4 Shot Off The Presses (19 page)

I walked into The Monitor with a huge smile on my face. Not only had I made up with Eliot, I’d managed to scare the crap out of Tad Ludington and get a quick nap in. The only way my morning could have gotten any better was if someone had given me a functioning lightsaber as a gift or if I could suddenly choke people with the powers generated by my own mind.

I dropped my coat and purse at my desk and then headed straight for Fish. He saw me coming, and he didn’t look happy.

“Tad Ludington is insisting on coming in here and having a meeting with me this afternoon,” Fish snapped. “Any idea why?”

Hmm, to lie or not to lie? That is the question. “I had a fight with him a little over an hour ago.”

“I know,” Fish replied. “I heard. Apparently the county courthouse is buzzing about you kicking him in the balls.”

“He grabbed me first,” I said defensively.

Fish narrowed his eyes. “I should have been a little more specific. The actual quote from the courthouse was that you verbally kicked Ludington in the balls. Is there something else I should know?”

“No,” I said smoothly. “Not a thing.”

“Is Ludington going to say the same thing when he gets in here?”

“I have no idea,” I said honestly. “My guess is that he’s going to try to threaten you first and then try to compromise second.”

“Okay,” Fish said resignedly. “What’s he going to threaten me about?”

“He let it slip during our little tiff that there’s been some talk that the National Guard base is going to be closed,” I said conspiratorially.

Fish raised his eyebrows, interest knitting them together. “He told you that?”

“He didn’t mean to,” I said. “I was hammering him on Christine Brady and he was trying to divert my attention. Kind of.”

“What do you have on Christine Brady?”

“Marvin got the financials on her,” I said, rubbing my hands together excitedly. “She has no background in PR and she’s making $70,000 a year.”

“That seems like a lot,” Fish said. “I thought they were slashing the county budget?”

“It is. The Wayne County PR flak is only making $40,000 and the Oakland County chick is making $50,000,” I said.

“And what was his rationale for this?”

“He said she was qualified and that Jake deserved the help,” I said loftily. “He seemed surprised that I would bother to dig into her past. He also admitted he was the one that suggested her – which means there’s something sneaky there I’m going to dig up.”

“He’s met you, right?” Fish smirked. “He should have known the first thing you would do is dig.”

“I know. I don’t know what he thought would happen when he dropped that woman into my pool and told her to attack me,” I responded bitterly.

“Are you going to write a story about that?”

“What do you think?”

“Are you going to write it today?” Fish clarified his question.

“Probably not,” I admitted. “There’s another press conference at the sheriff’s department on the shootings this afternoon and I want to see if I can find anything out about the National Guard base.”

“You should ask Bill if he’s heard anything,” Fish suggested.

I wrinkled my nose unhappily. Bill Crowder was our main political reporter. In addition to talking to me like I’m twelve – and constantly making fun of my shoes and clothes – he was also known for disappearing every afternoon. No one knew exactly where he was going, but he always came back smelling like the bottom of a whiskey bottle. He seemed to think meeting your sources at a bar was still a viable option – even though it was no longer 1980.

“I don’t need him to follow up on this,” I said carefully.

Fish fixed me with a hard stare. “He’s a good reporter, and that’s technically his beat.”

“I thought he was chasing around one of the local mayors because he thought he was banging an underage girl?”

“You have such a way with words,” Fish lamented. “I think he has time to do more than one story.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if Fish would ever get around to telling Bill that he had time to work on more than one story at a time. I was pretty sure that Bill didn’t know that.

“Can’t you ask him?” My voice sounded whiny, even to me.

“I find it funny that you’ve been held at gunpoint, threatened at knifepoint and someone has tried to run you over – and that’s all in the past six months – and yet you’re scared of Bill,” Fish taunted me.

I glanced over my shoulder and into Bill’s cubicle. Most reporters at The Monitor decorated their cubicles with funny photos –
Star Wars
and Rafael Nadal for me, Shania Twain and female wrestlers for Marvin – and yet Bill had decked out his cubicle with a variety of photos of old, white men.

