4 Shot Off The Presses

by Amanda M. Lee

“Me?” I still didn’t get it.

  “It’s the same car you drive, Avery,” Jake pointed out. “The same color. The kid was shot at the same time you should have been coming home from work.”

  “Wait you’re saying . . .”

  “You were probably the intended target,” Jake supplied harshly.

  “Who would anyone want to shoot me?”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Christine replied, quickly looking away when Jake shot her a dark look.

  “Who have you interviewed in the last few days?” Jake asked the question.

  “I’m not telling you that,” I scoffed, although I wasn’t feeling as sure about myself as my voice implied.

  “She went over and talked to some secretary at that insurance office where the first victim worked on Saturday,” Eliot replied.

  “Tattletale.”

  “And then, of course, there’s Turner,” Eliot added.

  Jake’s face looked like it had been carved out of granite it was so hard. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Or,” Eliot blew out a sigh. “It could just be because she’s been the one writing the stories. She doesn’t necessarily have to have pissed someone off in person.”

  “Yeah, she pisses people off just by existing,” Jake agreed. “She shouldn’t be left alone.”

  “Yeah, I got it,” Eliot nodded. “Protecting her is like a second job these days.”

  “That’s another one of her special personality traits,” Jake agreed, trying for a wry smile that came off as more of a grimace than anything else.

  “I’m standing right here!”

  They both ignored me.

  “We can’t be sure that the car was targeted because someone thought it was her,” Jake said.

  “No,” Eliot agreed. “We can’t be sure that the car wasn’t targeted because of her either.”

  “No.”

  We couldn’t be sure of anything. But, it was a possibility, that a high school student could have been killed because he was driving the same kind of car I had.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Seventeen

  Eliot stayed close – too close – to me for the duration of the evening. He stood directly behind me at the press briefing, casting suspicious looks in a bevy of directions. While the gesture was sweet, it was also stifling.

  After the press briefing was over, I took the opportunity to pull Derrick aside while Eliot was busy staring down a van he didn’t like at the gas station in the parking lot. “Tell him you’re going to give me a ride.”

  “What?” Derrick looked confused.

  “He’s driving me crazy.”

  “How?”

  I told Derrick about what had transpired with Jake, Eliot, Christine and me – including the revelation about Lance Plimpton’s car – and then waited for his response. “You’re shitting me?”

  “No – and I don’t get that saying.”

  “Why didn’t Jake tell me about this?”

  “It just happened,” I said. “I think he wants to get away from Christine first.”

  “Yeah, she’s a real . . . piece of work.”

  “She’s going to be a pain until we can get rid of her,” I agreed.

  “Get rid of her?” Derrick quirked an eyebrow in my direction.

  “Not like the mob,” I said quickly. “More like digging up dirt on her or Tad so I can pressure the situation until it’s back the way I like it.”

  “For once that spoiled rotten thing you have about not wanting to share your toys is going to benefit the greater good,” Derrick said.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “You should.”

  “So, you’ll take me?”

  “Yeah,” Derrick blew out a sigh. “I’ll take you. If you’re going to go after Christine, I guess I owe you.”

  “Good,” I said, catching a glimpse of Eliot moving towards us. “You tell him you need me to ride with you because you want to question me.”

  “What?” Derrick looked flummoxed.

  “He won’t believe it if it comes from me.”

  “He’s not going to believe it coming from me either.”

  “Yeah, but he’ll be less likely to call you a liar,” I replied.

  “Fine,” Derrick muttered irritably. “Hey Eliot.”

  “Derrick,” Eliot nodded. “What were you two talking about?”

  “Global warming,” I said quickly. I’m bad at thinking of lies sometimes.

  Derrick rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I was telling Avery that I’m concerned our grandfather was going to be arrested if he kept ignoring his jury duty summons.”

  Yeah, that was a much better lie.

  “Do you think he will? Maybe he’s just looking for attention,” Eliot suggested.

  “He does like his attention, but this is going to get him a whole heap of crappy attention,” Derrick said.

  “Well, if he gets arrested, you’ll have another fun family story to tell,” Eliot said breezily.

  “Yeah, those fun family stories are still painful at times,” Derrick said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Like the time we were sneaking into the pool and found him sleeping naked on the trampoline.”

  Eliot barked out a laugh.

  “It’s a funny story,” Derrick agreed. “It’s a scarring memory, though.”

  “He claimed he could tell time when the sun rose, like he was a sundial,” I explained.

  Eliot thought about it a minute and then cracked the first true smile of the evening. “Ah, I get it.”

  “Sometimes it takes awhile,” I said.

  “Are you ready to go?” Eliot asked.

  I turned to Derrick expectantly.

  “Actually, do you mind if I take her to your place?”

  “Why?” Eliot looked suspicious.

  “I want to talk to her about your theory about her being the target,” Derrick lied smoothly. “I can do it during the car ride.”

  “Why don’t you just ask her now?”

  “I . . . I,” that lying thing comes and goes for my whole family apparently.

  “He’s actually going to drop me off at the office,” I interjected.

