“I have to be downtown later this morning for a meeting, so I thought I’d swing by with a few questions for Ms. Reilly that came up from the review I did yesterday of her hate mail. It appears I arrived as phase two of the attack was kicking off.”

Doug stared at him. “You think this is related to the fake bomb?”

“The timing seems too close to be coincidental. Since the person couldn’t physically intimidate Ms. Reilly into silence, they may be resorting to other tactics.”

“And this one could be even more damaging.” Doug ran his fingers through his hair and transferred his attention back to Eve. “Undermining your audience base could have dire consequences for ad revenue.”

“I’m aware of that—but I think we can contain this once I explain the situation to listeners.”

“Tell me that guy’s allegation was a total fabrication.”

She took a deep breath. Let it out. “It’s not true in terms of how the caller positioned it.” She turned to him. “You should sit in while I brief Doug if you think this is relevant to the bomb incident.”

“Let’s use the conference room.” The man started down the hall.

Eve fell in behind him, but when Brent touched her arm she swung back. “Could you use a coffee refill?”

She studied the empty mug in her hand. “Yeah. There’s a pot in the break room.”

He took the mug from her icy fingers. “I found it while I was here yesterday. Cream or sugar?”

“Both. Heavy on the sugar. The conference room is around the corner up there.” She motioned ahead of her, where Doug had already disappeared.

“I’ll be there in three minutes.”

She nodded and continued down the hall, back straight, step confident, head high.

But those chilled fingers had given her away.

They also suggested the listener’s claim had some basis in fact. He may have twisted it to suit his purposes, but there was a nugget of truth in there somewhere.

And that was bad.

While Eve didn’t appear to be a quitter . . . and she might be willing to stand up to a bomb threat . . . this latest attack was much more insidious. Undermining the moral character of a public figure who espoused traditional, conservative values could bring about a bloodless coup.

Doug’s first concern, about her audience and ad revenues—the lifeblood of a radio station—had been telling.

If Eve’s credibility with her listeners was compromised and they deserted her, she wouldn’t have to quit. The show would be cancelled.

Plus, once you planted doubts in people’s minds, they had a tendency to believe the old where-there’s-smoke-there’s-fire adage, regardless of the truth.

Eve was articulate and had natural eloquence—but even an expert communicator would have difficulty combating this kind of foe.

Still . . . if anyone could do it, his money was on Eve Reilly.