“I don’t like those pictures of the old, white dudes,” I said. “I think that’s weird.”

Fish rolled his eyes. “Those are politicians.”

“How do you know?”

“I recognize Bill Clinton and Bill Huckabee.”

“Well, that’s sad on you,” I said. “I might be able to respect him if he had pictures of female politicians, but since he asked me to type up labels for him the other day I’m guessing he thinks women have a place – and it’s not in politics.”

“You think, maybe, you’re just stalling because you don’t want to deal with him?” Fish asked pragmatically.

“That’s an ugly thing to say.”

“Do what you want,” Fish sighed.

Yes! I knew I’d wear him down.

“He has the lead on the base, though,” Fish added. “He knows the players better.”

Dammit!

I trudged back to my desk and threw myself into my chair dramatically. Marvin peeked around the corner when he heard me sigh. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Fish is making me talk to Bill.”

“Why?” Marvin asked. “You know he’s a closet smoker, right?”

“Yeah, I also know he’s been having special lunches with one of the interns,” I replied.

“Which one?” Marvin asked curiously.

“The tall one with the big . . .”

“Boobs? Yeah, she’s hot. I think her name is Chloe.”

“I was going to say big mouth,” I said dryly. “She told me I dressed like a teenager the other day.”

Marvin glanced at my Rogue Squadron hockey jersey and Wonder Woman Converse and raised his eyebrows dubiously. “She has a point.”

I raked my gaze over his “uniform” – black polyester pants, faux leather shoes from K-Mart, a white button-down shirt and an abstract tie that could have only been found in the free bin at Goodwill – and shook my head. “Like you have room to talk.”

Marvin ignored the jab. “What do you need to talk to Bill about?”

“Ludington let it slip that someone is looking at closing the National Guard base,” I said. “He realized what he was doing right away, but it was too late. Fish said I have to talk to Bill about it because it’s technically on his beat – even though it’s my discovery.”

“You should probably talk to him now,” Marvin said sagely. “If you wait until later this afternoon he’ll be bombed.”

“How come we’re the only ones that notice that?” I asked incredulously.

“Everyone notices,” Marvin replied. “We’re the only ones immature enough to point it out.”

He probably had a point. “Fine,” I grumbled. “I’ll go talk to Bill. I’m not going to like it, though.”

“No one does.”

“The intern does,” I shot back. “Although I don’t think they’re doing a lot of talking. I wonder if his wife knows?”

“And that’s why most of this newsroom thinks we’re assholes,” Marvin said.

“I can live with that,” I shrugged.

“Yeah, I don’t care either,” Marvin agreed.

I wandered down to Bill’s cubicle and made a show at knocking on the fabric-covered wall. “Knock, knock.”

Bill looked up from his computer screen, quickly minimizing the email window he had been typing in just a few seconds before. He was quick, but I was quicker. I saw the intended recipient – and I think Chloe had a special lunch date in her future.

“What’s up?” Bill asked distractedly.

“I had a news tip cross my desk this morning,” I started.

“You weren’t here this morning.”

“I didn’t literally mean my desk,” I said.

“Then why did you say it?”

“I don’t know,” I shook my head. “I was actually in a coffee shop.”

“Is this where you made a scene with Tad Ludington?” Bill asked pointedly.

“It wasn’t a scene,” I lied.

“I saw it,” Bill argued. “It was definitely a scene.”

“How did you see it?”

“It’s on YouTube,” Bill said.

Those secretaries were good. I knew they had been watching, but I’d totally missed them taping us. That actually made my job easier. I’d send them a fruit basket later. “Oh, well, then you’re aware of the National Guard base thing he said?”

“There have been rumors about the base closing for weeks,” Bill waved off my question. “There’s nothing to it.”

“You’ve made calls and checked it out?”

“I’ve talked to some people,” Bill said. “They said there’s nothing to it.”

“Who are these people you’ve talked to?” I pressed. I had a feeling they were sitting on a bar stool in some dark dive when he asked the questions. “Was Tad one of them?”