  “Why?”

  “I have a story to file.”

  “I can take you there,” Eliot said stubbornly.

  “I thought I would text you to pick me up when I was done.”

  Eliot still looked unsure.

  “I’ll walk her into the building,” Derrick offered.

  “And you won’t leave until I come up to the building to get you?” Eliot asked pointedly.

  “I promise,” I placed my hand over my heart with as much sincerity as I could muster.

  “That means you can’t even go outside and have a secret cigarette,” Eliot instructed. “I don’t care how stressed you are.”

  “You still do that?” Derrick looked disgusted.

  “Mind your own business,” I grumbled. “I promise.”

  “Fine,” Eliot agreed. He stepped forward and dropped a kiss on my forehead. “I’ve got a few errands I need to run anyway.”

  “See, it works out well for everyone,” I said.

  “Remember your promise,” Eliot cautioned me.

  “I remember,” I muttered.

  Once Eliot was gone and I was safely encased in Derrick’s car I turned to him. “I don’t like being treated like a child.”

  “He likes you,” Derrick said calmly. “I have no idea why, because you are like a really annoying child a lot of the time, but he does.”

  “I still think they’re grasping at straws.” I said the words but wasn’t sure I actually believed them.

  “They could be,” Derrick agreed. “Or they could be right.”

  “I need you to keep this to yourself,” I said. “I don’t need my mom freaking out.”

  “I’m going to agree to keep this quiet for now,” Derrick said. “But only because I think it’s too thin to actually be a legitimate lead right now.”
/>   “I’ll take it,” I said.

  Once we got back to The Monitor, Derrick took his promise to Eliot seriously. He made me stay in his car until he could walk around to the other side of the vehicle and open the door for me. His dark eyes were busy surveying the parking lot.

  When I got out of the car, I started towards the front door but I paused when I saw that Derrick’s eyes were trained on a vehicle out in the adjacent second parking lot. “What?”

  “That truck is moving.”

  I realized what truck he was referring to rather quickly. “I wouldn’t worry about that.”

  “There’s someone in there,” Derrick started moving towards the vehicle with a purpose, his hand on the weapon at his hip.

  “Yeah, but that’s not a sniper in there, trust me.” I started to follow Derrick in a vain effort to keep him from seeing what was in the truck. “The only weapon in there is a really little pistol.”

  When we got closer, Derrick pulled up short. “There are two people having sex in there.”

  “I know.”

  “Are they interns?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “It’s the sports paginator and his girlfriend, Chelsea,” I replied grimly.

  Derrick continued to watch the scene as if mesmerized by the horror of it for a few more minutes. Finally, he peeled his eyes from the truck and turned back to me. “That’s the whitest ass I’ve ever seen.”

  “I’m more horrified by the hair.”

  “On his ass or hers?”

  “They’re both equally appalling,” I said.

  “Newspaper people are freaks,” he grunted and turned back to the building. “Freaks.”

  Eighteen

  Since I had worked so late Monday night, Fish told me to take my time on Tuesday – even take the day off if I wanted to.

  “You don’t need to come into work if you don’t want to,” he said when he called me. Since I was still in bed, I didn’t have a problem with his suggestion.

  “What about the follow-up on Lance Plimpton?”

  “I’m sending Marvin.”

  “Marvin, not Duncan, right?”

  “Yeah, Duncan has some dirty jobs thing he wants to do,” Fish replied.

  “Dirty jobs? I don’t get it.”

  “I don’t know,” Fish sounded irritated. “He wants to do some series where he follows people around on some disgusting jobs and then writes stories about it. He’s all proud that he thought of it himself.”

  “He did not think of it himself,” I corrected Fish. “It’s a television show.”

  “It is?”

  “You need to watch more than C-SPAN some time,” I said.

  “I’m going to bust his ass,” Fish grumbled.

  “Have fun. If he suggests growing a beard and going hunting, that’s a television show, too. Just FYI. So is searching for Bigfoot.”

  When we disconnected, I rolled over and snuggled into Eliot’s side. “Fish is letting me set my schedule today.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I can go to work if I want but I don’t have to.”

  “Does that mean I can keep you in bed all day?” Eliot asked suggestively.

  “Maybe,” I hedged.

  Eliot sighed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I was thinking . . .”

  “Always a scary prospect,” Eliot grumbled.

  I ignored him. “I thought I would buy you breakfast.”

  “I could live with that,” Eliot answered easily, but suspicion lurked in his eyes.

  “And then, I thought you might know some gun nuts that might be able to give me some insight into the sniper and whether or not those shots were really hard or just coincidences.”

  Eliot considered the request for a second. “I might know a few people.”

  “You’re agreeing to this?”

  “Yes, because I’ll be going with you,” Eliot said firmly.

  “Fine.”

  “Good.” Eliot pulled me close to him for a second and then released me. “I’m going to want to work up an appetite before my breakfast.”

  I pulled back far enough to see his face. “Fine,” I blew out a sigh. “But you’re going to have to do all the work. I’m still tired from last night.”

