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It's late October 2001. Wall Street Journal reporter John R. M. Schweiler sits in his office at the paper's Los Angeles Bureau in Schock.

He stares at the computer screen in front of him, rereading the text again and again.

M. Schweiler, a 29-year veteran of the journal, covers white collar crime.

Anron landed on his radar in a big way back when Jeff Skilling resigned in August.

The press release said he did it for personal reasons, but M. Schweiler's instincts told him that there was more to the story.

With the help of the journal's National Energy Reporter Rebecca Smith, it's a story he's been trying to get to the bottom of ever since.

Smith and M. Schweiler have yet to call Enron out for doing anything illegal.

It's simply too soon to tell, but each day since Skilling's resignation has seemed to generate more and more smoke.

A plummeting stock price, the uncovering of two mysterious financial vehicles, one called LJM, another Chouco.

The reporter's wonder if all this smoke is leading them to a fire, especially now that a true bombshell has dropped.

It's 7am. M. Schweiler grabs the phone and dials his partner.

Rebecca Smith grabs the phone midway through the first ring.

Hello.

It's John. I guess I better pay up.

The press release.

Yeah, listen to this part.

Andy Fastow previously and Ron CFO will be on leave of absence from the company.

Lay said, in my continuing discussions with the financial community, it became clear to me that restoring investor confidence would require us to replace Andy as CFO.

M. Schweiler pauses. He just lost a bet. Smith called it days ago, but M. Schweiler thought it just wasn't possible.

In recent weeks, Lay had repeatedly expressed total support for Fastow.

Well, looks like you were right.

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