A Bad Day’s Work

by Nora McFarland

  “Are you talking about Bud?” I yelled.

  But he didn’t answer.

  TWENTY-TWO

  I waited at the side entrance for someone to use his or her key card to enter the station. Mine had been deactivated. Former employees who are wanted in connection with a murder aren’t usually welcome. After ten minutes one of the engineers went in and I grabbed the door behind him.

  The newsroom was busy, but when I entered, an audible gasp could be heard. I walked up to Callum, sitting on the assignment desk.

  “Lilly.” He hung up one of the phones in his hands. “Where in the name of my great-aunt Irene are my news vans?”

  “I can explain.”

  He waved the remaining phone at me. “I know, I know. You’re a hero, you’re lucky to be alive, you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, but where are the vans?”

  “One is in my uncle’s backyard, and I think the other is still parked behind the ballpark.”

  “You think? That’s great.”

  I glanced around the newsroom. “Is Rod here?”

  “No. Came in this morning. Said he was going back to L.A. for a couple days to recover.” A desk assistant handed Callum the latest faxes. “Said he might not be back. Doesn’t like reporting. . . . Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” I rubbed my forehead. “I have a headache. Is Trent in?”

  “Going to get your job back?” Callum smiled with satisfaction. “He’s in his office. Go get ’em, kid.”

  I walked into Trent’s office without knocking and closed the door behind me.

  Trent looked up from his computer ready to yell at someone, but seeing me, checked himself.

  I took a seat. “How’s your eye?”

  He reached for the remote and lowered the volume on CNN. “I already called payroll and had you reinstated.”

  “You mean I don’t have to threaten you with a lawsuit or tell the world what a spineless creep you were?”

  He crossed his arms and spoke in a low and angry monotone. “Don’t think you’ve got a blank check to do whatever you like around here.”

  “When I return to work next week, I expect to be treated just like everybody else, but today I’ve got a few requests.”

  His arms dropped suddenly. “I won’t be blackmailed.”

  My smile deepened. “I think you value your career and are going to do whatever it takes to keep me quiet about my completely erroneous firing—not to mention the way you gave crooked cops the name and address of an employee and then sat back and let them go at her. You’ll never get out of Bakersfield if a story like that makes the rounds.”

  “I don’t have to take this.”

  “Yes, you do, but don’t worry. I’m done making you squirm. I’m ready to move on to my actual demands.”

  He dropped his pretense of outrage. “What do you want?”

  “Hire Leanore Drucker back for starters, and up her to two pieces a week. She wasn’t getting enough airtime.”

  “Leanore?” Shock registered on his face. “That’s what you want? For me to hire Leanore back?”

  I shook my head. “That’s not all. The little sick girl too.”

  “What about her?”

  “We spend all our time doing stories about other people making donations. I think it’s time we made one of our own.”

  “I can’t write checks because I feel like it. We have a budget. Do you understand? A budget.”

  “I’m talking about a couple hundred dollars for charity. Make it part of the Season of Caring Campaign. It’ll make us look good.”

  He mumbled something under his breath and moved some papers around the desk.

  “I also want you to meet with a minister who thinks we might have some racial bias in our coverage.”

  “You what?”

  “I’m going to give him your number so you two can set something up.” I put up a hand to silence his protests. “And I’m serious about this. It’s nonnegotiable.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Anything else?”

  “Last thing. I’m going to be the next chief photog.”

  This time he didn’t say anything.

  “You said I was the best,” I continued. “You said I was the leading candidate before my run of bad luck.”

  “You were, but—”

  “Turns out Freddy manufactured the bad luck for me. He even switched my tape yesterday morning with a black one.”

  He pulled back in surprise. “Can you prove this?”

  “Feel free to check with Rod and Teddy. They’ll both back me up. Freddy probably will too, if you press him hard enough.”

  “Even if it’s true, I can’t just—”

  “Have you offered it to David?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then it’s not his yet.” I stood up. “I’m taking a few days off. I’ll start my new duties on Monday.”

