“Well, technically we don’t have to reveal a source in a courtroom, but we CAN reveal it to one another, Campbell. YOU understand, don’t you?” Stop yourself, Maisie. Just because he acts like a dolt doesn’t mean you have to.
“Maisie, trust me, the source is pretty good,” Daniel soothed.
Of the three people in the room, he was the one I trusted the least. And “pretty good”? Please.
“Okay. Say your source is good. What does this have to do with me?”
“We need you to go on air in the next hour and break the story,” Mathis said.
“You’re kidding. Why me?” My suspicious mind kicked in.
“You’ve built up a trust with our audience. If you say it, they’ll believe you.”
“Mathis, I’ve built up that trust because I don’t report rumor and innuendo.” I stood up.
“Sit down, sit down,” Mathis gestured.
“Mathis, come on. You can’t tell me you think this is a good idea.”
He shrugged.
“Seriously?”
“Maisie, we’ve never had this kind of opportunity before. This could put us on the map. This could put you on the map. Don’t you want more stories? Bigger stories?”
Was he kidding? Was he bribing me with on-air time to report a sketchy story? I continued to address him, because I had no use for trying to convince Daniel or Campbell.
“Mathis, be reasonable. What do we have? Some whispered rumor? Do we have film? Anything or anyone to corroborate this?”
“Well, no—”
“We don’t need it,” snapped Daniel.
“We always need it!” I snapped back.
Campbell gestured to Daniel, then turned to me. “Maisie, all we have to do is report the story—”
“Rumor,” I broke in.
“The story,” Campbell continued. “We leave it to be investigated, and if it’s true, we’ll have been the first to air it.”
“If it’s true? You can’t even say that it’s true? And what if it’s not? What then?”
“We issue a correction,” Campbell shrugged.
“You have got to be kidding me. And what about that poor kid?”
“If we correct it, there won’t be a problem,” said Daniel, leaning back in his chair and throwing up his hands.
“The only problem will be that it will follow him for the rest of his life. People will always wonder. You know how things like this are. Even when people are cleared of any allegation, it sticks with them. No. I won’t do it without better evidence.”
“Your job is not to judge his innocence or guilt, young lady,” Daniel spat out.
Young lady? YOUNG LADY??
Mathis jumped in. “Now wait. Before things get too heated here.”
“We’re way past heated, Mathis. I know my job is to be impartial, but I can’t in good conscience report a rumor. I wasn’t aware that we were running a branch of some supermarket tabloid here.”
I crossed my arms over my chest petulantly. “And besides. Why doesn’t Campbell just do it?” I asked the obvious question.
The three men looked at one another and avoided my eye. I realized why.
“Oh my gosh. If Campbell covered it and it turned out to be false—no, WHEN it turned out to be false—his reputation would be on the line. How stupid do you think I am?”
I stared directly at Campbell.
“That’s not it at all, Maisie. We thought you’d like a shot. I recommended that they give you this story … to build up your portfolio.”
I didn’t want his fingerprints anywhere near my portfolio.
“Zip it, blondie,” I growled. I knew a con job when I heard it. Too many times when I was younger, my brothers had tried to pull me into pranks so that I would get blamed if our parents found out.
“Not doing it, Mathis,” I continued, shaking my head hard enough that my curls bounced. “Get your Copper Top Calliope. I’m sure her ethics are bendable.”
Oops. That may have been true. But I didn’t have the right to slander her like that.
I stood up to leave.
“Sorry, guys. If we have more evidence, I’ll be happy to do this. But as of right now, no thanks.”
“Maisie, you’ll be in breach of contract,” Daniel said.
“I hardly think so.”
“Oh, I know so. You signed up for duties as assigned. This is a duty that’s assigned. If you refuse, you are out.”
I was stunned.
“You can’t be serious. Mathis, this can’t be true.” I turned to him.
He squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.
“I’m afraid he’s right, Maisie. You agreed to report the news. If you choose not to, we can exercise our right to let you go.”
“The news,” I said emphatically. “I agreed to report the news, not some half-baked rumor that you guys want to use to get us in the national spotlight. You can’t tell me that this would be actionable.”
No one spoke.
“Well, I guess I have my answer.”
29
I didn’t want to cause a ruckus, so I calmly went to my desk to collect my belongings. Luckily it was early enough in the morning that most of my co-workers either had not arrived or were dispersed at the local coffee shop. I pulled my credential from around my neck and laid it on my desk, patting it. Oh well. My climb up the ladder had been going so well. Where was I going to go now? I was certain that I wasn’t going to get good references from this station. Luckily I had video from my assignments in my portfolio since Alek was diligent in copying me on them.
Alek.
He was going to return to work and not find me there. Even if we were still in a tiff, I think he would wonder where I was. I couldn’t imagine what they would all tell him.
I pulled out my phone to call him again and got his message right away. I took a deep breath. “Hey, um, Alek. Something blew up at work. Even if you are mad at me, please, please forgive me and call me. You need to know about this.”
