True Believer

by Nicholas Sparks

  "Whatever," Alvin said again. "Whatever" had always been Alvin's favorite word.

  On Primetime Live, the videotape faded to black and the camera focused on Diane Sawyer and Jeremy, sitting across from each other once again.

  "So nothing Timothy Clausen said was true?" Diane asked.

  "Not a thing," Jeremy said. "As you already know, my name isn't Thad, and while I do have five brothers, they're all alive and well."

  Diane held a pen over a pad of paper, as if she was about to take notes. "So how did Clausen do this?"

  "Well, Diane," Jeremy began.

  In the bar, Alvin's pierced eyebrow rose. He leaned toward Jeremy. "Did you just call her Diane? Like you're friends?"

  "Could you please!" Nate said, growing more exasperated by the moment.

  On-screen, Jeremy was going on. "What Clausen does is simply a variation on what people have been doing for hundreds of years. First of all, he's good at reading people, and he's an expert at making vague, emotionally charged associations and responding to audience members' cues."

  "Yes, but he was so specific. Not only with you, but with the other guests. He had names. How does he do that?"

  Jeremy shrugged. "He heard me talking about my brother Marcus before the show. I simply made up an imaginary life and broadcast it loud and clear."

  "How did it actually reach Clausen's ears?"

  "Con men like Clausen have been known to use a variety of tricks, including microphones and paid 'listeners' who circulate in the waiting area before the show. Before I was seated, I made sure to move around and strike up conversations with lots of audience members, watching to see if anyone exhibited unusual interest in my story. And sure enough, one man seemed particularly concerned."

  Behind them, the videotape was replaced by an enlarged photograph that Jeremy had taken with a small camera hidden in his watch, a high-tech spy toy he'd promptly expensed to Scientific American. Jeremy loved high-tech toys almost as much as he loved expensing them to others.

  "What are we looking at here?" Diane asked.

  Jeremy pointed. "This man was mingling with the studio audience, posing as a visitor from Peoria. I took this photograph right before the show while we were talking. Zoom in further, please."

  On-screen, the photograph was enlarged and Jeremy motioned toward it.

  "Do you see the small USA pin on his lapel? That's not just for decoration. It's actually a miniature transmitter that broadcasts to a recording device backstage."

  Diane frowned. "How do you know this?"

  "Because," Jeremy said, raising an eyebrow, "I happen to have one just like it."

  On cue, Jeremy reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out what appeared to be the same USA pin, attached to a long, threadlike wire and transmitter.

  "This particular model is manufactured in Israel"--Jeremy's voice could be heard over the camera close-up of the gadget--"and it's very high-end. I've heard it's used by the CIA, but, of course, I can't confirm that. What I can tell you is that the technology is very advanced--this little microphone can pick up conversations from across a noisy, crowded room and, with the right filtering systems, can even isolate them."

  Diane inspected the pin with apparent fascination. "And you're certain that this was indeed a microphone and not just a pin?"

  "Well, as you know, I've been looking into Clausen's past for a long time now, and a week after the show, I managed to obtain some more photographs."

  A new photograph flashed on the screen. Though a bit grainy, it was a picture of the same man who'd been wearing the USA pin.

  "This photo was taken in Florida, outside Clausen's office. As you can see, the man is heading inside. His name is Rex Moore, and he's actually an employee of Clausen's. He's worked with Clausen for two years."

  "Ooohhhhh!" Alvin shouted, and the rest of the broadcast, which was winding down, anyway, was drowned out as others, jealous or not, joined in with hoots and hollers. The free booze had worked its magic, and Jeremy was deluged with congratulations after the show had ended.

  "You were fantastic," Nate said. At forty-three, Nate was short and balding and had a tendency to wear suits that were just a bit too tight in the waist. No matter, the man was energy incarnate and, like most agents, positively buzzed with fervent optimism.

  "Thanks," Jeremy said, downing the remainder of his beer.

  "This is going to be big for your career," Nate went on. "It's your ticket to a regular television gig. No more scrambling for lousy freelance magazine work, no more chasing UFO stories. I've always said that with your looks, you were made for TV."

  "You have always said that," Jeremy conceded with the eye-rolling manner of someone reciting an oft-given lecture.

  "I mean it. The producers from Primetime Live and GMA keep calling, talking about using you as a regular contributor on their shows. You know, 'what this late-breaking science news means for you' and all that. A big leap for a science reporter."

  "I'm a journalist," Jeremy sniffed, "not a reporter."

  "Whatever," Nate said, making a motion as if brushing away a fly. "Like I've always said, your looks are made for television."

  "I'd have to say Nate's right," Alvin added with a wink. "I mean, how else could you be more popular than me with the ladies, despite having zero personality?" For years, Alvin and Jeremy had frequented bars together, trolling for dates.

