Depths of Depravity (3 page)

“
I don’t know. Maybe I’m changing but it just isn’t the same anymore.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I can’t sleep with a man if there isn’t anything there. I want some sort of connection with him if I’m going to lie down naked with him. Without that, it’s just so… unfulfilling.”

“
Are you telling me an orgasm isn’t satisfying?”

“
It is… It’s just… Orgasms are better when they’re with someone you care about.”

“…
They should put that on a greeting card.”

I grabbed the throw pillow right next to me
and playfully hit her across her chest. She fell onto the sofa right next to me. I sighed as we stared at one another.

“
You really mean it,” she said to me. “You’re done with guys.”

“
I don’t care if the most amazing man in the world knocks on my door right now. I’m not going to fall for him. From now on, I’m going to take my time. This is my life. I’m in control. The meaningless sex is over.”

“
Vicki, you’re 25 years old. You have plenty of time to go sleeping around and still find your dream man.”

“
No. Sex is fun but I’m not interested in driving in the fast lane any longer. I know what I want now. It’s not out there at some nightclub.”

“
Okay,” she sighed. “We’ll just stay in tonight. But as soon as you’re feeling better, we’re going out so that I can find someone to fuck
me
at least.”

I giggled at my friend with a smile on my face. I could feel the mascara on my face beginning to dry up on my cheeks. The tears were gone and I no longer had any need for the tissue in my hand. I sat there and stared at Lauren
, enjoying this sudden moment of clarity. It had happened quicker than I expected. Breaking-up with John made me realize exactly what I was looking for.

“
Hey, Vicki.”

“
Yeah?”

“
I know this guy. He’s really good in bed and—”

“
No, Lauren.”

“
All right. I was just making sure… Can I at least borrow your vibrator tonight?”

“
Don’t you usually carry yours around in your purse?”

“…
I forgot to change the batteries.”

I laughed at my friend then pointed toward the drawer where I kept what she was looking for. While my friend searched for the batteries, I leaned up against the couch with a mild feeling of serenity. Nothing went how I planned it but at least I was no lon
ger in a bad mood.

Chapter 3

I took a few days to myself. It was one of the bonuses of finishing an assignment. It wasn’t long before I found myself back in my boss’s office, waiting for his opinion on my latest offering.

Patrick Kelsey was a man who
’d seen a lot in his time. He had spent nearly his entire career at The High Standard. He worked himself up from a lowly intern all the way up to Editor-In-Chief. He knew what it took to get people to read his magazine without filling it with the trashy gossip that caught most readers’ eyes. Despite his hard demeanor, I knew that it was only a result of wanting to put out the best product he could. Whenever he decided to rip my head off, it was strictly business and nothing personal.

He was barely a decade older t
han I was. All of the stress of running a publication got to him though. His hair had shifted from a solid black to salt-and-pepper gray from working here. The wrinkles on his face were the result of constantly furrowing his brow and all of the smoke that filled his room. Sitting in his office was like sitting in a war zone. He might have been used to the smelly and smoky atmosphere but I couldn’t wait for him to say that I had done what I needed.

I sat in front of his desk and watched him. He paced back an
d forth with a copy of the article that I had written for him. His eyes scanned the paper over, his lips occasionally moving as he mouthed some of the words. The look on his face was one of constant strain. Whether or not he was enjoying what he was reading, I couldn’t tell. Through no fault of his own, he had a permanent scowl on his face.

He lowered the paper from his field of vision and slowly looked over at me. As he stared at me, I did my best to fight the smile from creeping onto my face. I knew that
he only
looked
angry. More importantly, the piece I had written for him was done to the best of my ability. It was the result of several weeks of hard work.

“
Did you check your facts on this Morrison fella?”

“
Yes, sir. Everything is accurate.”

“
Did you double-check them?”

“
Uh, yeah.”

“
Did you triple-check—”

“
Boss, those are the facts. I wouldn’t put anything in there if it weren’t true. Most of the things in there are straight from his mouth.”

“
Really? And did he know that you were recording him?”