  Trent looked around the room, appeared to decide something, then looked back at me. “If what you say about Freddy is true, then you should have the job. That’s why I’m going along with this. Not because you have some kind of hold over me. Do we understand each other? From now on I’m treating you like any other employee, and if you don’t perform, I’ll fire you.”

  I nodded. “We understand each other.”

  “And you’re going to have to make a real effort with the rest of the shooters.”

  “I will.”

  “Good.” He reached for the remote, but realized I showed no sign of leaving. “Don’t worry. I’ll fire Freddy. It’s way overdue.”

  “No. That’s not what I want.”

  Trent looked at me as if I were crazy. “Why not?”

  “I’m going to try and work it out with him.”

  “Then what is it you do want?”

  I hesitated. Rod needed a producing job. It would be easy to push Trent—easy to keep Rod in town.

  I walked to the door and opened it. “Why don’t you get a check cut and I’ll run it over to the little sick girl’s mom.” I closed the door behind me and returned to the newsroom.

  Teddy and Freddy stood at the assignment desk with Callum. Freddy’s hair was just as short and just as orange as Teddy’s. He appeared to be arguing with Callum about something.

  Callum saw me. “How’d it go? Are you back on the clock?”

  Teddy’s eyes widened and his mouth stretched into a goofy grin. “Trent gave you your job back?”

  “Better than that. Guess who’s going to be the next chief photog?”

  Freddy sputtered some angry, disjointed words, then stormed out, leaving Teddy behind looking confused and uncertain.

  I gestured to the door Freddy had just slammed and said to Teddy, “You better go after him.”

  “Totally,” he said with obvious relief, and left.

  Callum picked up a fax and began reading it. I approached the assignment desk, but he didn’t acknowledge me. Finally, without looking up, he said, “You could be great at that job.”

  “I’ll need you to tell me when I’m screwing up.”

  “You going to listen?”

  “Probably not.”

  He smiled and put the fax down. “I got an auto-versus-tractor out by Highway 178.”

  “Trent gave me the rest of the week off.”

  He nodded. “Maybe David can do it before he shoots the murder victim’s memorial service.” He reached for a phone. “And before you take off for the week, I want a complete, exclusive sit-down interview about everything that’s happened. We’ll run it in pieces every night this week and promote the hell out of it.” He pointed the phone at me. “And I want those vans back.”

  “I’d like to keep one. I need to move out of my apartment.”

  Callum shook his head. “I didn’t hear you request a company vehicle for personal use. You said you were taking one as a backup to the on-call shooter.”

  “Exactly, that’s what I said.” I reached out and stopped his dialing. “Did you say Val Boyle’s funeral is this afternoon?”
>
  “Not a funeral. Coroner’s backed up with autopsies. This is a memorial service at the church.” Callum looked at the clock on the wall. “Starts in an hour. David’s about to leave.”

  I left him to make his call and followed Teddy and Freddy. They’d gone through the door leading to the equipment room, where the shooters have their lockers. Inside, David and Freddy argued while Teddy hung back eating a bag of smiley-face sun cookies. Freddy and David stopped talking as soon as they saw me.

  “Hi,” I said.

  David scowled. “This moron just told me what he’s been doing to your equipment. I swear I had nothing to do with it.”

  “I believe you, but the truth is we’ve never gotten along.” I hesitated, but decided to continue. “I know I haven’t always been easy to work with or even friendly.”

  “Ha,” Freddy said. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  I ignored him and kept looking at David. “But it hasn’t all been me. If there’s bad blood between us, then we share responsibility for it.”

  David looked away, then reluctantly nodded.

  “You’re a great shooter and the station is lucky to have you,” I continued. “But I have more seniority and experience and I’m going to be the next chief.”

  “I totally told him already,” Freddy said. “And for the record, I wouldn’t want to work for you, even if you begged me.”

