“This is Delilah Reyes from theLas Vegas Times.”
“Hi Delilah. My name is Leo Morril. You know who I am, don’t you?”
I swore I had Leo Morril’s number saved in my phone. As I spoke to him, I searched the number he was calling from, but nothing came up. Suspicious, to say the least.
“Yes, and it seems you know who I am since you called me. How can I help you, Leo?”
“Straight to the point, I like it,” Leo said with a chuckle. There was something off-putting about his charm, and I couldn’t yet say what it was. It might have been as simple as Adrian getting there first, but I doubted it. Leo was the kind of businessman who thought he was the most charming person in any room, yet ended up pissing everyone else off. “Rumor has it you are working on a story about the great family rivalry in Las Vegas.”
“I’m working on many things these days.”
“A not-denial denial. They did say you were good at your job. Do you mind if I share some anonymous information with you?”
I had to play this carefully. Sources who would only speak anonymously were often a gold mine of information, because people gossiped freely when their name wasn’t attached. Theproblem was too many people in my industry treated them like candy, an unhealthy habit that needed to be picked.
“You can, but I think whatever it is you want to say, your words will resonate much more strongly if your name is attached to them.”
“Oh, I am aware,” Leo said, again with a laugh. “And I am not saying I will never go on record with my name attached to it. But perhaps this round, we keep it anonymous?”
I wish I had known this call was coming. But I made myself the same deal I always did—if someone shared something truly juicy with me as an anonymous source, I would pressure them as much as I could to get them to say the same thing on the record. Most people eventually relented; in the few cases that someone did not, I was left with a simple choice. Publish or not. Sometimes I did, sometimes I did not.
“For now,” I said, “but I will tell you the same thing I tell everyone. If I feel the information you share is worth publishing, I will ask you to say it with your name attached. If not, it is far less likely to be published.”
“Understandable, you are quite good at your job.”
I said nothing. The best way to let charm give up was to never give a response in the first place.
“I’m here to talk to you about the Vales, specifically Adrian.”
The journalist in me perked her ears up. The human in me felt a sharp heat in my stomach.
“Adrian, of course, as you know, is the CFO of the Vale casino empire, and a man who calls himself the King of Diamonds. A fascinating nickname, if you ask me. Speaks to perhaps a small bit of insecurity, really; after all, who goes around declaring themselves king in a democracy? But I digress, as ultimately, personal shortcomings and follies don’t make for a story. They might make for an embarrassing blog post, but nothing more.”
I couldn’t decide if that was genuine self-awareness on Leo’s part about the terrible attempt at a smear article on Sarah or somehow an even bigger sign of lacking self-awareness. But I had barely noticed that; I had taken the “King of Diamonds” nickname as something just factual that I hadn’t even considered that it might be compensating for something.
But for what? Was there something in the Vale household that suggested Adrian felt the need to adopt the nickname? The honest answer was most likely yes, but the obvious follow-up question was whether it even mattered.
“What is of greater interest to me, however, is the manner in which Adrian Vale operates as CFO,” Leo continued. “As you are probably well aware, a part of any business is M&A, mergers and acquisitions. I won’t patronize you, I assume you know well enough what those terms are.”
I did. And yet somehow, in saying he wouldn’t patronize me, Leo came across as doing exactly that.
“The Vales grew their business, in part, by essentially buying their way to the top. They’d grow a business, identify a competitor who was just ever so slightly smaller, buy them, and then grow accordingly. It’s something I’ve done, so I won’t pretend it’s not good business. But the Morrils always try to do everything aboveboard. Have you ever wondered how the Vales grew so quickly?”
I didn’t answer that question. I was here to collect information, not to be surprised by someone’s pointed presentation.
“Well, let me tell you,” Leo finally said. “A few years ago, the Vales attempted to acquire a smaller, family-owned casino pretty far out from here. It’s in such a small town I couldn’t even name it for you. But the family didn’t want to sell. They said it had been in the family for generations and would be for generations to come.
“Most of us, our family included, would have just shrugged it off. We might have tried to compete with them, maybe we’d even do what we could to beat them, but we’d fight fair and square. The little CFO over there, the Prince of Diamonds? He didn’t take it so kindly.”
I smirked when I heard “Prince of Diamonds.” Not because I thought it was funny. But because Leo probably thought it was funny, when in reality it ironically showed him to be suffering from the same insecurity he had insinuated with Adrian. It was not exactly breaking news to say that for all their money, wealthy people often had some of the most fragile egos of anyone I knew.
“He orchestrated a campaign of bad press, financially ruthless behavior, and even perhaps some dubious legal activity to drive the smaller casino business into bankruptcy. At that point, of course, the Vales came in and ‘saved’ the family business, promising to protect it at all costs. But now you know the truth.”
“That, I do,” I said, though it didn’t really mean much to me. Of course it was fucked up if true—but the key phrase there was “if true.” My job being what it was, I took nothing at face value and investigated everything, including whatever Adrian told me.
“The Vale empire, you see, is not built on creativity, hard work, and ingenuity, but on exploiting others, breaking them, and then pretending to be saviors. Just keep that in mind.”
I said nothing.
