Cold Open, A Sam North Mystery

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Cold Open, A Sam North Mystery Page 1

by Clarkin, Greg




  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, dialogues, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental. Though Liberty News is an imaginary cable news network, if it were real, I would wish for it to have a strong primetime lineup and favorable channel placement on cable systems.

  COLD OPEN

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Copyright © 2012 Gregory Clarkin All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover Designed by Telemachus Press, LLC

  Cover Art:

  Copyright ©Thinkstock Photo/136186696/Manhattan Bridge, New York City/iStockPhoto

  Published by Telemachus Press, LLC

  http://www.telemachuspress.com

  Visit the author website:

  http://www.gregclarkin.com

  If you'd like to be the first to hear about the next Sam North mystery, and other things such as exclusive content, news and contests, please sign up for the Sam North Mystery Newsletter.

  ISBN: 978-1-938135-39-2 (eBook)

  Version 2012.07.13

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For Rani, Sophia, Matthew, and Alex.

  And Vincent and Rosemary.

  Cold Open

  Cold Open (noun): the opening of a newscast by jumping directly into a story without rolling the beginning or opening credits. No top-of-the-show introductions, no fancy graphics, no dramatic music, no deep-voiced narrator telling you about all the important news about to be covered.

  Chapter One

  I walked into Liberty News just before four a.m., and Charlie Morris was on me like I owed him money.

  “Sam … Sam, I need to talk to you,” he said.

  The big, hangar-like newsroom was near empty. It was a Tuesday in August, the heart of a slow, late-summer news cycle. Anybody with any pull or money was on vacation. I wasn’t.

  Morris zigzagged his way through the desks, determined to ruin my morning.

  “Hey, Sam, wait up.”

  “No,” I said.

  Charlie was a good guy, a veteran cameraman, but a guy needs a little personal space at this hour.

  “Sam, listen,” he said as he closed in. He had played the angles nicely and was just twenty feet from me. “I need to talk to you.”

  He was dressed in his summer uniform. Cargo shorts and sneakers and a black Metallica

  T-shirt. I was in a gray-checked lightweight suit. A Joseph Abboud and one of my favorites. I had a light blue shirt on, with my tie folded and stuffed in the pocket of the suit jacket, which I carried slung over my shoulder.

  In my other hand I had a cup of takeout coffee from the Redwood Diner, the little place tucked away downstairs on Forty-ninth Street.

  He was a few feet away from me now. “Sam, come on,” he said.

  I stopped and turned and glanced over his shoulder at the row of red digital clocks on the far wall. My eyes settled on the first one.

  New York: 3:47:13 a.m.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “You let me sit down and have a little coffee, and you can talk to me.”

  He was agitated and impatient. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

  We walked across the newsroom to my desk, past the handful of producers and writers for Liberty Live, our five a.m. show. They sat with their heads down, pecking away at keyboards.

  “What’s so important that you have to attack me at four in the morning?” I asked as he pulled up an empty chair. “You got an intern problem or something? Maybe had a little too much to drink and—”

  “No, come on, Sam. You know me better than that.”

  “Well, you never know.”

  Charlie rolled his chair closer, and our knees almost touched. He looked around to make sure no one was close.

  “Just so you know,” I said, “I’m not trained to hear confessions.”

  He smirked. “Hey, that’s good.”

  “I mean, I can listen and all, but I can’t make the stuff go away.”

  He turned serious. “You remember my buddy, Wade?”

  “No. Is that
all?” I asked.

  “Guy was a shooter at Channel Four. Got fired. Now he sits in his car all night and most of the day listening to the police scanner. Lives in the damn vehicle.”

  “Scanner jockey, huh? Sorry to hear about it.”

  “Tries to be the first to the scene and shoot the footage then sell it anywhere he can,” he said. “The guy lives for a good crime scene.”

  I had some more of the coffee and looked at him. “What does he have?”

  “He says something good, real good.”

  “Go on.”

  “Wade hears a call a couple of hours ago. Someone spotted a floater in the East River, off Twenty-third Street.”

