Taneesha groaned. "Are you still on that story? If the boss finds out you're chasing Patterson around town, he'll have your head. Or have you forgotten just how much money Patterson spends on advertising with this station?"

"He's got six fast-food restaurants and a car dealership which represent a fraction of his total business worth. And it's station policy that the sales department and the news department are independent of each other."

"That's what they say, but without advertising, WBTN wouldn't exist. And you'd be left shouting your stories from the top of Beacon Hill."

"I know there's a story here," Brian said in a serious tone. "I can feel it. I'm going to corner him and see what happens. Hell, what can he do? All those rich folks and him wanting to buy a place on the social ladder. I don't think he's going to haul off and hit me."

"Are you crazy? They'll toss you out of there so fast you'll-"

"Don't you think the public has a right to know? Three other developers spend seven years in court, trying to get approval on that property. Patterson buys it and he gets the zoning variance within weeks. He paid for that variance and I want to know how much it cost him and who got the money."

"Guys like that cover their tracks well."

"Shady real estate deals, backroom bargaining and a lot of money changing hands. Sooner or later, they're going to get lazy and make a mistake. Patterson's deals always seem to come too easily. My brother-in-law, Rafe Kendrick, is a developer and even he says that Patterson isn't legal."

"You realize that the guy who owns this television station is an old friend of Richard Patterson's? Maybe you should think about your career here?"

Brian laughed. "I've become the top investigative reporter in Boston in just over a year and I pull in the viewers. They're not going to fire me."