  Jeremy laughed. Alvin Bernstein, whose name conjured up a clean-cut, bespectacled accountant--one of the countless professionals who wore Florsheim shoes and carried a briefcase to work--didn't look like an Alvin Bernstein. As a teenager, he'd seen Eddie Murphy in Delirious and had decided to make the full-leather style his own, a wardrobe that horrified his Florsheim-wearing, briefcase-carrying father, Melvin. Fortunately, leather seemed to go well with his tattoos. Alvin considered tattoos to be a reflection of his unique aesthetic, and he was uniquely aesthetic on both his arms, right up to his shoulder blades. All of which complemented Alvin's multiply pierced ears.

  "So are you still planning a trip down south to investigate that ghost story?" Nate pressed. Jeremy could fairly see the wheels clicking and clacking away in his brain. "After your interview with People, I mean."

  Jeremy brushed his dark hair out of his eyes and signaled the bartender for another beer. "Yeah, I guess so. Primetime or no Primetime, I still have bills to pay, and I was thinking I could use this for my column."

  "But you'll be in contact, right? Not like when you went undercover with the Righteous and Holy?" He was referring to a six-thousand-word piece Jeremy had done for Vanity Fair about a religious cult; in that instance, Jeremy had essentially severed all communication for a period of three months.

  "I'll be in contact," Jeremy said. "This story isn't like that. I should be out of there in less than a week. 'Mysterious lights in the cemetery.' No big deal."

  "Hey, you need a cameraman by any chance?" Alvin piped in.

  Jeremy looked over at him. "Why? Do you want to go?"

  "Hell yeah. Head south for the winter, maybe meet me a nice southern belle while you pick up the tab. I hear the women down there will drive you crazy, but in a good way. It'll be like an exotic vacation."

  "Aren't you supposed to be shooting something for Law & Order next week?"

  As strange as Alvin looked, his reputation was impeccable, and his services were usually in high demand.

  "Yeah, but I'll be clear toward the end of the week," Alvin said. "And look, if you're serious about this television thing like Nate says you should be, it might be important to get some decent footage of these mysterious lights."

  "That's assuming there are even any lights to film."

  "You do the advance work and let me know. I'll keep my calendar open."

  "Even if there are lights, it's a small story," Jeremy warned. "No one in television will be interested in it."

  "Not last month, maybe," Alvin said. "But after seeing you tonight, they'll be interested. You know how it is in television--all those
producers chasing their own tails, trying to find the next big thing. If GMA is suddenly hot to trot, then you know the Today show will be calling soon and Dateline will be knocking at the door. No producer wants to be left out. That's how they get fired. The last thing they want to do is to have to explain to the executives why they missed the boat. Believe me--I work in television. I know these people."

  "He's right," Nate said, interrupting them. "You never know what'll happen next, and it might be a good idea to plan ahead. You had definite presence tonight. Don't kid yourself. And if you can get some actual footage of the lights, it might be just the thing that GMA or Primetime needs to make their decision."

  Jeremy squinted at his agent. "You serious about this? It's a nothing story. The reason I decided to do it at all was because I needed a break after Clausen. That story took four months of my life."

  "And look what it got you," Nate said, putting a hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "This may be a fluff piece, but with sensational footage and a good backstory, who knows what television will think?"

  Jeremy was silent for a moment before finally shrugging. "Fine," he said. He glanced at Alvin. "I'm leaving on Tuesday. See if you can get there by next Friday. I'll call you before then with the details."

  Alvin reached for his beer and took a drink. "Well, golly," he said, mimicking Gomer Pyle, "I'm off to the land of grits and chitlins. And I promise my bill won't be too high."

  Jeremy laughed. "You ever been down south?"

  "Nope. You?"

  "I've visited New Orleans and Atlanta," Jeremy admitted. "But those are cities, and cities are pretty much the same everywhere. For this story, we're heading to the real South. It's a little town in North Carolina, a place called Boone Creek. You should see the town's Web site. It talks about the azaleas and dogwoods that bloom in April, and proudly displays a picture of the town's most prominent citizen. A guy named Norwood Jefferson."

  "Who?" Alvin asked.

  "A politician. He served in the North Carolina State Senate from 1907 to 1916."

  "Who cares?"

  "Exactly," Jeremy said with a nod. Glancing across the bar, he noticed with disappointment that the redhead was gone.

  "Where is this place exactly?"

  "Right between the middle of nowhere and 'where are we exactly?' I'm staying at a place called Greenleaf Cottages, which the Chamber of Commerce describes as scenic and rustic yet modern. Whatever that means."

  Alvin laughed. "Sounds like an adventure."

  "Don't worry about it. You'll fit right in down there, I'm sure."

  "You think so?"

  Jeremy noted the leather, tattoos, and piercings.

  "Oh, absolutely," Jeremy said. "They'll probably want to adopt you."

  Two

  On Tuesday, the day after his interview with People magazine, Jeremy arrived in North Carolina. It was just past noon; when he left New York, it had been sleeting and gray, with more snow expected. Here, with an expanse of blue skies stretched out above him, winter seemed a long way off.