  “Okay, but we’re not really breaking any new ground here.”

  He leaned even closer and looked around. “He says the floater is real high profile.”

  “He give you a name?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “What about a clue?”

  “Nope.”

  “Doesn’t have to be a Jeopardy clue, just a little one.”

  He shook his head.

  “Jock? Actor? Actress?” I asked.

  “Nope. He’s not going to budge, Sam.”

  “How much does he want?”

  “Two Gs.”

  “He’s never going to get it.”

  “He says he will,” Charlie said.

  “You got to be kidding me.”

  “Nope. He wants two thousand. Cash.”

  “Damn well better be the president for that money.”

  “Doubt it. Wade is unpredictable,” he said. “It could be huge, or he could be overreaching.”

  I sat back and looked across to the far end of the room and the cluster of desks over by the windows that looked east, out onto Sixth Avenue. It was the assignment desk, and off in the distance I could see a lone figure sitting in his char. He was a tall, skinny guy, and at the moment he was napping, chin to chest.

  Blake Jennings was the early-morning assignment editor, and any and all decisions needed to go through him.

  “You know there’s no way Blake is going to pay two thousand dollars,” I said.

  “I know,” he said. “Plus, he’s not really a big fan of Wade at the moment.”

  “Go on,” I said.

  “Couple of months back Wade sold us something that didn’t quite pan out,” he said.

  “Oh, boy.”

  “Yeah, said he had shots of the mayor leaving the apartment of a woman other than his wife.”

  “And?”

  “It wasn’t the mayor.”

  “Wade swings and misses,” I said.

  “Big-time. On top of that he kept the three hundred bucks. Said it was for gas and emotional stress.”

  “They often go hand in hand.”

  “Blake banned us from doing business with him. Called him a head case.” Charlie leaned closer. “Sam, I’m the first to admit Wade is a nut …”

  “But you think he has something?”

  “I do. I could hear it in his voice. He says everyone will know this name. Plus, he’s already shopped it to Channel Four.”

  “And?”

  “They didn’t bite. Said they weren’t going to play some game with him. They wanted to see the footage first. He said no way.”

  “But, now they know someone big went for a swim,” I said.

  “Exactly,” he said. “And I’m sure they’re calling every cop source they got.”

  “Where’s Wade?” I asked.

  “Downstairs. Parked in the NYP zone.”

  “Why don’t you give old Wade a call,” I said. “See if he’ll soften his stance.”

  “He won’t.”

  “Just try,” I said. “Tell him I’m getting the cash and we want it, we just want to see a few seconds of it.”

  “He’s too smart to fall for that, but I’ll try.”

  Charlie pulled out his phone and called, and I sat back and took another drink of coffee. I grabbed a memo that had been left on my desk. It was from Liberty’s security office.

  Please be advised that a large protest targeting Jack Steele’s show is planned for today, August 9, at 2 p.m. in front of the building. A demonstration permit has been granted for the sidewalk of the Avenue of the Americas between 49th and 50th Streets. We ask all employees to use the side entrances of the building in order to avoid protestors and to use discretion in displaying your Liberty News identification badges when entering and exiting the building. Liberty News is working with the New York City Police Department to ensure the safety of all employees during the protest.

  Chet Dixon

  Director of Corporate Security

  Liberty News

  Jack Steele was a loudmouthed cable host, but he was our loudmouthed cable host. Anchor of Steele Yourself, which aired every night at eight. The man had more than three million viewers a night, or at least he had a year ago. Over the last six months his numbers had been dropping. No one could point to a specific reason, but his audience was slowly eroding.

  “Hey, Sam,” Charlie said.

  I looked over at him. He was rattled.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “No. But something’s going on here, Sam. When I asked for a hint, Wade kept saying we need to buy this. Like us, Liberty.”

  “That his usual sales pitch?”

  “I think that was the hint,” Charlie said.

  Chapter Two

  “There’s something you need to know about Wade,” Charlie said.

  “Such as?”

