Eliza paced outside the office of Don Shelton's office, Don was the Executive Director of the Seattle Times were Eliza had worked since she turned 18, she had begun her career early, and was extremely ambitious, since she was thirteen she had sent letters, photographs and prospective articles to the various editors that formed the editorial team of the Seattle Times, the main daily broadsheet newspaper in Seattle. She was lucky to receive an internship and fought her way onto the regular staff shortly afterwards. Over the years she had written for features, business pages, local news, travel, life and opinion pages, she had quite a following, and with the recent announcement of Lynn Jacobson, Deputy managing editor leaving to set up her own travel guide Eliza had her eyes firmly on that seat.<br/><br/>Don opened the door to his office with a warm smile to welcome Eliza, "Miss Spring...Eliza", he gestured for her to enter his rather modest office. Eliza straightened her skirt, and took a deep breath before taking a seat opposite her boss.<br/><br/>"You know I love your tenacity Eliza", he began<br/>"You've given it to Charlie haven't you?", she raised an eyebrow, fuck, she thought to herself, she hated Charlie.<br/><br/>"Eliza, in the time you have spent with Seattle Times, you've had quite the career", he continued..<br/>"Because Charlie doesn't have the same readership, he doesn't receive the same response", Eliza shook her head struggling somewhat.<br/><br/>"Of course Lynn is quite the act to follow, and the great thing about Lynn", he explained...<br/>"I work harder than any other journalist, I have got us the exclusives before any other daily, what exclusives has Charlie got", all true statements she thought to herself.<br/><br/>Don rose from his chair, and looked out of his window, "She has written for every area of the paper", he gazed back to Eliza, her heart sank. "Sports", he told her.<br/>"Sports", she sighed.<br/><br/>Don stood behind Eliza, he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I won't be announcing the Deputy Managing Editor immediately, Michelle can manage with the team for a month, you see?", he winked. Eliza stood up full of energy and realising, "I will cover every game", she continued. He shook his head.<br/>"No Miss Spring, I have the winning article here", he smirked and placed an old newspaper on his desk,<br/><br/>Super Bowl ends the career of Mark Windham ....<br/><br/>"You know this guy?", Don questioned. Eliza knew the name but little else, she picked up the newspaper, "Within a month?", she questioned, Don nodded.<br/><br/>It took Eliza less than twenty minutes to trace Mr. Mark Windham, the former quarterback of the Cleveland Browns residing in a houseboat luckily still in the Seattle area, just on the coast, she packed an overnight bag, her laptop, phones, sketch pads and note books along with a variety of pens and pencils, a six pack of Budweiser, which she was told was Mr. Windhams current poison of choice, and doughnuts, because what man passes up a doughnut. She also stopped for coffee just before she parked.<br/><br/>Eliza then sent a text to her Editor, "On assignment from Don, check in tomorrow".<br/><br/>She took the forty minute drive to the marina, parking in the far corner away from the obvious sailor vehicles that had an obvious fish smell about them. She stopped to ask one of the old guys nearby, holding only her laptop bag, "I'm looking for Mark Windham, could you point me in the direction of his boat", she smiled, one of the perks of being Eliza was her youthful look always made her seem trustworthy, "I'm his secret love child", she joked as the men exchanged glances, "Sure Red, he's the green to the far right", she thanked them and walked towards the boat in question.<br/><br/>Usually she would start using his full name, but she decided to go with a different approach this time, her sources told her that Mr Windham had let himself go a little. "Hey, I'm looking for Mark...I have coffee and doughnuts", she waved a bag. She spotted the hair of an older guy and a white t'shirt, "It's fresh", she added happily.<br/><br/><a class="username" data-user-id="82" data-username="@Klugario" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/82/">@Klugario</a>