Extra! Extra! Dead All About It

by Amanda M. Lee

  Fawn was haughty. “I don’t have to do what you say.”

  “Sweep and mop the floor,” Eliot ordered, his temper getting the better of him. “I was going to suggest you do it later, but you clearly have time now.” He shifted his eyes to me. “What are you going to do if you don’t get the information you want? The election is in forty-eight hours.”

  He wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t worried about myself. “I don’t know. It sucks because it’s a Sunday. None of the government buildings are open and Jake is more worried about festival security than holding news conferences on Brucker’s death. It’s annoying, but that’s the system I have to work with.”

  “Just be careful. I’m worried that you’ll take this too far if you get desperate to uncover information.”

  “When do I ever take things too far?”

  Eliot refused to crack a smile. “When don’t you?”

  I shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, that’s your mantra right now. I don’t necessarily believe it.”

  I LEFT ELIOT TO stew. He refused to back down, convinced something bad was going to happen to me, and I never backed down, so we were in a weird limbo of sorts. The only good thing to come out of the situation was that he seemed eager to make Fawn pay for my refusal to toe the line.

  Hey, whenever someone else gets punished for my wrongdoings, I’m all for it.

  Honor was the only one in the tent when I crossed the road. I scanned the street for Rayne and Justice, but they’d both disappeared, and Aiken and Tad were nowhere in sight. That was probably a good thing for what I needed to do.

  “Hey.”

  Honor flashed a smile and handed me a brochure. “Hello. What a wonderful day for a festival. Would you like to hear a bit about the upcoming county commissioner race? It’s a historical race, and you, as a voter, will play an important part in the outcome.”

  I stared at her a long moment, confused. Did she really not remember me? “Um … .”

  Honor snorted. “I have to look as if I’m talking to you about something innocuous. If Mr. Ludington sees me with you he’ll have a meltdown.”

  “Oh. Smart.” I tapped the side of my head. “I’ve been looking for him. I don’t think he’s around right now.”

  “No. He mentioned running home to check something before the debate. He was in a good mood this morning, and then something happened to freak him out.”

  Hmm. That was interesting. I had an idea what happened to freak him out. “Did he say he was coming back?”

  “Oh, he wouldn’t miss that thing they’re having over by the fountain. I’m not quite sure if it’s a debate or just a place where they can spend five minutes at the podium spouting whatever nonsense they want to spout, but he’s eager to be on television.”

  “That’s because he has no idea how stupid he looks whenever he opens his mouth,” I sneered. “If he realized that people were laughing at him instead of with him, he’d find a cave to live in and we’d never see him again.”

  “Too bad he’s utterly unaware of self.” Honor stretched her legs and reclined in her chair. “I didn’t know if you’d be here today. I’m kind of glad to see you. Are you going to make a scene at the debate?”

  “I try not to make scenes unless I’m off duty. I’m working today, so I have to be dignified.”

  “You’re wearing a T-shirt that says ‘Dorothy on the streets, Blanche in the sheets.’ How dignified can you be?”

  “Hey, Dorothy was a badass.”

  Honor snorted. “She definitely was.”

  “I’m covering the event for The Monitor. I hope things will be dramatic enough to ensure good placement. If I have to ask a few pointed questions … I’m not above doing it.”

  “Good for you. Do you know why Mr. Ludington is in such a bad mood? I saw you talking to him a few hours ago and thought that might have something to do with it.”

  Honor was snarky and intuitive. I liked that in a person. “It might have something to do with it,” I hedged. “I happened to stumble across some interesting campaign finance papers and I’m trying to figure out who they belong to.”

  Honor cocked an eyebrow. “How did you stumble across them if you don’t know who they belong to?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “We have all afternoon.”

  There was no way I could own up to how I got my hands on the documents without looking weird, so I opted to avoid the question. “It’s not a big deal. Tad wasn’t happy when I mentioned the documents, though.”

  “Is there anything good in the documents?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer. “There’s interesting stuff, but I’m not sure it will lead anywhere. Right now it’s just something to poke Tad with, so I’m happy to hold onto it.”

  “Hey, you should try poking him with a knife or something,” Honor suggested. “He’s been downright unbearable since Terry died. I’m so glad this thing is almost over. Win or lose, I’m free of him come Wednesday.”

  “That’s something to look forward to,” I noted brightly. “Has he given you any indication about how he sees the election going?”

  “He thinks he’s going to win.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think either Aiken or Justice will win. If you would’ve asked me three weeks ago, I would’ve said Aiken had it locked up. Justice is making inroads, though.”

  “Yeah, but she’s doing it under the guise of women sticking together.” I thought back to our conversation earlier in the day. “She’s a little intense.”

  “Really?” Honor shrugged. “I wish I would’ve been assigned to her campaign. At least she wouldn’t look down my shirt.”

  “Yeah, that totally bites.” I got what she was saying and it made me want to redouble my efforts against Tad. “As long as he’s back for the debate, I’ll be happy. While I have no intention of making a mockery of the debate, I do have some rather interesting questions to ask.”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to see you in action,” Honor drawled.

