Depths of Depravity

by Wilde, Rhea

  I looked around the office in search of another lead. I headed toward Roy’s desk to see what he was working on. As usual, I found him hard at work.

  Roy Hood was the magazine’s premiere photographer. At just 20 years old, he already decided that this is what he wanted to do with his life. Nobody could argue against him. He had a natural talent for getting the perfect photo of whatever it was you asked of him. He was a nerd when it came to his photography. Some people would say that it’s bordering on neurosis. In our line of work, that’s exactly what you need to get people to pay attention. The little details always make the difference.

  He was like a little boy living in a man’s world. His dark hair was always disheveled on his head like he didn’t bother combing it after getting out of the shower. The remnants of the acne from his teenage years were still on his face but he was otherwise unblemished. He was lanky with only enough muscles to carry his photo equipment. It wasn’t unusual for people to wonder if he actually worked here or if he was someone else’s son hanging out for the day. None of that mattered to me though. All I cared about was that he maintained his ability to put together the perfect picture.

  “What’s happening, Roy?”

  “Just a second…”

  His eyes lingered upon the screen as he edited the photo he was working on. His face was glued to the monitor as if he was trying to see some optical illusion. I smirked as I watched him. This kind of behavior was typical for him.

  “There we go,” he said as he finished editing the tiny detail in the photo. “Hey, Victoria. I’m just cleaning up some photos for my latest feature. What do you think?”

  He turned to me while I looked at the monitor. I saw a scenic photo of the horizon that appeared to be taken from the top of a mountain.

  “That’s… Where did you get that photo?” I asked him.

  “U.S. Air Force. We were doing a profile on some of their pilots. One of them even let me take photos while he flew me around.”

  “You got to fly around?”

  “Yep. Right in a fighter plane. He spun me around a few times and I managed to keep my lunch down.”

  “And why wasn’t I invited?”

  “Oh, well… You weren’t in the office and—”

  “I’m just kidding, Roy. Any of the pilots interesting?”

  “Nothing you’d be interested in.”

  “You know what I like, Roy.”

  I winked at him. Roy knew the nature of the stories I wrote. We covered a wide variety of topics at The High Standard. When Roy dealt with me, he knew that I was all about uncovering details and finding out secrets.

  “You got anything else for me?” I asked him as I looked at the rest of the photos on his computer monitor.

  “Let me see…”

  As he spun around in his chair and looked at all of the photos scattered at his workstation, one of the photos caught my eye. Through all of the clutter of panoramic photos and general profile shots, there was a man that stuck out more than anything. He was a young-looking man dressed in a business suit. The photo was black and white so I could barely make out where he was standing. It looked like one of those old spy photos you see taken by the FBI.

  “Who’s that?” I asked him.

  “What? Which one?”

  “That guy,” I pointed. “That guy in the suit and tie.”

  “Oh,” Roy said. “Yeah, that’s Landon Schrader.”

  “Landon Schrader. Who’s that?”

  “Just some rich guy or something. I don’t know the details. Jennifer in Features wanted to do a story on him but things fell through.”

  The photo had gotten my attention but Roy continued to pique my curiosity.

  “Fell through? What do you mean?”

  “He didn’t want to talk. I was barely able to snap that photo before his security asked me to leave. They were treating me like the paparazzi. I’m a real journalist. Can you believe that, Victoria?”

  “Yeah, that really sucks…”

  I continued to stare at the photo. It was hard to determine exactly what he looked like but there was something intriguing about it.

  “Why did Jennifer want to write a story about him in the first place?”

  “I don’t know,” Roy shrugged. “She said he was some hotshot billionaire. With the amount of security surrounding him, I believe it. That in itself is a story. She wanted to do a profile about him but he never returned her calls. She moved on. I don’t even know what I’m doing with that photo.”

  The light bulb in my head turned on. I wasn’t going to let this go so easily.

  “Jennifer was on the right track,” I said. “But I could understand why she gave up. She has more important things to do. But I don’t…”

  “What are you saying?” Roy said to me, a confused look on his face.

  “He’s hiding something.”

  “What? Why do you assume that?”

  “Why else wouldn’t he want to talk? Everybody wants the chance to do an interview. Especially this guy. He’s got loads of money. The free publicity would make him even more money. Unless he’s got something to hide.”

  “But he’s a billionaire. Maybe he just has enough money and he doesn’t want to be bothered.”

  “Maybe. But I think this is worth looking into. Where was this photo taken?”

  “It was outside of his building on 5th and Lexington. You’re not planning on camping out there to get a piece of him? I don’t think you’re going to get past security—”

  “No, I’m not going to do that… You said Jennifer was working on the piece?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Stay right here, Roy. I’ll be right back.”

  “Hey, I’m not going anywhere.”

  Roy turned his attention back to all of the work in front of him. I walked between all of the cubicles where all of the people worked. I looked for Jennifer and eventually found her in the corner, leisurely working on her latest article.

  “Jennifer.”

