Front Page Secrets

The prologue introduces us to Ann Gallagher, seated in a cemetery as her fiancé, Patrick, is buried and while four friends reflect on the tragic events that have burdened Ann for the last year. One of those friends can offer Ann a new life in another city but as they watch her from a distance, they all wonder if she’ll ever be happy again.
The story opens in the Government House in Annapolis as Ann covers a press conference with Governor DeWitt. Full of anguish and self-doubt, Ann wonders if she’s made the right choice in accepting the job at the Sentinel in Baltimore. An established political/gossip columnist for the competing Tribune approaches Ann with a hard sell to join him for dinner. She quickly discovers she wants nothing to do with Charles Rossi and his oversized ego and returns to the pressroom in Baltimore to write a front-page story that catches the eyes of DeWitt, who summons her to a private meeting. With a feather in her cap, Ann imagines the possibilities as she heads to the meeting only to be thoroughly confused when she learns Rossi will be attending the meeting as well.
Paired as a reporting team by DeWitt, Ann and Charles forge a professional, and competing, partnership. Neither of them thinks DeWitt’s media plan passes the smell test and they begin to formulate ideas about DeWitt’s motive. Investigations lead them back to Annapolis, where they have dinner, are handed a mysterious envelope, and get stranded in a blizzard. As they build their theories, so they spark a relationship—one that neither is comfortable with and that must be hidden from their bosses. But DeWitt has other ideas and Ann and Charles are forced to attend a gala that puts them both on the front page and not in a good light.
With a fracture in their barely-begun relationship, Charles’s presence is requested on U.S. President Moore’s “MidAmerica Bus Tour.” Charles wants to set their relationship back on solid ground before he leaves, but Ann will have nothing to do with it. She’s fraught with fear that tragedy will strike her life again when Charles boards the bus. Her intuition proves right when a fatal crash involving the tour caravan leaves her wondering if Charles is dead or alive. The experience is full of lessons for both, as Ann discovers how important Charles is to her and Charles learns the secret to the sad look ever present in Ann’s eyes.
Reunited, they form a personal bond and renew their promise to figure out exactly what is the connection among DeWitt, Moore, and an Annapolis land developer. Ann draws on her grandmother’s theories about triangles in all our relationships and slowly their investigation takes shape. Fueled by anonymous mail, people being in convenient places at opportune moments, and a little fear, Ann and Charles present their theory to Ann’s boss. Soon Ann and Charles find themselves answering questions of the FBI.
Just days before the President will deliver the State of the Union address, their clandestine story about political deception gets picked up by their long-time friend, Joe Riley, of the Associated Press. With the AP now chasing down leads, the investigation speeds up for all involved, putting more heat on the elected officials and renewing the reporters’ fear for their safety.
With hard work and determination, Ann and Charles uncover many political secrets, some of which were hiding in plain sight on the front page of the Tribune. As a result of Ann and Charles’s investigation, two prominent political leaders are indicted and the face of the nation changes.