“
Well… Not exactly. But that’s why there aren’t any direct quotes from him. All of the information has been confirmed by all of his associates. I stand by everything I wrote.”

“
Yeah, I’m just making sure.”

“
You know you don’t have to worry about that when it comes to me, boss. Everything in there is fact.”

Mr. Kelsey threw the article I wrote on his desk then reached for his pack of cigarettes. I watched him smoke and wondered if there were anything else he needed. The last thing I wanted was to sit here and deal wi
th his second-hand smoke when I didn’t have to.

“
I’m not surprised,” he said, exhaling a line of white smoke through his mouth. “A City Council member using funds to satisfy his drug addiction… I don’t know where you come up with this stuff, Victoria.”

“
I had a lot of people help me with it. A lot of people were willing to talk. It wasn’t really a big secret. I just thought it was time for the truth to be put down in writing. Roy helped me out a lot—”

“
Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to break it down for me. I give you the reins because I trust you. That’s why you’re my favorite reporter.”

“
Thank you, sir.”

“
So, what’s next?”

“
To be honest with you, I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I’m sure something will come to me.”

Mr. Kelsey looked at me as he flicked so
me of the ashes into his trash can. He smiled for a split-second before returning to the familiar frown that was always tattooed on his face.

“
I need something for next month, Victoria. Can you get it for me by then?”

“
I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

“
All right, get out of here and get to work. Make sure that Omar gets a copy of this so he can look it over.”

“
Of course.”

I stood up from the chair and made a beeline out of his office. As soon as I stepped outside, I took in a huge gasp of air. The rest o
f the office wasn’t perfect but it was significantly better than the office my boss kept himself confined in. Now I had to focus on the process of trying to figure out what my next story was about.

I had more leeway than all of the other reporters on the s
taff. While they all had to deal with a bevy of editors before they even had a chance to tell Mr. Kelsey their idea, I was free to write about whatever I wanted. It didn’t give me the freedom to do anything I pleased, however. I knew that I would lose my freedom if I wrote something that didn’t require any investigating.

“
Well, well, well. Look who decided to stop by the office.”

I turned my head and looked over at the cubicle just a few feet away from me. I smiled at the woman who was spinning around in he
r chair. She was a busty blonde woman who looked like she didn’t have any place in a magazine office like this. She was dressed in a shirt so tight you couldn’t help but notice how generous her genetics were. Her skirt was barely long enough to cover everything important and her heels were inching closer to stripper territory. She even wore makeup even though everybody was too busy to bother paying attention to her.

“
Hello, Lily. What’s new in the world of celebrity gossip?”

“
Oh, Victoria. I know better than to try and humor you with the lowly trash I write.”

We both laughed along with one another. Lily Beverly was The High Standard
’s resident gossip columnist, though you would never know it. I was more than happy to put my name on everything I wrote but Lily went by an alias to keep her name in the clear. That’s what happens when you deal with rumors and speculation instead of actual facts. Despite the contrast in styles, we both dealt with finding out secrets buried within the city. She just didn’t bother digging as deep as I did.

“
What did Patrick say to you?” she asked me.

“
Same as usual,” I shrugged.

“
Yeah, I figure. It must be nice to have weeks to put a single piece together.”

“
Hey, I’m working every single day. Investigating takes time. Maybe you should try it.”

“
No thanks. I’ll stick to gossip. That’s the only thing people read these days.”

“
Yeah, you’re right about that…”

I didn
’t mind what Lily wrote about. As long as people were reading it, I couldn’t argue against it. She was lucky enough to have her anonymity protect her from anybody who complained about alleged lies and slander.

I looked around the office in search of another lead. I headed toward Roy
’s desk to see what he was working on. As usual, I found him hard at work.

Roy Hood was the magazine
’s premiere photographer. At just 20 years old, he already decided that this is what he wanted to do with his life. Nobody could argue against him. He had a natural talent for getting the perfect photo of whatever it was you asked of him. He was a nerd when it came to his photography. Some people would say that it’s bordering on neurosis. In our line of work, that’s exactly what you need to get people to pay attention. The little details always make the difference.