  She slowly turned and looked at me for a moment. She stared at me, searching for something to say.

  “Victoria,” I said. “Investigative reporter.”

  “Right. Uh, is something wrong?”

  “I just talked to Roy. He said you were working on some profile about this guy named Landon Schra—”

  “Don’t remind me,” she rolled her eyes.

  “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  She sighed before she said anything. The leisure demeanor she had when I first arrived was replaced by a woman who had been spurned.

  “He was more trouble than he was worth,” she said. “I thought it would be interesting to learn more about a man who was a self-made billionaire. Not a millionaire but a billionaire.”

  “What’s so interesting about that?”

  “He made all of his money somewhere else. Then he bought an entire building and operates everything here. I figured maybe there was something behind all of the money he made. Maybe he could offer our readers some financial advice. Maybe he could talk about some job offers for people looking. Maybe he was just a really funny guy. Whatever the case, I thought it would make for an interesting read. But he didn’t want any part of it. I ended up canning it. It was too much effort.”

  “I see…”

  I was more intrigued than I’d ever been. Jennifer may have given up so easily but I was determined to find out what the case with this guy was. There had to be more to him than just being an asshole who didn’t want to talk to anybody.

  “Jennifer, I was wondering—”

  “You want to write about Landon? Be my guest.”

  “Thanks. Do you have any notes or information?”

  “Not really,” she shrugged. “Most of the stuff I had was general information I pulled off of the Internet.”

  “Does he have any contacts? Like an agent, a publicist… Maybe a secretary?”

  “Maybe,” she shook her head. “But getting in contact with them is more diffic
ult than talking to Landon himself.”

  “So you don’t have any leads at all.”

  She frowned at me and shook her head again. Jennifer was making it seem like it was an impossible task. There had to be some way to get ahold of him. There was a story behind Landon Schrader, even if it was something possibly mundane like Jennifer suggested.

  Like I was on a wild goose chase, I headed back to Lily in search for any hint of an answer. She was busy filing her nails while she talked on her wireless earpiece like some bored secretary.

  “Lily, can I talk to you for a second?”

  “Hold on, one of my coworkers wants to talk to me,” she said to the person on the phone. “Yeah, I’ll call you back later. What is it, Victoria?”

  “What do you know about Landon Schrader?”

  “Landon Schrader? He’s a billionaire or something, right?”

  “What else do you know?”

  “Um, not much,” she shrugged. “Should I know anything?”

  “He’s a billionaire, Lily! I thought gossip was your department.”

  “Yeah but only about people in the public eye.”

  “How many billionaires are there in this city?”

  “Too many for me to pay attention to them.”

  “Lily…”

  “Wait a second. I just remembered. I think I might actually have something on him.”

  Lily spun around in her chair and set her nail file to the side. She typed away on her keyboard and I watched her search for any relevant information.

  “What do you know?” she said. “Landon Schrader actually does show up in my database.”

  “What does it say?”

  “Let me see… Self-made billionaire… Government contracts… Not married… Spends time by himself… Sorry, Victoria. None of this is really interesting.”

  “Do you have any way I could get in contact with him?”

  “Hmm… There’s a phone number here. You could try that. But that’s all I got for you.”

  “Thanks, Lily.”

  I wrote the number down on an index card and shoved it into my pocket. As I started to walk away, Lily yelled out to me.

  “I want some credit if Patrick loves whatever it is you got planned.”

  “Don’t worry, Lily. You’ll get what you deserve.”

  I smiled at her as she resumed her conversation. I headed back to Roy, who was still working meticulously on a set of photos on his desk.

  “Roy, are you busy?”

  “I’m always busy, Victoria. You know that.”

  “I mean, do you have any specific photo assignments you’re working on? Outside of the office, are you doing anything?”

  “Not in particular, no.”

  “Great. I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  “I want you to follow Landon Schrader.”

  “What?”

  Roy spun away from his desk and stared at me. He shook his head in disbelief and I couldn’t help but give him a devious smile.

  “You want me to follow Landon Schrader?” he said. “Follow him for what?”

  “I want you to take photos of him. I want to know what he does when he’s not in his office. I want to know where he’s at when he’s not working. Everything.”

  “Victoria, you must have me confused with someone else. We work for a magazine, not the CIA. Besides, his security wouldn’t have any part of it.”

  “So just stay out of their way. You don’t have to be right next to him. Don’t you have a zoom lens or something?”

  “Yeah but… Victoria, is there a point to all of this? I mean, you want me to take pictures of him and find out where he spends all of his time outside of work.”

  “I’ve got a hunch.”

  “A hunch? That’s it? Victoria—”

  “Roy, trust me. There’s more to this story than Jennifer realized. Maybe he’s just some weird guy who doesn’t want to deal with the media. Or maybe it’s something more serious. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m going to get him to talk and it’s going to be one of the best features I’ve ever written.”

  I was doing my best to get him to do this for me. Roy looked at me skeptically. I couldn’t blame him. Even I thought the idea sounded silly. My only lead was that he didn’t want to talk. I guess I was just hoping that Landon Schrader was hiding a secret from the public.