  “I promise I won’t disappoint.”

  “NOW WE’LL OPEN THE debate to questions from the audience. Who would like to go first?”

  I recognized an opportunity when I saw one. After spending hours roaming the festival so I could eavesdrop – and coming up empty – I was looking forward to the debate. I knew the crowd would hesitate to ask the first question – there’s almost always an awkward lull at the start of these things – so I decided to take advantage of the situation.

  “Me!” I shot my hand in the air, enjoying the way Tad scowled and Aiken shifted from one foot the other.

  “The young lady in the front row.” The moderator, a circuit court judge I’d crossed paths with a time or two, pointed at me. “Go ahead.”

  “Great.” I shifted on my seat and cast each candidate a probing look, as if I was measuring them before I even uttered the question. I knew I would only get one shot at this, which meant I needed to set the tone of the session right away so it would take on a life of its own. As much as I wanted to ask about campaign finance – and that fueled me beyond belief – I knew it would bore the crowd. I had to go a different route.

  “Over the past few years Macomb County has been mired in several high-profile cases that have pushed race into the forefront,” I started.

  “I hardly think now is the time to talk about something like that,” Rayne argued.

  I ignored him. “Race is a big issue, not just on a national level, but on a local level. I was simply wondering how you planned to address the issues in front of us. I mean … how do you feel about affirmative action? How do you feel about Black Lives Matter? More importantly, what do you think the greatest threat to race relations is in our fine county?”

  I kept my expression placid even though I wanted to smirk. I wasn’t lying about race relations being a huge deal in Macomb County. When you live in close proximity to Detroit you can hardly ignore the issue. I also knew that Macomb County’s residen
ts were split, with half believing we didn’t do enough for the black community and the other half wanting to put on white sheets and parade around the neighborhoods. It was a potential powder keg, which is exactly what I was going for.

  “I don’t think this is something we should be talking about,” Justice hedged. “I mean … it doesn’t have much to do with the county commission.”

  “I beg to differ,” I challenged. “The county is where many of our race battles are fought. It’s better to fight them in government than in the streets, right?”

  Justice’s mouth dropped open. “I … .”

  “I agree with Ms. Justice,” Aiken started. “I don’t think we should talk about this.”

  “And I think you’re clearly hiding because you don’t want to answer the question,” a familiar voice called out from the crowd. I snapped my head to the right and found Andre and several members of his crew hanging by the outskirts of the gathering. He looked amused … and maybe a little intense. “Everyone says that we should be one whole community, so that means our elected officials should be willing to talk about what that means if they expect everyone to coexist. I want to know what you folks think about this very important matter before I vote on Tuesday.”

  Tad, always the idiot, rolled his eyes. “Oh, right. Like you’re going to vote.”

  I placed my tongue in my cheek and did my best to remain focused on the candidates. If I looked at Andre again, I was certain I would laugh.

  “I’m going to vote. I have my registration card with me, in fact.” I risked a glance and found Andre holding up a blue square that looked a lot like a Michigan voter registration card. “I want to hear an answer to the question. I think we deserve to know how you’re going to represent us on this matter.”

  I didn’t miss the dark look Aiken flashed in my direction before he cleared his throat. “Fine. We can talk about it. I agree it’s an important topic. There are a lot of important topics, though.”

  “I guess it’s good you’re here to answer questions all night then.” Andre looked smug. “I have a lot of important questions to ask.”

  Oh, well, this couldn’t have gone better than if I’d planted him in the crowd myself. I was sort of sad I didn’t think to do it.

  “Fine. I’ll start.” Aiken licked his lips. “I think that race is an important issue and we need to address it in a calm and rational manner.”

  “Yes, but how?” I pressed.

  Aiken scowled. “I … um … as calmly and rationally as possible.”

  “That’s not really an answer. That’s just parroting back the same stuff you said before,” a woman in the first row interjected. “The woman asked for specifics.”

  “Yes, well … .” Aiken glared holes into me. “I guess we’ll get into specifics then.”

  Yup. My work here was done. I’d completely derailed the debate. I couldn’t wait to see how things ended.

  20 Twenty

  The debate ended pretty much as I expected. The candidates all paid lip service to both sides, no one taking a firm stance on anything, and by the time things wrapped up – by moderator demand, because he looked as if he was about ready to crap his pants in fear – both sides were furious at all four candidates. I thought there was a real chance some unknown candidate might come out of nowhere to win the election.

  The notion made me feel happy … and a little smug.

  Andre waited for me at the edge of the crowd. “Thought I’d walk you back to your car,” he said. “I’m afraid one of those idiots on the stage might try to jump you … or in the case of that little one with the slicked hair and beady eyes, at least pull your hair.”

  I swallowed my smirk. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I’ll be fine. I’m heading to Eliot’s shop anyway. My laptop is there and I need to file my story.”

  “Then I’ll walk you there.”