  “I think I’m up for that.”

  “I noticed.”

  TWO HOURS later, Eliot and I finally made our way into the local Coney Island for breakfast. After the exertion of my morning, a plate full of greasy hash browns and eggs sounded like just the rejuvenating meal I needed. I would add a glass of tomato juice so I could get some vitamins, too. Eating healthy is chore for us all.

  Eliot walked into the restaurant before me and, since I wasn’t paying attention, I slammed into his back when he paused in the doorway.

  “What the hell?”

  “Maybe we should go somewhere else for breakfast,” Eliot said carefully.

  “Why?” I peered around him and frowned when I found who he was looking at. It was Jake, and he wasn’t alone. Christine Brady was sitting in the booth across from him. “Why would he be having breakfast with her?”

  “Maybe he’s trying to play nice,” Eliot shrugged.

  “You can’t make nice with a snake.”

  “Maybe he likes her.”

  “You can’t like a snake.”

  “She’s kind of attractive,” Eliot mused after a few seconds. “In that dirty librarian kind of way.”

  “Men are sick.”

  Eliot laughed and the sound caused both Christine and Jake to turn their attention to us in the doorway. We had no choice but to enter now – otherwise we would look like idiots. I was no stranger to that particular look, but I refused to lose face in front of Christine.

  The hostess led us to a booth that, ironically, was just across the aisle from Jake and Christine. Once we were seated, Eliot glanced over at the two of them and nodded. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” Jake replied smoothly.

  “Do you live around here?” Christine asked. Small talk obviously wasn’t her forte.

  “Why?” Eliot asked coolly.

  “It’s just a weird coincidence that we would all end up at the same diner.”

  “I live down the street,” Eliot said.

  “Above your pawnshop?” Christine said pawnshop with the same amount of enthusiasm as one would say diaper genie.

  “Yup.”

  The waitress filled our coffee cups and took our order and then it was just the four of us – again.

  “I read your story this morning,” Christine said after a few minutes.

  “I’m glad you can read,” I replied. “That probably comes in helpful in your line of work.”

  Christine ignored the barb. “I find it interesting that you were the only reporter in the area that managed to get the name of the victim.”

  “I’m good like that,” I agreed, not rising to the bait she was lazily dangling in the water.

  “She has a special gift,” Eliot agreed. “It’s like magic.”

  I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. That was laying it on a bit thick.

  “How did you get the name?” Christine pressed.

  “I had a source,” I sipped from my coffee cup dismissively.

  “A police source?”

  “No,” I said carefully. “It was not a police source. It was a source within the school.” That’s totally plausible. I’ve done enough fluff pieces for that school that someone could have easily tipped me off. She couldn’t prove I was lying.

  “How would the school have known?”

  “My guess is that, once the mother was informed, she told a friend and then the kids found out.” I can lie when I want to – and sometimes the lies come smoother than they should.

  “And if I were to ask the school, would they back this up?” Christine obviously didn’t believe me.

  “I don’t know,” I said evasively. “I guess it depends on whether or not you get the right person at the school.”<
br />
  “What if I told you that I planned on spending my morning over there asking if anyone tipped you off?”

  What an idiot. Like that was going to trip me up. “I’d say you have a lot of time on your hands and to have a good time. Kids today are great. Especially teenagers. They’re great little reflections of what is good and pure in this world today.” FYI, I hate teenagers on general principle. Still, watching a group of them hassle Christine sounded fun. Maybe I would take my flip camera and videotape it for YouTube.

  Christine frowned. “You don’t have a problem with me going to the school?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “You don’t think they’ll be angry about being hassled?”

  I angled my body so I could talk to Christine face on. “I think that Roseville has a new basketball floor because of the story I did. I think that the band has new uniforms because of another story I did. I think that the photo diary of their Christmas pageant that I set up brought a lot of money into their drama program. So, no, I don’t think one annoying woman questioning them in an incessant and unnecessary way will make them stop talking to me.”

  Eliot smirked from across the table. He liked it when I went full on bitchy – as long as it wasn’t with him. Even Jake looked amused with my response.

  Christine looked agitated. “Well, I’m still going.”

  “Knock yourself out,” I smiled at the waitress as she slipped my breakfast in front of me. “I think that the task force would enjoy a morning away from you.”

  And the three-pointer at the buzzer is all net.

  “What are you doing today?” Jake changed the subject.

  “I have the day off.”

  “Really?” Jake looked surprised. “I thought you would be talking to the family of the victim.”

  “Marvin is handling that.”

  “Why?” Christine asked. “Where will you be?”

  “Eliot and I are spending the day together.” That’s not technically a lie.

  “You don’t have to work? Isn’t this your big story?” Christine was baiting me again. Actually, it was more like she was tossing chum in the water and circling like a Great White to see if I would come in for a nibble.

  “Since I technically worked a double shift last night, my boss gave me the day off.”

  “He sounds like a nice boss,” Christine said dubiously. “I think it’s more likely that he can’t stand being around you any more than I can.”