Joanne applauded. “I like that. Consistency. It sort of goes hand in hand with the saying that it takes about three weeks of doing a new routine to form a habit. Other than working at the paper, what are some new routines you want to establish?”
“I do have a long range plan of learning how to drive a car; but in the meantime, you’re right Mom, I want to keep showing up for work for the next month; I want to train for this bike ride; and I want to help a woman I met called Claire. I don’t know how that would be a routine; because once she has the help she needs; then I’m out of her life, but I’d like to try to help her for now.”
“Maybe you could still be friends with her?”
“Yes. It’s funny, as we stand here talking, part of me is wondering what sort of woman she’s going to turn out to be; once she makes some of the big changes she’s planning. From what little I know of her, she seems adventurous, ready to explore the great big world and have fun doing it. I’m excited for her.”
Joanne searched in the fridge for a dessert. “I wonder what sort of woman she’s going to turn out to be as well. I mean, she’s already made some huge changes and now seems to be on a path of self discovery. I’m excited for her too.”
“I know you’re not talking about Claire. Cheesy Mom, very cheesy.”
“Looks like we’re going to have to make some cinnamon toast; we are completely out of dinosaur pie.”
The phone rang and Crystal answered.
“Hi; Schmidt home; do you want Joanne or Crystal?”
“You. I want you Crystal.”
“Um; who is this please?”
“It’s me hon, it’s Marjorie. I want you to come down to the newspaper office right now.”
Crystal gulped. “Really? Did I do something wrong? I feel like I’m being called to the principle’s office.”
“Hon, it’s important.”
“Okay. I’ll be right there.” She looked over at her mom who nodded. “My mom will drive me down. See you in a few.”
Crystal hung up the phone. Was she in trouble?
Chapter Seventeen
“You’ve met Ben before,” Marjorie said to Crystal as the three of them sat in Ben’s office while Joanne waited in the main part of the office of the Harrogate News.
“Briefly. Good evening Ben.”
“Good evening Crystal. Sorry to call you in so late; but Marjorie has made me aware of some very serious allegations you’ve made about Scott Avery.”
Crystal looked at her sneakers. “Don’t worry; I won’t do anymore investigating. If you need to fire me for insulting your number one reporter, I’ll understand.”
Ben laughed. “Why do you keep thinking I’m going to fire you? And as for Scott being my number one reporter, quite frankly, he’s my only reporter so he defaults to number one. What I want to know is everything you’ve found out and everything you even suspect.”
Crystal narrowed her eyes. Was this a trap? She looked over at Marjorie who looked furious. Were they trying to get Crystal to say something bad about Scott and then sue her? Even though Ben said he wasn’t intending to fire her, who knew what was true anymore? Look at the front page photograph featuring Gloria Fielding ; Gloria certainly bent the truth and no one was the wiser.
Crystal cleared her throat. “I read about slander in the dictionary; I don’t want to say all the things I suspect because…well, it could be damaging to the people involved and to me.”
“You’re worried you might say something legally actionable; rest assured we are not here to rake you over the coals. Let me help you to get started; I know you and Scott didn’t hit it off. There was some light ribbing, as I understand it wherein he continually called you ‘new girl’ and made fun of your lack of experience. Does that sound about right?”
Crystal nodded.
“So how did he go from hazing you to trying to run you over?”
Marjorie shrugged. “Hon, I had to tell him. This is serious.”
“But I have no proof of anything,” Crystal said quietly.
Ben leaned back in his chair. “How about if you tell me why Scott got under your skin in the first place?”
Crystal considered. She could do that. “It was the get well card incident.”
Ben and Marjorie looked at one another.
“What are you talking about, hon? Who was sick; what card?”
“Peter and Rosa told me…”
“The Filipowitz’s?” Ben asked.
“Yes; when they took me out for coffee, they told me about their interview with Scott. Apparently, it was horrible. The only proof I have of that, is that they stormed out of here and Scott was hollering after them to come back and talk. You saw that Marjorie.”
