanie would go ahead and write it one way or another, with or without him.

“God help me, I’ll end up losing my job over this!” he said watching her unfold the paper.

“No you won’t,” she contradicted him. “You have worked so hard on this story with me and you deserve recognition for it, not condemnation. I’ll not let him bully us like this!”

“Calm down,” he said, taking the paper off her and encouraging her to sit. “Bob,” he shouted across the room, “isn’t it time for you to make the coffees. Me and Steph could do with one.”

Robert approached them slowly. “I don’t want to interrupt or anything,” Robert, as well as the rest of the office, could sense the tension since Tom and Stephanie had returned, “but I was just wondering where my car is.”

Stephanie laughed suddenly, releasing a lot of the tension. “I’m sorry Robert, it’s back in the car park,” she said, reaching into her bag for the keys. “Thank you for lending it to me. I’ll reimburse you for the petrol I used.”

Robert made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “No problem Stephanie. I was just wondering. I’ll get those coffees.”

Stephanie smiled at him. “You’re a star Robert.”

Tom tried several times that afternoon to contact Samantha but with no luck. They both managed to avoid Brick for the rest of the day. The last thing they wanted was more reprimands from him. In between making the phone calls they busied themselves with various other mundane tasks but neither of them got much work done that day, their minds were on Samantha and Jack and why they couldn’t be contacted. Finally they had to admit defeat for the day as most of the reporters had left and it was getting late. Tom reassured Stephanie that they would contact Samantha tomorrow, or why else had she left them her number? He also insisted that they be extremely discrete about this during office hours. Tom figured that if Samantha could give them the right information on Carlton then it could be enough to incriminate him. He was certain that if they presented Hamilton with incriminating evidence he would jump at the chance to send Carlton down. After all, it was only when Carlton was behind bars that Stephanie would finally be safe.

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

I hope neither her dad or brick find out she's still working on this story...i liked this though because now they have pressure on themselves to bnot get caught by eithr carlton or the ppl they work for.