Read Online A Conflict of Interest by Barbara Dunlop - Free Book Online

convinced me. But you might want to work on your delivery.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “You protested a little too much there.”
    Cara hated to admit that Gillian was right. She knew Max would never want them to be a family, but sometimes she just couldn’t help but wish for it herself.
    * * *
    Max and Jake listened with rapt attention while Liam Fisher outlined some of the underhanded tactics ANS had used in the past to track down big stories. The three men were at the Apex Lounge at the topmost stop of the ski gondola. It was lunchtime, and the facility was quickly filling up with families and children.
    “It became exponentially worse when that producer Marnie Salloway arrived,” Liam was saying. “The woman has no conscience. I’d be surprised if she has a soul.”
    “Do you have an example?” Max asked. Marnie was his former boss, and he could well believe she was up to no good. He and Jake had been working in Fields for three days now. They’d undertaken countless interviews, all of which were next to useless. They had hour upon hour of footage where the townspeople praised the president and looked puzzled when asked about Eleanor Albert.
    “It went beyond manipulation,” said Liam. “There was downright coercion. I never passed on an envelope full of cash, but I definitely wined and dined a few people, a five-star resort for a weekend, a three-hundred-dollar bottle of wine and then the carefully framed question to get just the right sound bite.”
    “That’s not illegal,” Max pointed out.
    A young boy shrieked and rushed past the table with three of his friends, each of them bumping Max’s elbow. Max glanced around for parents, or maybe an adult supervisor for the jamboree kids, but didn’t see anyone paying the slightest attention to the hooligans.
    Max cussed under his breath.
    “That was a straw that broke my back,” said Liam.
    For a split second, Max thought he was talking about the unruly children.
    “She, I mean Marnie, wanted me to hide a microphone in a victim’s house. A teenage boy who was bullied by a sports team. She was convinced he’d exaggerated the problem and wanted to expose what she considered a conspiracy against a popular coach.”
    Jake scoffed in disgust, while Max drew back in absolute shock.
    “You have got to be kidding me,” Max spat.
    “That’s when I quit. Or when I was fired for insubordination, depending on whose story you want to believe.”
    Squeals of high-pitched laughter sounded from outside on the gondola deck. Max reflexively glanced up to see a mob of kids had gathered there. They were jostling for their snowboards, pushing and teasing, tossing each other’s hats and gloves in the air.
    “How can a person even think around that?” Max complained.
    Jake laughed at him. “Chill out, Max. They’re just having fun.” Then he turned his attention back to Liam, getting serious once more. “You have any proof of this stuff?”
    Max also focused on Liam.
    “Just my word against theirs,” said Liam. “But I haven’t delved too deeply before. Once I was out of there, I got on with my life. So, you never know what we might find out if we go looking.”
    “How do we start?” asked Max as the waitress cleared their plates. He handed her his credit card.
    “I’ve got a few favors I can call in,” said Liam.
    “We’re not quite done in Fields,” said Max. “But we can meet you back in D.C.”
    Liam nodded his agreement. “Are you two boarding down now or taking the gondola?” asked Liam.
    “I’m boarding,” said Max, feeling the need to get some exercise and clear his head. Liam sounded like he was going to lead them in exactly the right direction, and Max knew things were going to get intense very soon.
    Max raised his brow in a question to Jake, even though he already knew the answer. Jake would never take the easy way down.
    “We’ll meet you in the lobby,” Jake told Liam with a grin.
    Max signed the credit card slip and shrugged into his