  We were crossing the lobby of the Sixth Avenue office tower that Liberty News called home.

  “He’s a bit high strung, a bit edgy. Kind of out there,” Charlie said.

  “Little close to the edge of the grid, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Understandable, given his working conditions.”

  We pushed through the revolving door and stepped out into the hot, damp August air and crossed the plaza in front of the building.

  “I mean, he’s pretty wound up, Sam. That’s part of the reason he hasn’t been able to stick at one place for too long. It doesn’t take a lot to set him off.”

  “I consider myself warned.”

  “What are we going to do when he asks about the money?”

  “Don’t know,” I said.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “But we got a better crack at this if we’re in standing in front of him, right?” I asked. “Doesn’t do us any good sitting up in the newsroom if he’s off trying to peddle it somewhere else.”

  “I guess so,” Charlie said.

  “Look, Wade wants to make a sale now, so someone gets it on one of the five o’clock shows. And the longer he’s with us, the less time he has to find another buyer,” I said. “So there’s our plan. We try to work the clock and force a sale, for much lower than what he’s asking.”

  “That’s a plan?” he asked.

  “We’ll see,” I said. “Which car is his?”

  “It’s a tan Toyota. That’s him up there,” Charlie said as he pointed to a car parked at the curb. It was three back from the corner of Fiftieth, with the door on the driver’s side open.

  We got to the car and there in the driver’s seat was Wade, sitting sideways, with his thick hairy legs extending out onto the sidewalk. He was a bear of a man and had the hair everywhere to prove it. He was dressed in shorts and sandals and a white tank top. His brown hair was thick in some spots, bald in others, and gave the appearance of a poorly kept lawn.

  “Wade,” Charlie said, “this is Sam North.”

  “Wade, good to meet you,” I said. “Charlie tells me you’re holding the winning lottery ticket.”

  He was wired and wound up, just like Charlie said.

  “This is big shit, Sam. You’re not going to believe who they just fished out of the East River,” he said.

  “Big name, huh?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said.

  “Ballplayer? Actor? Who do we
got?”

  “Ah, come on, Sam, you know how this works.”

  “Well, how about I get a look at it first, Wade,” I said.

  “Oh, sure,” Wade said. “You can get a look at it. For two Gs. Then you can look at it all you want.”

  “Wade,” I said, “you know how this works, too. No way Liberty or anyone is going to pay two grand for something, especially sight unseen.”

  “That’s not my problem,” he said.

  “Maybe not,” I said, “but you know what your problem is, Wade? How do I know what you got is real, huh? How do I know it’s as big as you say?”

  Charlie took a half step away from me, and Wade made it clear he was insulted.

  “It’s big because I say it is,” he said.

  “Big like the mayor leaving the apartment? That kind of big?” I asked.

  “Where the fuck did that come from?” Wade said.

  “Oh, Jesus,” I heard Charlie mutter.

  “Let’s face it, Wade. Folks are a little skeptical of you after the last stunt you pulled,” I said.

  Wade slung his legs back into the Toyota and reached out for the door handle.

  “End of conversation,” he said.

  He yanked the door to pull it shut, but it slammed into the back of my legs.

  “Get the hell out of the way,” he said.

  “You need us to buy this, Wade. Don’t you?”

  Another yank on the door and another slam into my calves, then he looked up at me and hesitated.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

  “Why else would you sit down here waiting for us? If it’s as big as you say it is, you’d be out shopping it, driving all over the city to sell it.”

  “I’ve got other feelers out.”

  “I’m sure you do.”

  “My phone rings and you dicks will be sorry.”

  “But your phone’s not going to ring, Wade,” I said. “You’ve burned other places, and people think you’re bullshitting them. Plus, you know we have to have this, right?”

  Before he could answer I reached into my suit pocket, took out my wallet, removed my American Express Gold Card and held it out.

  “What the fuck is that?” he asked.

  “Take it,” I said.

  “Right, like I can just swipe it through my little machine here, like I’m a frigging cashier or something.”

 

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