He was over six feet, with expensively waved black hair, wearing his suit jacket over an open-necked dress shirt. He oozed corporate polish: If he’d been ten years older, he could have made a credible movie career as a captain of industry. As it was, Miriam always found herself wondering how he’d climbed into the boardroom so young. He was in his mid-thirties, not much older than she was. “Hi.” He took in Miriam and Paulette standing just behind her and smiled. “What can I do for you?”

Miriam smiled back. “May we have a moment?’ she asked.

“Sure, come in.” Joe retreated behind his desk. “Have a chair, both of you.” He nodded at Paulette. “Miriam, we haven’t been introduced.”

“Oh, yes. Joe Dixon, Paulette Milan. Paulie is one of our heavy hitters in industrial research. She’s been working with me on a story and I figured we’d better bring it to you first before taking it to the weekly production meeting. It’s a bit, uh, sensitive.”

“ ‘Sensitive.’” Joe leaned back in his chair and looked straight at her. “Is it big?”

“Could be,” Miriam said noncommittally. Big? It’s the biggest I’ve ever worked on! A big story in her line of work might make or break a career; this one might send people to jail. “It has complexities to it that made me think you’d want advance warning before it breaks.”

“Tell me about it,” said Joe.

“Okay. Paulie, you want to start with your end?” She passed Paulette the file.

“Yeah.” Paulie grimaced as she opened the file and launched into her explanation. “In a nutshell, they’re laundries for dirty money. There’s enough of a pattern to it that if I was a DA in California I’d be picking up the phone to the local FBI office.”

“That’s why I figured you’d want to know,” Miriam explained. “This is a big deal, Joe. I think we’ve got enough to pin a money-laundering rap on a couple of really big corporations and make it stick. But last November you were talking to some folks at Proteome, and I figured you might want to refer this to Legal and make sure you’re fire-walled before this hits the fan.”