Accidental Assassination???
After an obscene amount of hours chasing down leads and pouring over piles of data, Tom sat shaking his head in disbelief. "You're joking, right?"
Beth and Jamal, his best agents, sat across the desk from him shaking their heads nervously.
Tom looked at the photo and accompanying report again. "This is the result of your investigation? The president of the United States was accidentally assassinated?"
“I am telling you my research is solid.” I said as I handed Tom the magnifying glass. “Those two people in the background are John Wilkes Booth and Mary Todd. From uncovered letters and journal entries I bet my reputation that they were having an affair.”
Jamal laughed. “You don’t have a reputation.”
I gave him my best evil look. I turned to the pile of photocopies, pulling out the one with orange highlighted passages. “This proves that Mary ended her affair with John.”
Beth interrupted me. “But WHICH Mary. You can’t be sure it’s her.”
I scanned another document. A copy from Wilkes personal journal. Finding exactly what I was looking for I said “John writes …. Would he who said ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ be able to move forward without his truest friend….. Lincoln is quoted as saying ‘Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” I stood up. “Wilkes was never after Lincoln, he was gunning for Mary Todd.”
Tom let out a long slow breath. “Run it in tomorrow's edition. BUT we are not calling this an accidental assassination.”