Jonah Dillard stood before the glass wall in his office. A lovely, dark view of Morth City stood before him, barely lit up by neon signs and a few sole apartments where sleep had yet to fall on. He considered that view as a constant feature of such late night meetings, but by now he had grown used to it and even fond of it. A dark city with only a few lights brightening it.
The door creaked behind him as the journalist entered the room. "You're late," Dillard said coldly, his eyes still on the horizon.
"Yeah, well, YOU try to find a cab at this hour," the journalist grunted.
"You know why these kinds of things only happen in these hours. I prefer as few people as possible see you here."
"Yeah, I know. So… what do you need this time?"
"I guess you’ve heard that Blackburn was exonerated this morning."
"Of course."
"And I also guess you're going to print a story about it in tomorrow's newspapers."
"Yeah. Why?"
"I need you to edit in an extra small detail to that story."
"Which detail?"
"Well, you're obviously going to mention Blackburn's retaliation murders, right?"
"You mean the judge, the attorney and the officer who led the case? Of course we're going to mention it."
"Then make sure you also mention Officer Edward Elwin's admirable efforts to save the case when the key evidence disappeared."
"Edward Elwin? Alright, I can do that. Anything else?"
"No. That will be all."
"That’s it? You called me up to urgently meet you here at such an hour only so you can make sure this guy gets mentioned in tomorrow's newspapers?"
It was very important for Dillard. He couldn’t know what Derlick might have told Edward before he was shot. If Edward knew about Dillard's involvement in Blackburn's case sabotage, then he was posing a major threat to him. He had to go.
"Is there a problem?" Dillard asked.
"No. Of course not. I'll make sure his name appears in that story tomorrow."
"Good." The journalist left the office. Dillard stood for a few more minutes, looking at the same view as he had before. Even though he liked Edward and his high motivation to do his job, Dillard simply couldn’t afford to keep him alive. He knew that when Blackburn sees Edward mentioned in the papers and realizes that he had a part in the attempt to take him down just like the other three who were so brutally murdered, the Deserter General will be going after him, saving Dillard a great amount of work and headache.
The dark view never lit up any further. In fact, a few lights had flickered off during Dillard's conversation with the journalist, making the city look even darker than before.