I punched the “off” button, threw my phone in my bag, grabbed my few possessions, and managed to leave the building without anyone seeing me. As I passed Rachel for one last time, she didn’t even bother to look up to see me leave and ask where I was headed. And I didn’t think I needed to check out since Daniel and Mathis had made it clear that I was no longer welcome there.
I could have grabbed a cab or an Uber, but it felt good to walk the distance to the apartment. The crisp morning air and the squawks and zooms of Denver traffic were what I needed to help clear my head of this emotional upset.
When I got back to the apartment, I allowed my box to fall haphazardly next to the door, hurled my bag across the room, kicked off my shoes, and threw myself on the couch. It took only a few seconds before I grabbed one of the throw pillows, smashed it on my face, and let out a muffled scream.
I don’t know how long I laid there, alternating between kicking the arm of the couch and punching the same pillow, when the doorbell rang. Great. Who could that be? I stomped over to the door but determined that I was not in my most charming mood, so whoever was on the other side of the door was going to have to come back later.
I peered through the fish-eye and was surprised to see Addison.
“I know you are in there, Maisie. I heard you stomp across the room,” she said crisply.
I whooshed the door open. “Excuse me. Did you just say ’stomp’?”
She smiled and walked past me.
“I figured you’d open the door if you knew I could hear you.”
Ooh. Clever. How did she know where I lived … oh, right. HR. She obviously would know my address. I pushed the door closed and leaned backward against it with my arms crossed.
“Addison, if they sent you here to try to convince me to do that story, you’re wasting your time.”
“No one sends me anywhere.”
I moved back to the couch and slammed down, propping my heels inelegantly on the coffee table.
“If you aren’
t here to quote the party line, why are you here?”
She joined me on the couch, but assumed a much more ladylike seated position.
“I just tendered my resignation, and I thought I could celebrate and also commiserate with you.”
I shot up straight. “What did you just say?”
“I said I thought I could commiserate with you.” She slipped off her impeccable pumps and stretched out her toes.
“Not that part. The other part.”
“Oh, that I tendered my resignation? I put in my notice about twenty minutes after I discovered what Daniel and Mathis were up to. This was the last straw for me as far as Daniel is concerned. I gave them the standard two weeks, but I took the rest of today off to come be with you.”
“But if they put two and two together—”
“How can they? What would give them any reason to put the two of us together?” She pulled her perfect French braid apart and shook her lush blonde hair around her face. I was always taken aback at how model-gorgeous Addison was when she wasn’t pinned up and pinched tight. No wonder my brother had fallen so fast and hard—not to mention the fact that she was smart as a whip.
“I don’t know what to say, Addison.”
She reached into her large tote bag and pulled out a bottle of champagne.
“There’s nothing TO say, Maisie. This has been coming for a while, and with other things happening as well, this just seemed like the day to do it. I assume you have champagne flutes?” She padded into the kitchen and began opening cupboards.
“In the cupboard over the sink.” Well. This day was full of wonders.
“Does Anthony know?”
She pursed her lips and scrunched her eyes.
“Of course he knows.”
“Well, excuse me, Addison, I just didn’t want to assume.” After the last few days, I didn’t want to assume anything.
Expertly peeling back the foil on the bottle, she popped the cork, and the festive sound was immediately followed by an equally festive sound from her tote. Who knew that Addison would choose “Walking on Sunshine” as her ringtone? She handed me the bottle of bubbly and gestured that I pour while she sat down and reached for her phone.
“Hi, Tony.” Her tone and countenance were positively luminous. “I’m with her now. No, we haven’t had time to talk. We barely opened the champagne. Well, of course I brought champagne. Here, I’ll hand her to you.”
I took the phone and stared at her warily. Who was this woman?
“Mais? MAIS!” My brother’s voice came through the line.
“Anthony, I’m here.”
“Look, sis, I don’t want you to take any phone calls from the station. To be safe, don’t answer the phone unless it’s one of the family ringtones you recognize. I’m here at the airport, but I’ve canceled my flight. I’ll be at your apartment in a bit. In the meantime, you need to dig up any paperwork from your employment. Addy can’t go to the office and get a copy of your files without raising suspicion, but surely you kept copies?”
“Of course I did. Do you forget how our father trained us to make duplicates of duplicates of anything important? And I understand why Addison—Addy—couldn’t take any paperwork from the office. Why are you being all lawyerly with me all of a sudden? And what’s with the celebration and the champagne?”
“The celebration is for Addy resigning, and, well, we’ll talk about it when I get there. But I want to make sure that we have every legal angle covered.”
What could he possibly mean? And why did he change his whole schedule to stay in town?
“Did anyone hear you say that you wouldn’t report that story other than the people in the meeting?” he asked.
“I assume someone did, otherwise how did Addy know?” I looked over at her.
“I knew because Mathis called me in to ask what it took to file breach of contract papers, and while we were discussing it, he took a call from Calliope,” Addison said. “He told her she had a great opportunity that other female reporters obviously didn’t appreciate, and at the same time, I saw notes on his desk about the story he wants to run. I don’t think anyone else has figured it out.”