  I continued to speak to David. “You staying here is the best thing for KJAY, but if you can’t deal with me as chief, then you need to get your résumé out there and move on to a bigger market.”

  He nodded again. “I understand.” He picked up his gear and exited.

  Freddy stomped his foot. “This is totally bogus.”

  I stayed calm. “Thank you for not calling the cops on me last night.”

  “That was totally Teddy. I wanted to.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t.” I looked at Teddy. “Thank you.”

  He took a tentative step forward. “It seemed like you were totally up in it, you know.” He offered the white bakery bag.

  I pulled a cookie out. “Thanks.”

  “Dude! Don’t give her a cookie. She’s totally going to get us fired.”

  I took a heavenly bite. The mixture of sugar, butter, and flour melted in my mouth. “Most people in your position would have called the police last night. I’d like to focus on how you helped me and not the other things. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all starting with a blank slate.”

  Freddy eyed me suspiciously. “Totes for real?”

  “Totes for real.”

  Freddy’s crossed arms relaxed a tiny bit. “Well, you know, we’re not like rats or anything. We don’t go squealing to the cops.”

  I nodded. “Here’s the bottom line. If you have a problem with me being chief, you need to find somewhere else to work. I’m not firing you or telling you to go, but I’m not putting up with any attitude either—and there will be consequences if you screw up.”

  Freddy relaxed even more. “Yeah, well, maybe we need somebody around here who, like, cracks the whip. Jake used to get on us a lot, but things ran smoother. This was a better place to work back then.”

  The door opened and Marcie entered. No one spoke for a minute.

  “Callum would like me to interview you.” She paused and, when I didn’t answer, took a step backward. “If you’d rather wait until someone else is available, I understand. I can—”

  “No. I want to get it done so I can go home.” I looked at Teddy and Freddy. “Why don’t you give us a minute alone?”

  They both scurried out.

  “Have you heard from Sacramento?” I asked.

  Despite an obvious effort to remain stoic, her face lit up with joy. “Yes. I got it. I start in two weeks.”

  I let my relief translate into a smile. “That’s great. I’m sure we can tactfully avoid each other until then.”

  “Lilly, I know you’re upset about what happened, but—”

  “I can see now that we were never friends, just friendly.” I paused. “That’s probably my fault. I never made any effort to know you better.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not like that. I think of you as a friend. I genuinely like you.”

  “Don’t you see how much worse that is? You’re my friend, but you sold me out anyway.” I started to walk out. “On second thought, I will wait for someone else to do the interview.”

  After I finished, the Wonder Twins ran me over to Bud’s house. No one answered my repeated knocks at the back door.

  “Maybe he’s, like, walking the dog.” Teddy rubbed his shoe against the tin shed, trying to remove the dog poop he’d stepped in.

  “I don’t think that dog walks anymore.” I stopped peering into the window and stepped down onto the brown grass. “But you’re right. It looks like he took Pepper with him. That probably means he’ll be gone for a while.”

  Freddy poked the web of shattered glass hanging from the van’s rear door. “I want to know how you did so much righteous damage to this thing. Dude, Lilly, you are one badass chick.”

  “Totally,” Teddy rushed to agree. His puppy-dog eyes reminded me of the women in the newsroom who gazed at Rod. “You’re totally awesome.”

  “Not really.”

  Freddy jabbed at the glass again and it fell off. “Dude, you, like, took on the cops, and gangs, and like a huge conspiracy thing, and a murderer, and best of all you trashed two news vans.”

  “Trashing vans is a total fantasy of ours,” Teddy explained.

  I shook my head. “Don’t ever say that in front of Callum.”

  We sent Teddy back to the station in the busted van. It still drove okay, and Teddy looked happy behind the wheel. Maybe that was another fantasy of his.

  Freddy drove me over to the little sick girl’s house and waited in the van as I rang the doorbell. No one answered at first, but since the mom’s car was in the driveway, I kept trying.