  “Please, Roy,” I begged him. “There’s something here. I know it. I’ve just… I’ve got a feeling. It’s in my gut. I know that doesn’t make any sense. Just follow him for a couple of nights. If he doesn’t do anything interesting, you can stop.”

  “Well…” he sighed. “I don’t have any other assignments lined-up. I suppose a few nights wouldn’t hurt. Can you at least lend me a few bucks so I could get something to eat?”

  “Sure, Roy.”

  “I should know better than to let you give me assignments. All of a sudden I’m on a stakeout…”

  Roy didn’t understand what I was thinking but that didn’t matter. I had gotten him to see things from my perspective. If there were something here, I would find it. With the number Lily had given me, I finally had a lead. Now all I had to do was cross my fingers and hope that there was something to find.

  Chapter 4

  Jennifer was right. I searched for any other information I could find on Landon Schrader but there wasn’t much. His company had a generic blank statement on its website. He dealt mostly with technology revolving around robotics and cybernetics. It wasn’t particularly interesting since there was always something being written about in the tech sector. I’m sure that aspect of his company had been covered multiple times.

  After gathering all of the basic information I could, I decided to get in contact with the company. I called the phone number on the website. I was greeted with an automated message asking me if I wanted a brochure to learn more about investing in their products. I was already at a dead end.

  It was only the first day I started this assignment but I was getting frustrated. I leaned back in my chair and spun around in it. I looked up at the ceiling of my loft while I tried to get an idea to pop into my head. The only thing I could think of was to wait for Roy to get in contact with me and hope that he found out something interesting.

  I sighed as I leaned back over my desk. I searched the scarce amount of notes over and over again to see if there was any way I could get in contact with him. I reached into my pockets and something poked my hand. I pulled it out and looked at it. On the card was the phone number Lily gave to me. I stared at the phone number and squinted my eyes at it.

  “Wait a minute…”

  I looked through all of my notes in search of the business phone number I just called. I held the card next to it and compared the two.

  “The numbers are different…”

  Could it be? Maybe this is just an old number…

  I wasn’t sure whether or not I should trust Lily’s sources but she had this number down for a reason. I picked up my phone and called it, not completely sure I was going to get an answer. After two rings, somebody picked up.

  “Hello?” a man said.

  “Um, yes… I’m trying to get in touch with Landon Schrader.”

  “Who is this?”

  I started to panic. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell him who I really was or not. I decided that I would try the direct approach.

  “Who is this?” he repeated.

  “Hi, my name is Victoria Hill. I—”

  “Why do you want to talk to Mr. Schrader?”

  “W-well, I’d like to sit down for an interview with Mr. Schrader and—”

  “Mr. Schrader doesn’t do interviews.”

  “But—”

  “Goodbye.”

  Before I could say anything else the man hung up on me. I tried calling again but nobody picked up.

  Shit. My one chance and I blew it.

  I stared at the phone number on the card, trying to put togeth
er something from the few seconds I spoke to the man. I closed my eyes and tried to figure out who he was.

  Security guard? Publicist? Maybe an attorney?

  There was no way I would figure it out without asking him directly. It was my one lead and I had lost it just as quickly as I had found it.

  “There was music,” I said to myself. “There was music playing in the background. Maybe he was having a party. Or maybe he was driving with the radio on. Oh, Victoria. You’re an idiot…”

  I sighed as I failed to put anything together. My last article was about a member of City Council doing drugs. I guess the truth about that piece was still lingering in me. Maybe this was all too much. Maybe I was just expecting Landon Schrader to have a secret because every high-profile man in the city had one. But it didn’t matter if he weren’t going to slip. Nobody around him was talking. This wasn’t going to be easy. I was beginning to consider looking elsewhere for something to write about.

  “Maybe Jennifer’s right,” I said to myself. “Maybe he’s just some rich guy. You’re an investigative reporter, Victoria. There’s nothing to investigate here. He’s just a billionaire who likes his privacy.”

  I had never been so disappointed with myself. I saw the photo of a good-looking man in a suit and let my imagination run away with itself. I guess part of me just wanted there to be a story because I found him attractive. Maybe the lingering effects of my boyfriend were still resonating with me.

  As the night wore on, I sat at my computer and did nothing but wait. My desk was once again accompanied by familiar boxes of half-eaten Chinese food and bottles of soda and water. I leaned back in my chair and called Roy.

  “Now should be a good time…”

  I put the phone up to my ear and waited for his response.

  “Hello?”

  “Roy. It’s Victoria.”

  “Oh, hey, Victoria.”

  “Well, what have you got for me?”

  “Sorry, Victoria.”

  “Sorry? What do you mean? Did you not follow him?”

  “I did. But I don’t have anything for you. I waited for him outside of his building. Followed him just like you said. He just headed home.”

  “…That’s it?”

  “That’s it. I mean, he’s got a nice house. It’s a big mansion that’s gated but—”