Wow. Addison really was one sharp cookie.
“Still, Anthony, what does that have to do with all these covert ops?” I asked. I could literally feel him roll his eyes.
“Think! If this story is untrue, now that you are gone, you are the logical person to blame for proposing it. Instead of suing you for breach of contract, they’ll drag you down, saying it was all your fault, and make themselves look good by slandering you and saying that’s why they let you go.”
“What?! That’s much worse.”
“Ya think? Look, you stay put. Get that info together, and while you’re at it, try to remember exactly how the conversation went down this morning.”
“Okay.”
“Listen, Maisie, don’t worry. Remember, this is why Pop is happy that one of us is a lawyer.”
“I guess. But what if it all falls apart?”
He paused.
“Well, then that’s when we’ll be happy that one of us is a priest, I guess. We’ll have to call Sammy because we’ll need lots of prayer.”
“I love you, big bro!” I laughed.
“Same here. Give me back to Addy for a minute.”
I handed Addison the phone and tried not listen to her side of the conversation, although it was not very interesting anyway since it was mostly lots of yeses. Until there was the final “I love you, too, Tony.”
She knew I heard that.
“All right, Maisie, so you know,” she said after hanging up.
“None of my business,” I started and waved my hands. Then I stopped. “No. Actually, it is. How did you progress so far so fast, Addy? You guys just met, like, five minutes ago.”
She stretched luxuriously and put the hand that didn’t hold her champagne glass behind her head. “Well, Maisie. You know your brother. Would you disagree that he is an amazing man?”
“First, he’s my brother, and I can’t look at him the same way you do, but I get it. He’s awesome.” They all are.
“Is it that you don’t approve of me?” She gave me a look over a sip of champagne.
“Oh, my gosh no. Once you get past the—”
“Stuffiness?”
“Oh I wasn’t going to say that.” Maybe not that exact word, but I just couldn’t think a way of calling her prissy without being snotty.
“It’s okay. Remember, we’ve talked about this. My office persona has nothing to do with the real me.”
Looking at her, now lounging on my couch with her shoes kicked off and her blonde hair messily adorable—well, prissy was certainly not an adjective I would use. And anytime she was at Ma’s house, she was always laughing and joking.
I leaned back comfortably.
“You know what, Addy? I think you are exactly the person we would have picked for Anthony.”
“So there. If it’s right, what’s the point in waiting for years?”
“No. No point, I guess.” I sighed and thought of whether there was any chance left for Alek and me. Probably not. Or maybe there’s some clause that says a person gets a second chance if it takes extra time—a lot of extra time—to figure something out. That would be nice.
I hopped up. “I need to get that paperwork if my attorney is going to be here shortly.”
“How can I help?” Addison asked.
“Clear the kitchen table, and I’ll pull the KDW files.” I moved quickly into my bedroom where my file cabinet was.
My phone rang as I walked back into the living room, but it was a generic ringtone. Addison and I looked at each other, and I clutched the files to my chest.
“Anthony said not to answer it.”
“Then don’t,” Addison pointed out sensibly.
“I’ve never been so glad to have personalized ringtones for my family in my life.”
“It’s the small things in life, I guess,” Addison said.
We got to work neatly organizing the paperwork on the table and then returned to the couch to wait for Anthony.
My heart skipped a beat when I heard my father’s ringtone. I took a deep breath and answered. “Hey, Pop.”
“Maisie Elizabeth, can you explain why that reporter from your station is chasing down Nelson Humbert and accusing him of robbing a bank? What on earth is going on down there?”
30
“I know, I know, Pop.”
“He is one of the cleanest kids in sports! Couldn’t you have done anything to stop that from happening?”
“There wasn’t anything I could do. As a matter of fact, they wanted me to break the story.” I moved from the couch to the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the traffic below as the early rush hour started. I really needed to take advantage of this magnificent view for as long as I could. I was sure that for as generous as Uncle Dante was, he was not going to want a vagrant living in this beautiful apartment.
“Are you kidding? What did you say?”
“Oh I said, ‘You bet I’ll forget my morals and I’ll cover that questionable story.’ What do you think I said, Pop?”
“Don’t get smart with me.”He must have realized that he was spiraling, and his tone became a bit better. “Explain, please.”
I gave him the story and knew he was furious on the other end of the phone, thinking about the circumstances. The only thing I left out was the part about my losing my job. I figured I didn’t want his head to explode into a million pieces just yet.
“So that explains why that redhead was doing the story. But, Maisie, the story can’t be true, can it? Nelson Humbert couldn’t have robbed that bank?”
“Pop, I don’t know. But even if it is, I couldn’t go on air without better evidence.”
“You mean you would have reported the story?”
“If it were true, yes.”
“But—”
“Pop. It’s my job.” Well. It was my job. I flopped back down on the couch.
Game On Page 20