  Finally I heard footsteps and a tentative female voice. “Who is it?”

  “It’s Lilly Hawkins from KJAY.”

  The door opened a crack. I could barely see her through the thin slit.

  “I understand if you don’t want to see me.” I could barely bring myself to look her in the eye. “I said terrible things last night. You have every right to be angry.”

  “Oh, no, don’t worry about it.” Her voice sounded upbeat and almost cheerful. “I understand you were going through a lot yesterday.”

  I felt a wave of relief and realized I’d been holding all my muscles rigid. “Is your daughter at home? I’d like to apologize to her as well.”

  She jerked her body and seemed to kick at something behind her. “No, she’s spending the night at a friend’s house.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad.” I raised the hand holding the check and offered it to her. “KJAY is making a donation to help your daughter. It’s part of our season-of-caring promotion. I hope it helps.”

  “Thank you. That’s so generous.” She opened the crack farther and reached for the check. I saw for the first time she was wearing a pink flannel robe. At her feet a familiar face tried to squeeze between her legs and the door frame.

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Hi, Pepper.”

  Her cheeks turned bright red as she tried to stammer a reply. “Um …that’s …um …”

  “Can I speak to my uncle?”

  “Just a minute.” She closed the door.

  A few seconds later I heard loud steps, and the door swung full open. “Lilly.” Bud grabbed me in a giant bear hug. He wore shorts and a man’s dress shirt that clearly didn’t belong to him. In his hand he held a spatula. “Come on in. I’m fixin’ somethin’ to eat.”

  “Are you crazy? What are you doing here?”

  He let go of me. “We’re both consentin’ adults.”

  “Bud, it’s the little sick girl’s mother. You can’t break her heart. The town will lynch you.”

  He looked into the house, then closed the door
behind him. “The truth is, I haven’t spent a night in jail in about twenty years, and it didn’t feel so good.”

  “I’m sorry that happened.” I looked away. “It wasn’t fair to drag you into my mess.”

  “Nah. That’s not what I mean, Little Sister. I was glad to help you out. Best thing I done in a long time.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “But I had a lot of time to think, and what I’m tryin’ to say is, when you find yourself at my age, sittin’ in a cage with a bunch of smelly druggies, pimps, and crazies, well, you take a look at your life and it’s not a good look. I’m too old to be runnin’ round gettin’ into trouble, and more important, it ain’t much fun no more.”

  “What are you saying? You’re settling down with a woman you’ve known a day?”

  “Settlin’ down for a bit,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m gonna help Annette keep the mortgage up till she gets things sorted out. After that, we’re agreed to play it by ear.”

  “What about her daughter?”

  “Annette says she might could get worse.” He frowned. “But right now she needs what Annette calls a positive male role model.”

  I raised an eyebrow. My mother would have been proud. “And that’s going to be you?”

  “Probably not, but we can hope for a miracle.” He pulled up a sleeve. “Check these babies out.”

  “Are those nicotine patches?”

  He nodded. “You know it.”

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to wear three at once.”

  “Me and nicotine been together a long time. This here is gonna be an ugly breakup.”

  I reached out and hugged him.

  I had a sudden thought and pulled back. “Is your name Allen?”

  He laughed. “How’d you come to hear that? Not even your mama knows about that.”

  “Leland Warner told me.”

  “Oh.” His face melted into an inscrutable mask.

  “Well? Aren’t you going to say something?”

  He shrugged. “I told you I had a run-in with the fella, back in the day.”

  “No,” I reminded him. “You said you knew a guy who had a run-in with him, back in the day.”

  “Near about the same.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  He put an arm around me. “Now, Little Sister, you are goin’ to have to trust me when I tell you this is another story for another day and you best better put it out of your mind.” He hooked his thumb back toward the house. “Now, why don’t you come on in and get somethin’ to eat. Annette’s all embarrassed, but she’ll get over that soon enough.”