“I don’t have the antagonistic relationship with Commissioner Ludington that you do,” Bill said. “He doesn’t feel the need to toy with me. He tells me the truth.”

“You’ve never slept with him,” I said bitterly. “If you’d slept with him, you’d be bitter, too.”

“I guess I’ll have to take your word for that,” Bill said. “Maybe you shouldn’t be holding a grudge from college. It’s not very becoming. It makes you look petty.”

“I am petty.”

“Well, then I guess you’re doing a good job of showing that.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m awesome that way.”

I glanced up and saw Fish watching our exchange curiously. I guess slamming Bill’s head into his computer monitor was out of the question – at least for as long as Fish had me in his sights. That was going to limit my options.

“It’s just a rumor,” Bill repeated. “Trust me, if there was any truth in it, I would know.”

“Well, I guess I’ll leave it to you,” I said with faux defeat.

“That’s probably best,” Bill agreed. “I think this is just a little above your pay grade.”

I stalked away from Bill and back to my cubicle. Marvin was standing next to it waiting for me to return. “What did he say?”

“He says he’s a dick.”

Marvin smiled. “We already knew that.”

“He says it’s a rumor and he has it under control so I should just mind my own business.”

“Are you going to do that?”

“I said I would.”

“Yeah, but are you really going to do that?” Marvin looked doubtful.

“Of course not,” I scoffed. “I’m going to go at the story my way, get all the credit for it and then do a dance around his cubicle when I’m the big hero and he looks like a schmuck.”

“That’s my girl,” Marvin laughed. “I’ve trained you well.”

Marvin and I had lunch together to strategize. I agreed to include him on the National Guard base story – mostly because I knew my plate was pretty full right now and we had to jump on it right away. Thanks to the YouTube video, we weren’t the only people to know about it.

Marvin was going to hit up some local politicians he knew and I was going to head to the press conference at the sheriff’s department. We were going to keep in touch via text and email this afternoon.

“Don’t tell Fish what we’re working on,” I warned him outside of the restaurant.

“I’m not an idiot,” Marvin complained.

“Don’t tell Fish what we’re working on,” I repeated.

“Just go,” Marvin muttered.

I wasn’t really worried that Marvin would tell Fish what we were doing on purpose. He’s a good reporter, the best I know. He was a little kooky, but that worked for him. Like most reporters, though, he has a huge mouth and he speaks before he thinks. I needed him to keep our investigation between us for as long as possible. If Bill actually found out we were making headway on this, he would sweep in and take the credit – and I’d be damned if I let that happen. I wasn’t lying when I said I was petty.

I was a half an hour early when I got to the sheriff’s department, so I decided to make use of my time. After I was buzzed into the back offices, I made my way down to Jake’s office.

I hesitated outside his closed door. I didn’t want to do this, but things couldn’t go on the way they were. We had to come to some sort of compromise. Not just for him and me, but for Eliot, too. I squared my shoulders, took a deep breath and then knocked.

“Come in.” Jake’s voice was muffled.

I opened the door and slipped into his office, shutting the door behind me when I was safely inside. Jake looked up in surprise. His tired eyes washed over me and I felt guilt well in the pit of my stomach.

“What are you doing here?”

“There’s a press conference,” I replied nervously.

“That’s in the conference room.”

“I know. I thought we could talk first.”

Jake blew out a weary sigh. “I’m sorry I yelled at you yesterday. This isn’t all your fault.”

“Thanks,” I replied honestly. “I don’t believe you, though. I didn’t come for an apology anyway.”

Jake leaned back in his chair and watched me as I nervously fidgeted on the other side of his desk. “Why did you come? Because I’ve known you long enough to know that you really do want an apology, no matter what you say.”

He was right, I did want an apology. I didn’t want to trick him into one, though. Well, at least not yet. “I wanted to make you aware of some information I stumbled upon today.”

“About the shootings?” Jake looked surprised.

“No, not about the shooting,” I said hurriedly. “I feel bad about getting you into this situation but not bad enough to risk my story.”

