## JAMES PATTERSON

"Where, exactly?" a producer asks.

"He didn't say, exactly," an intern replies. "He said that a very rich man was involved."

"Who?"

"Didn't say." "

"Did he leave a call-back number?"

"No. The kid sounded really young. Fourteen, fifteen years old."

The producer thinks for a moment, makes a few scratches in his dog-eared notepad.

"Okay," he says. "I'm not sure what we can do with that for the moment."

At some point, some enterprising journalist will put enough pieces together to get a sense of the picture. Sooner or later, someone will talk. Maybe a parent. Maybe a cop's girlfriend gets giddy at lunch. The girlfriend's girlfriend mentions it to her hus- band, who says something to a golfing buddy in turn. Maybe the golfing buddy knows a reporter.

Or maybe some lawyer goes off the rez, blitzed off those mar- tinis they serve at the Palm Beach Grill.

Sooner or later, there's always talk. At that point, Chief Reit- er's job will get much, much harder-with Epstein on one side, the press on the other, and the chief taking flak from all sides. But right now, two months into Reiter's investigation, the press is still speaking in whispers.

Right now, Reiter wants to keep it that way.

And, in the meantime, new pieces of the puzzle keep falling into place.

On September 11,
over by the police.
The patrol officer]
vehicle. But Alison
she's cocky and ca
from the dime bag
remarkable story a
ties with high scho
says. She's been g
was sixteen.

At first the cop
gation into Jeffrey
burnout. But back
been bullshitting
The investigati
Alison's name a
that have been pul
a misdemeanor, sł
Chief Reiter's colle
Jeffrey Epstein.

The story Alis
Like Mary, sh
tells cops that Ep:
although, she susp
Recarey takes
(transcribed from
police), D stands
"victim."

* Alison's name, som

*

*

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{"people":["james patterson","jeffrey epstein","chief reiter"]}