Page 79 of Wild Fever

I knocked on the door and scanned the hallway for threats, out of an abundance of caution. I was pretty sure no one had followed me over to the hotel.

Noise from a TV in the room filtered down the hallway. Footsteps followed. The peephole flickered as Edward peered through. He unlatched the deadbolt and the chain, then pulled the door open.

His face filled with confusion for a moment, then he figured it out. "You talked to Paris, didn't you?"

I didn't admit anything. "Seems like we have some things to talk about."

His face tightened, and he shook his head in frustration. "She told me our conversation was private."

"You're going to do an interview on camera, and you expect what you say to be private?” I asked, incredulous.

His mouth scrunched, and he shifted his weight. "I'm not entirely sure I want to go on camera now."

"You’re doing the right thing,” I assured. “Can I come inside?"

Edward opened the door wider and stepped aside. I walked into the foyer, and Edward glanced in both directions down the hall before closing the door. He flipped the deadbolt and hooked the chain.

I stepped into the room, and Edward followed.

"I'm putting myself and my family at risk. What kind of protection can you offer?"

"I think what you're about to tell me falls squarely under the purview of the SEC. We can talk about witness protection ifthat's something you're interested in. But I have to caution you, it's a difficult life. It means severing all ties. It's not something most people want. But depending on the risk, it beats the alternative."

Edward frowned. He didn't like the sound of that.

"Tell me about Elias’s criminal activities," I said.

Edward's mouth tightened, and he hesitated for a moment.

49

"It's pretty unbelievable, really," Edward said. "Not only was he front-running trades, profiting off the big moves that followed from institutional investments, he was also bribing pension fund board members and other large institutions to get them to invest. Can you believe that shit? Sure, wine and dine them. But he'd also provide hookers, drugs, luxury vacations, you name it. Then he’d convince these people to invest in what were supposedly low-risk products, which were actually high risk. Everything was great when the market moved up. But when it corrected…” Edward shook his head. "Massive losses on the downside. Just insane. He completely misrepresented risk and falsified internal ratings. Not to mention he's using offshore shell companies to hide losses and move funds. Dude, lives were destroyed. It's all in the data I collected.”

"And you gave that data to Lance?"

Edward nodded.

"What became of the data?"

"I don't know.”

"Did you find any evidence that Lance was involved?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. "If I thought he was involved, I wouldn't have given him the information. I would have gone straight to the press or the SEC.”

"Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

Edward shrugged. “I don’t know. It would destroy the company. I like my job. I need my job. I thought maybe Lance could, I don’t know, do something. But he seemed more preoccupied with the whole cryo thing. I guess I can’t blame him. But it’s like he just forgot. How do you forget something like that?”

“Did you mention this to Vanessa?”

“No,” he said in a sheepish voice. “I was trying to feel her out. Wait for the right time. I kept thinking Lance might have told her, but if he did, she never came to me about it.”

“Do you still have copies of all the data?”

Edward nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

“I’ll need a copy.”