“Of course,” Jake said. “I should have known that. So, what information did you stumble on?”

I told Jake about my run-in with Tad, including his accidental tip about the base. Jake listened as I recounted our encounter. His face had turned an ugly shade of red by the time I was done. “He grabbed you and dragged you in an alley? That asshole needs a butt kicking.”

“I kicked him in the nuts,” I said easily. “It’s fine.”

Jake’s face split into a wide grin. “You kicked him in the nuts?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Then Eliot showed up and threatened him some more. I don’t think he’s going to be a problem. At least for a few days. Although,” I mused. “He did set a meeting with Fish for this afternoon. He’s going to try and threaten him to put a muzzle on me. His words, not mine.”

“Will Fish fall for that?”

I shook my head. “Fish hates him. He’s going to play nice because of the politics involved, but he won’t bow down to the little king.”

“Well,” Jake breathed in deeply, considering the new information. “What do you think?”

“I have Marvin trying to feel out some contacts about the base,” I said. “I think that Bill is lazy and just believes what people tell him because he doesn’t want to do the work to dig. Tad is freaked out, that I know. There has to be some truth to those rumors.”

Jake pursed his lips. “Do you think this somehow ties to the shootings?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I can’t rule it out, but I don’t think we have all the pieces yet.”

“Let’s say it does tie into the shootings, how would that work?” Jake asked.

“Maybe Turner is trying to prove that the base is important to the area for more than employment,” I suggested. “Maybe he’s set it up so someone from the base can swoop in and save the populace from the shooter?”

“That’s a reach,” Jake said. “There are other ways to prove the worth of the base.”

“I’m not sure the base has anything to do with the shootings anyway,” I admitted. “I talked to a guy, and he told me that the shots weren’t particularly difficult. That doesn’t sound like someone that has military training.”

“You talked to a guy?” Jake asked dubiously.

“He was at the gun range.”

“Ah, a friend of Eliot’s,” Jake said stiffly.

“He was a nice guy,” I protested. “He said that the shots were on a flat plain and that doesn’t necessarily mean that the shooter has military training.”

“I know,” Jake said irritably. “We have experts of our own. How come you haven’t printed that yet?”

“It’s just one man’s opinion,” I said pragmatically. “I need more than that.”

“Have you considered that the shooter really is a trained sniper and he’s trying to cover up that fact and picking easy shooting perches as a counter measure?”

“I have,” I said. “I’ve been following other leads on that front.”

“What leads?” Jake asked suspiciously.

“That’s for me to know,” I said. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“Fine,” Jake grunted.

“Fine,” I agreed. There was no way I was going to tell him about my suspicions regarding Christine and Brick. I would either look really smart or really stupid – and I wasn’t sure if either of them were really involved. Since I disliked them on a personal level, I was afraid that was clouding my judgment. “What do you think about the Christine information?”

“I had no idea how much money she was making,” Jake admitted.

“It’s not coming out of your budget?”

“No. I haven’t received her paperwork yet. I was told that I wouldn’t have to worry about covering her salary until the next quarter and that the planned retirements from the sheriff’s department would easily cover it.”

Hmm.  “Do you have any authority over her?”

“I am the sheriff,” Jake replied blandly. That wasn’t really an answer, though.

“I’m going to do a story on it.”

“Ludington isn’t going to talk to you on the record,” Jake said.

“He doesn’t have to,” I smirked. “One of the court clerks from circuit court was in the coffee shop. She taped our fight and uploaded it to YouTube. It’s already all over the place.”

“No one told me,” Jake said.

“Maybe the gossip mill hasn’t hit over here yet.”

Jake raised his eyebrows doubtfully.

“Maybe no one wants to tell you because you’re so grumpy?”

“That’s probably the truth,” Jake sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Do you think this is enough to get her canned?”

“I think that public outcry over paying a woman to do nothing when you could be paying law enforcement to keep the public safe is going to be too much for Tad,” I said smugly.