He was li
ke a little boy living in a man’s world. His dark hair was always disheveled on his head like he didn’t bother combing it after getting out of the shower. The remnants of the acne from his teenage years were still on his face but he was otherwise unblemished. He was lanky with only enough muscles to carry his photo equipment. It wasn’t unusual for people to wonder if he actually worked here or if he was someone else’s son hanging out for the day. None of that mattered to me though. All I cared about was that he maintained his ability to put together the perfect picture.

“
What’s happening, Roy?”

“
Just a second…”

His eyes lingered upon the screen as he edited the photo he was working on. His face was glued to the monitor as if he was trying to see some optical
illusion. I smirked as I watched him. This kind of behavior was typical for him.

“
There we go,” he said as he finished editing the tiny detail in the photo. “Hey, Victoria. I’m just cleaning up some photos for my latest feature. What do you think?”

He tur
ned to me while I looked at the monitor. I saw a scenic photo of the horizon that appeared to be taken from the top of a mountain.

“
That’s… Where did you get that photo?” I asked him.

“
U.S. Air Force. We were doing a profile on some of their pilots. One of them even let me take photos while he flew me around.”

“
You got to fly around?”

“
Yep. Right in a fighter plane. He spun me around a few times and I managed to keep my lunch down.”

“
And why wasn’t I invited?”

“
Oh, well… You weren’t in the office and—”

“
I’m just kidding, Roy. Any of the pilots interesting?”

“
Nothing you’d be interested in.”

“
You know what I like, Roy.”

I winked at him. Roy knew the nature of the stories I wrote. We covere
d a wide variety of topics at The High Standard. When Roy dealt with me, he knew that I was all about uncovering details and finding out secrets.

“
You got anything else for me?” I asked him as I looked at the rest of the photos on his computer monitor.

“
Let me see…”

As he spun around in his chair and looked at all of the photos scattered at his workstation, one of the photos caught my eye. Through all of the clutter of panoramic photos and general profile shots, there was a man that stuck out more than anyt
hing. He was a young-looking man dressed in a business suit. The photo was black and white so I could barely make out where he was standing. It looked like one of those old spy photos you see taken by the FBI.

“
Who’s that?” I asked him.

“
What? Which one?”

“
That guy,” I pointed. “That guy in the suit and tie.”

“
Oh,” Roy said. “Yeah, that’s Landon Schrader.”

“
Landon Schrader. Who’s that?”

“
Just some rich guy or something. I don’t know the details. Jennifer in Features wanted to do a story on him but things fell through.”

The photo had gotten my attention but Roy continued to pique my curiosity.

“Fell through? What do you mean?”

“
He didn’t want to talk. I was barely able to snap that photo before his security asked me to leave. They were treating me like the paparazzi. I’m a real journalist. Can you believe that, Victoria?”

“
Yeah, that really sucks…”

I continued to stare at the photo. It was hard to determine exactly what he looked like but there was something intriguing about it.

“Why did Jennifer want to write a story about him in the first place?”

“
I don’t know,” Roy shrugged. “She said he was some hotshot billionaire. With the amount of security surrounding him, I believe it. That in itself is a story. She wanted to do a profile about him but he never returned her calls. She moved on. I don’t even know what I’m doing with that photo.”

The light bulb in my head turned on. I wasn
’t going to let this go so easily.

“
Jennifer was on the right track,” I said. “But I could understand why she gave up. She has more important things to do. But I don’t…”

“
What are you saying?” Roy said to me, a confused look on his face.

“
He’s hiding something.”

“
What? Why do you assume that?”

“
Why else wouldn’t he want to talk? Everybody wants the chance to do an interview. Especially this guy. He’s got loads of money. The free publicity would make him even more money. Unless he’s got something to hide.”

“
But he’s a billionaire. Maybe he just has enough money and he doesn’t want to be bothered.”

“
Maybe. But I think this is worth looking into. Where was this photo taken?”

“
It was outside of his building on 5th and Lexington. You’re not planning on camping out there to get a piece of him? I don’t think you’re going to get past security—”