  I saw no reason to argue, so I fell into step with him. The silence hanging over us was uncomfortable, so I decided to see if I could make things even more uncomfortable by offering up my own special brand of intrigue. “I didn’t know you were so political, by the way.”

  “Because I’m black?”

  “Because you fancy yourself a gangbanger,” I replied. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you are a gangbanger and all, but I don’t know many gangbangers who care about politics.”

  “And I don’t know many bangers who like being referred to in that way.” Andre was calm as we walked. “As for politics, I like to vote. I didn’t realize that was a crime.”

  “It’s not a crime. It simply caught me off guard.”

  “That’s because you deal in stereotypes.”

  I furrowed my brow. “I do not. I have an open mind when it comes to all people.”

  “What about people who hate Star Wars?”

  “They don’t count. They’re mentally defective.”

  Andre snorted out a laugh. “But you don’t deal in stereotypes.”

  “I honestly think I’m open-minded. I don’t care what color anyone is. I don’t care who they marry. In fact, if someone is an adult and they want to marry their cousin, more power to them. I only go after people when they’re jackasses.”

  “You must know a lot of jackasses.”

  “I do. For some reason I think they’re drawn to me.”

  “Could that be because you’re a jackass?”

  “Not likely.”

  “I knew you were going to say that.”

  More silence again. This time Andre was the first to break it.

  “Did you see all the people packing at the debate?”

  The question caught me off guard and I jerked my head in his direction. “What?”

  “Half the crowd was carrying. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but those guys standing at the back of the crowd – the five dudes in the cheap suits with the sunglasses on even after it was dark – they were carrying under their coats.”

  I searched my memory for images of the men. “How do you know that?”

  “It’s not hard to notice when you know what to look for.”

  “Do you know who they were?”

  “I think they were some form of security, although I can’t figure out why people running for a county commission seat need security. They weren’t cops, but they looked to be security guards, so that means they were probably hired by someone to monitor the debate because there was some worry things might get out of hand. I think that’s weird for a small county election.”

  That made two of us. “I don’t know. I can’t say that I paid much attention to them. I was much more interested in what was happening on the stage.”

  “That’s because you essentially ignited a stink bomb and threw it up there to see what would happen,” Andre said. “I thought you were going to ask something else when your hand shot up the way it did. When you asked the question, it took me a minute to figure out why.

  “It’s not that I don’t think you care about race relations in the county, because I’m pretty sure you do as long as you can get a story out of it,” he continued. “You asked that question to see how fast you could make them scramble.”

  “You helped the effort.” We paused in front of Eliot’s shop. “It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if you didn’t help me play the game.”

  “I was actually interested in the answer.”

  “That’s not the only reason you played along.”

  “Probably not,” he conceded. “Still, I’m up on things. I understand about elections.”

  “You’re just full of surprises.” I smiled until I felt a presence move into the open doorway. I didn’t need to look to recognize Eliot. “Andre was at the debate.”

  “Was he?” Eliot pinned Andre with a look. “I wouldn’t think that would be your type of scene.”

  “I see you deal in stereotypes, too.” Andre made a derisive sound with his tongue. “You two are perfect together.”

  “I like to think so,” Eliot agreed. “What ar
e you doing now?”

  “I was just walking her back, bro.” Andre held up his hands in supplication. “There’s nothing nefarious going on.”

  “There’s not,” I said. “I turned the debate into a fight about race relations and Andre helped me keep the focus on the candidates. It was fairly amusing.”

  “I’m sorry I missed it,” Eliot said dryly. “I thought about coming down there, but Fawn left for the day so I was stuck here.”

  I shifted my gaze over his shoulder and found the store empty. “Where did she go?”

  “I let her leave early because she was being … annoying,” Eliot replied. “It wasn’t nearly as cute as when you decide to be annoying.”

  “I’ve honed my gift.” I rubbed the back of my neck as I focused on Andre. “Are you sticking around here tonight?”

  “For a little bit.”

  “Watch the candidates and tell me what they do.”

  “Do you think they’ll do something interesting?”

  I shrugged. “I think that one or more of them could be agitated enough to do something the public might want to know about. Tomorrow is the last day before the election. If something is going to break, it will be soon.”

  “I’ll keep my eyes open.” Andre smiled at me before saluting Eliot. “She’s all yours, hoss.”

  Eliot made a rueful face. “To both my joy and sorrow.”

  Andre chuckled. “Watch her. She ticked off those politicians like you wouldn’t believe. That greasy-haired dude wants to kill her. I’m sure of that.”

  Eliot’s eyes flashed. “Ludington?”

  Andre nodded. “He’s plotting an attack.”

  “I’ll take care of her.” Eliot mustered a wan smile. “Thank you for walking her to the store.”

  “It was my pleasure.” Andre was blasé. “She’s funny. She says whatever she thinks and doesn’t care who she ticks off in the process. What’s not to like about that?”

  “Try living with her and asking the same question.” Eliot offered a wave before pulling me in the store and shutting the door. “Did anyone threaten you?”