“Yes Ben; they were royally ticked.”
Crystal leaned forward. “As well they should have been. Do you know that Scott made it sound like the Filipowitz’s were to blame somehow? But to begin with, Scott asked them all sorts of ugly questions. Like, how long after Lisa was hit by the car did she die? Did she die in Rosa’s arms? What was the last thing she said to Rosa?”
“And this is what they told you when you went for coffee with them; you heard none of this yourself?” Ben said.
Crystal started to shake her head, but then remembered. “He taped it. They said he taped the interview with his Dictaphone.”
Ben scratched his chin. “I wonder if it’s on his desk; Marjorie, could you go look for us please?”
Marjorie scooted out of the office and dashed over to Scott’s desk. The mini-recorder was in the first drawer she opened.
“Don’t worry Mrs. Schmidt; it’s going to be fine,” she said to Joanne who was washing some coffee mugs.
Ben didn’t listen to the tape. “We’ll listen later; for now, I want you to continue Crystal; we still haven’t got to Scott forcing you off the road with his Fairlane yet.”
This was a far different Ben that Crystal had met the other day. She felt like she should go ahead with her suspicions. “You should know that for years I’ve had a problem with my imagination. I tend to think of the worst possible thing that could happen and it paralyzes me into doing nothing. Since I’ve been working here, I’ve finally been able to force myself to act; to get out of my head and think of other people. I’ve been learning to separate what I think probably happened with what the evidence and logic tells me.”
Crystal drew a deep breath. “I think Scott was paid by the Fieldings to bury the story of the hit and run that killed Lisa Filipowitz.”
Ben dropped his head forward and looked wide-eyed at Crystal. “That is one serious allegation. Any proof?”
“He wears purple snakeskin boots.”
“Pardon?”
Crystal pointed to Marjorie. “You told me that a man stormed in here about three weeks ago, demanding to talk to the big boss. You said the man was wearing purple snakeskin boots.”
Marjorie nodded. “That’s right; I did. And he was.”
Crystal grabbed the paper. “Look, this is Winston Fielding; Gloria Fielding’s husband.” She pointed to the front page, where a well-dressed man was sitting in the gallery, slightly apart from the young women holding signs. “Now you can’t see his feet in this photo; but the article identifies him and if you go back to an article…”
Marjorie interrupted. “I have it here; I remembered the date you referenced when you spoke to me earlier.” She showed the article to Ben, who looked at Winston Fielding shaking hands with the Director of the Arbutus Drug and Alcohol Center and Winston Fielding in the gallery.
“Yup, it’s the same man and he’s wearing the boots. The point?”
“Marjorie also said that Scott intercepted Winston and they talked behind closed doors and Winston came out happy. Now, I don’t have any proof that Scott was paid, but I do have this.” Crystal started to search in her knapsack. “I don’t really have a filing system yet; I’ve just been throwing the letters in here.” She pulled out one of the first letters she answered; the letter from 'Now a
Man of Means' and handed it and the envelope over to Ben.
In the meantime, Marjorie let out a curse. When Ben and Crystal looked at her expectantly, she just waved her hand. “Later; carry on.”
“There isn’t an address on the envelope and the letter is typed and signed with a pseudonym,” Crystal said apologetically.
Ben was examining the two items as she said this. He turned the letter over and let out a sardonic laugh. “However, he did write a grocery list on the back; I’d recognize that chicken scratch anywhere. Can I keep this?”
Crystal nodded.
“What else have you got?”
“I realized that the vehicle would have to be repaired, so after I talked to Lisa’s older Sister, Jennifer and after I talked to…”
“How did you run into her?”