Jake smiled. “You do have a knack.”

“And I didn’t even have to use the Giannone money stuff I found,” I said. “I can hold onto that for the next time he pisses me off.”

“He’s going to put up a fight,” Jake warned me.

“He’s more worried about the National Guard base,” I said. “He’s pinning his reelection hopes on that. He wants to get me, but he wants to keep his cushy job more.”

“You’re probably right.”

“When are you going to learn? I’m always right.”

Jake considered the statement for a second and then laughed. “You’re persistent. I’ll give you that.”

Jake slowly got up from his chair and walked around the desk, stopping in front of me. “I am sorry,” he said finally. “I jumped all over you and this wasn’t really your fault.”

“It was partially my fault,” I argued. “I keep going after Tad. He was bound to go after me. I just didn’t realize he’d use you to do it.”

“He’ll go after you again,” Jake said.

“He will,” I said. “Hopefully he’ll leave you out of it next time, though.”

“Well,” Jake blew out a relieved sigh. “I am sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry.”

“Just accept the apology,” Jake growled.

“Fine, you’re sorry.”

Jake reached for me awkwardly, pulling me close to him and hugging me. It wasn’t a romantic hug, but it was one that encompassed decades of friendship and intimacy. I sank into the hug, relieved that the immediate crisis seemed to have passed. I knew that I would piss him off again – and probably soon – but, for right now, we were okay. That thought quickly fled, though, when the door to Jake’s office popped open.

We both glanced up in surprise. When Jake recognized that it was Christine standing in the doorway, he took a step back from me and fixed her with a hard glare. “You don’t knock?”

Christine frowned at the two of us. “I was under the impression you were alone, not feeding information to a reporter before a scheduled press conference.”

“He wasn’t feeding me information,” I argued. “We were talking about something personal.”

“And what would that be?” Christine raised her perfectly manicured eyebrows speculatively.

“I said it was private,” I shot back. “That means it’s none of your business.”

“The trail of information from this office to the media most certainly is my business,” Christine argued.

“We weren’t talking about the case,” I lied. “We were talking about a family matter.”

“Your family or his?” Christine asked pointedly.

“Does that matter?” I challenged her.

“It matters because I don’t believe you,” Christine said. “I think you were getting inside information. Something that has been strictly prohibited since my hiring.”

Jake looked incensed. “I’m the sheriff,” he said stiffly. “I don’t answer to you. You’re my employee.”

“The county is paying my salary,” Christine said haughtily. “I’m their employee.”

“Not for long,” I
snarked.

Christine glanced at me warily. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Go on YouTube and type in my name and Tad Ludington,” I suggested. “You’re going to find several videos, we have a long history. The newest one, though, is going to be of particular interest to you.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, it shows me questioning him about your exorbitant salary and lack of public relations background,” I replied honestly. “I’m going to want a statement from you, on the record, about why it’s appropriate for a financially struggling county to be paying you $70,000 for an unnecessary job that you’re not even remotely qualified for.”

Christine visibly blanched. “Who told you that?”

“I pulled the financial documents,” I said smugly. “That’s public record. You can’t hide that.”

“And you think you can bully Commissioner Ludington into rescinding my contract?” Christine looked doubtful.

“I think that Tad has bigger things on his mind now,” I replied snottily. “I think the Christine Brady experiment is going to be something he’s going to be happy to end pretty quickly.”

Christine shook her head angrily. “You’re so smug. You think you’re always going to just get your way, don’t you?”

“I think, in this case, the best possible outcome for everyone involved – with the exception of you, of course – is going to be getting rid of the sheriff’s department public relations liaison,” I replied snottily.

Christine turned to Jake incredulously. “Are you going to let her dictate your office labor policies?”

“No,” Jake shook his head. “I’m going to handle that myself.”

Christine turned to me with a triumphant look on her face. I cast a sideways glance at Jake. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

“Christine,” Jake said quietly.

She turned to him expectantly. “Yes, Sheriff Farrell?”

“You’re fired.”

This really was turning into a magnificent day.