“I was curious. No actually, I was upset and I wanted to drive by the accident area. I wanted to look at sight lines, because in my head I could not understand how someone could hit a child in the middle of the day, as the child walked on a sidewalk. When I went to Birch Avenue, I could see as clear as day, from one end of the avenue to the other. There were no signs or shrubs that blocked the view of the sidewalk, even for an inch. Anyhow I talked to a neighbor who said the car was a ‘fancy black car’ and then I ended up talking with Jennifer about space and the Canada Arm and grief. So after that, and after I talked to Peter and Rosa the next day I found out it was a Mercedes-Benz.” Crystal took a big breath. “I looked up regular advertisers with the Harrogate News and went to the first entry under auto mechanics. And after I did that; I decided to go to the treatment center.”
Ben smiled encouragingly. “Crystal, I’m a little dizzy with the twists and turns you’ve taken, do you think you could write this all down for us? And could we backtrack to the garage?”
“Oh sure. So I met Barry the owner at Barry’s Motors. I pretended I was there to get my tires on my bike looked at. I saw the car with the passenger side front fender smashed in and while Barry was talking to a customer, who turned out to be Scott; I jumped in the car and looked at the registration. It was Gloria Fieldings car. I didn’t know that everyone but me already knew who the driver was. Anyhow, Scott came in the garage and started chewing me out for being in the car and when I held up the empty vodka bottle I found in the back seat, he said it didn’t mean anything. Do you want to know the weird thing about the garage?”
“Yes.”
“Scott said it was his car and that he hit a stray dog. He also paid to have the car stored for three weeks before he authorized repairs. That is the one thing I haven’t figured out yet. At first I thought he needed to preserve evidence for the police because someone might have stolen the car; but with what I found out later, it didn’t track. I mean, why would he delay the repairs? Anyhow; I left and shortly afterwards an ugly beige car was following me and tapping on my fender with his bumper. I got scared and bumped so hard by the car that I ended up in a hedge. How did you find out it was Scott driving??”
“Matt talked to me,” Ben said simply.
“Well Matt talked to me too about slander and about gathering facts. Should I tell you what I saw at the treatment center or do you want me to start writing this up?”
“You can write this up later. I’m interested in not only what you saw, but your thinking process that made you decide to go to the treatment center.”
Crystal bowed her head. She was embarrassed. “The talk Matt had with me was embarrassing. I decided to play Devil’s advocate and re-examine what I thought was the truth. Did my theories make sense? I had been so busy accusing people without any hard evidence. So I decided to get some.”
Marjorie laughed. “There you go Ben; don’t have evidence? Just go get some. Easy.”
“It was fairly easy. I went to the treatment center, was invited in and basically just listened. Let me tell you, this photograph of the court room is a farce. Gloria herself told me that she paid these women to support her. At the time I didn’t know that they had already been to court; I just knew that they really seemed to hate her and vice-versa.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t think so.”
Marjorie spoke up. “Well I have something to add Ben. Scott hasn’t simply been lightly hazing Crystal; he has been downright mean to her.”
“What happened to not my circus, not my monkeys?” Crystal asked.
“Oh, I stand up for the underdog, only after they stand up for themselves. Ben, on Tuesday afternoon, after Crystal was gone for the day, Scott read the first two letters Crystal turned into me the day before and then dropped them on my desk and said something like ‘plebeian drivel’. I think he realized Crystal had hit the nail on the head with her reply and perhaps he remembered he wrote his grocery list on the back of the letter he sent to Betty's advice column. He then went over to Crystal’s desk and started searching through it. When I asked him what he was looking for, he simply said ‘a file’. I think he was looking for the original letter he sent so no one would put things together.”
“Interesting theory.” Ben twisted in his chair. “So far we have some evidence with a healthy dose of conjecture. Let’s listen to the tape; hopefully this will prove how underhanded Scott is.”
Each indignant gasp of the Filipowitz’s was captured clearly by the tape. After the recording finished playing, Ben clicked it off and took out the tape and put a fresh one in.
“That was uncomfortable to hear. I always thought Scott was a little sketchy, but this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was advocating for Gloria Fielding; just as you said Crystal.”
“Too bad we can’t look at his bank account,” Crystal said.
“Even if we could; we would have to see a similar withdrawal from Fielding’s account and then prove the connection. As it is, we don’t even know the amount he was paid, because, believe me, he was paid to bury the story!” Ben said tersely.
The three people in Ben’s office sat in silence and thought.
“My mom’s been waiting patiently all this time; I think I should go. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to do anymore investigating. Even though a lot of my theories proved to be true; I’ve learned my lesson. Some things are just bigger than me. I’ll stick with writing the advice column. I just wish though…”
“Yes?”
“I just wish the Filipowitz’s knew the truth.”
Marjorie snorted derisively. “So that’s it then? You’re just going to give up? I read your last answer in the column…don’t stick your neck out; sounds like you just rolled over and died. What happened to your fire girl? Are you going to let Scott win with his sanitized story? Let Winston Fielding win with his money and manipulations? And let Gloria Fielding get behind the wheel of a car again? But don’t mind me hon, I’m just the typesetter.”
“There is nothing I can do!” Crystal explained. She saw the Dictaphone Ben had left on top of the paper and snatched it up in her hand. “Unless I go undercover with this and get Gloria to confess,” she said sarcastically, “Because, you know, I’m so good at undercover work!”
She started to turn the Dictaphone around and around in her hand. “Unless I go undercover with this and get Gloria to confess,” she said slowly while raising one eyebrow in Ben’s direction.
Chapter Eighteen
“Can you keep it together while you work with Scott?” Marjorie asked. “What I mean is don’t sit there all smug; you’re going to have to be as abrasive as ever with him.”
“Smug?” Crystal, “Why would I be smug?”
Ben put his hand on his chin and leaned on his elbow. “Well I’m going to fire his butt on the basis of that recording alone. So you might be pretty pleased about that. But you do understand what Marjorie is saying, don’t you? You’re ‘undercover’ role starts tomorrow morning, bright and early. I need you to keep working on your column…” He looked at Marjorie, “Nice going with the full page, Marjorie, it made an impact!” Ben looked back at Crystal, “And of course, your
witty responses to the letters were great. A lot of people think we invent the letters, but CeeCee’s Common Sense is going to make them sit up and take notice. I think you, young lady, are going to have a flood of mail.”
Crystal smiled tentatively. “You really think so?”
“I do. Probably not tomorrow of course, but a few letters addressed to you might trickle in starting Friday. Now, back to business. How do you intend to get Gloria to confess?”
“I haven’t got the foggiest.”
“Right. We’ll all think about it for the rest of the week. The Fieldings are always in the news about some event they’re involved in. Of course, they haven’t been to any art shows or new restaurant openings for over three weeks.”
“What with the missus being remanded to the treatment center and all,” Marjorie said. “I don’t think they give evening passes to attend functions with an open bar.”
Ben stood up and extended his hand to Crystal. “Thank you again for coming in tonight. Although I come across as a really mean boss…”
Marjorie laughed at this.
Ben continued, “Although I come across as a really mean boss, I am quite concerned about your welfare. I would fire Scott right now for trying to run you down, let alone the abysmal interview with Peter and Rosa; but there are bigger fish to fry.”
“I’d like to fry Gloria’s fish as well,” Crystal said then blushed. “That didn’t come out how I intended it to.”
“That’s fine, Crystal. Now, let’s go see your mom; I want to thank her for bringing you down here so quickly and her patience.” He stopped just before he opened the door for the women. “Remember to write everything thing down; everything you thought and went through. I think at the end of this saga we’ll have the makings of a really intriguing story.”
Marjorie nodded. “Probably a series of articles in the paper. Should we give her an advance, of say, five hundred dollars providing she turns in the first five thousand words by Monday?”
Crystal was shocked at the offer of money. Then she realized the writing she would have to do.
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