  According to the map that he'd picked up in the airport gift shop, Boone Creek was in Pamlico County, a hundred miles southeast of Raleigh and--if the drive was any indication--about a zillion miles from what he considered civilization. On either side of him, the landscape was flat and sparse and about as exciting as pancake batter. Farms were separated by thin strands of loblolly pines, and given the sparse traffic, it was everything Jeremy could do to keep from flooring the accelerator out of sheer boredom.

  But it wasn't all bad, he had to admit. Well, the actual driving part, anyway. The slight vibration of the wheel, the revving of the engine, and the feeling of acceleration were known to increase adrenaline production, especially in men (he'd once written a column about it). Life in the city made owning a car superfluous, however, and he'd never been able to justify the expense. Instead, he was transported from place to place in crowded subways or whiplash-inducing taxicabs. Travel in the city was noisy, hectic, and, depending on the cabdriver, sometimes life-threatening, but as a born and bred New Yorker, he'd long since come to accept it as just another exciting aspect of living in the place he called home.

  His thoughts drifted to his ex-wife. Maria, he reflected, would have loved a drive like this. In the early years of their marriage, they would rent a car and drive to the mountains or the beach, sometimes spending hours on the road. She'd been a publicist at Elle magazine when they'd met at a publishing party. When he asked if she'd like to join him at a nearby coffee shop, he had no idea she would end up being the only woman he ever loved. At first, he thought he'd made a mistake in asking her out, simply because they seemed to have nothing in common. She was feisty and emotional, but later, when he kissed her outside her apartment, he was entranced.

  He eventually came to appreciate her fiery personality, her unerring instincts about people, and the way she seemed to embrace all of him without judgment, good and bad. A year later, they were married in the church, surrounded by friends and family. He was twenty-six, not yet a columnist for Scientific American but steadily building his reputation, and they could barely afford the small apartment they rented in Brooklyn. To his mind, it was young-and-struggling marital bliss. To her mind, he eventually suspected, their marriage was strong in theory but constructed on a shaky foundation. In the beginning, the problem was simple: while her job kept her in the city, Jeremy traveled, pursuing the big story wherever it might be. He was often gone for weeks at a time, and while she'd assured him that she could handle it, she must have realized during his absences that she couldn't. Just after their second anniversary, as he readied himself for yet another trip, Maria sat down beside him on the bed. Clasping her hands together, she raised her brown eyes to meet his.

  "This isn't working," she said simply, letting the words hang for a moment. "You're never home anymore and it isn't fair to me. It isn't fair to us."

  "You want me to quit?" he asked, feeling a small bubble of panic rise in him.

  "No, not quit. But maybe you can find something local. Like at the Times. Or the Post. Or the Daily News."

  "It's not going to be like this forever," he pleaded. "It's only for a little while."

  "That's what you said six months ago," she said. "It's never going to change."

  Looking back, Jeremy knew he should have taken it as the warning that it was, but at the time, he had a story to write, this one concerning Los Alamos. She wore an uncertain smile as he kissed her good-bye, and he thought about her expression briefly as he sat on the plane, but when he returned, she seemed herself again and they spent the weekend curled up in bed. She began to talk about having a baby, and despite the nervousness he felt, he was thrilled at the thought. He assumed he'd been forgiven, but the protective armor of their relationship had been chipped, and imperceptible cracks appeared with every additional absence. The final split came a year later, a month after a visit to a doctor on the Upper East Side, one who presented them with a future that neither of them had ever envisioned. Far more than his traveling, the visit foretold the end of their relationship, and even Jeremy knew it.

  "I can't stay," she'd told him afterward. "I want to, and part of me will always love you, but I can't."

  She didn't need to say more, and in the quiet, self-pitying moments after the divorce, he sometimes questioned whether she'd ever really loved him. They could have made it, he told himself. But in the end, he understood intuitively why she had left, and he harbored no ill will against her. He even spoke to her on the phone now and then, though he couldn't bring himself to attend her marriage three years later to an attorney who lived in Chappaqua.

  The divorce had become final seven years ago, and to be honest, it was the only truly sad thing ever to have happened to him. Not many people could say that, he knew. He'd never been seriously injured, he had an active social life, and he'd emerged from childhood without the sort of psychological trauma that seemed to afflict so many of his age. His brothers and their wives, his parents, and even his gran
dparents--all four in their nineties--were healthy. They were close, too: a couple of weekends a month, the ever-growing clan would gather at his parents', who still lived in the house in Queens where Jeremy had grown up. He had seventeen nieces and nephews, and though he sometimes felt out of place at family functions, since he was a bachelor again in a family of happily married people, his brothers were respectful enough not to probe the reasons behind the divorce.

  And he'd gotten over it. For the most part, anyway. Sometimes, on drives like this, he would feel a pang of yearning for what might have been, but that was rare now, and the divorce hadn't soured him on women in general.

  A couple of years back, Jeremy had followed a study about whether the perception of beauty was the product of cultural norms or genetics. For the study, attractive women and less attractive women were asked to hold infants, and the length of eye contact between the women and the infants was compared. The study had shown a direct correlation between beauty and eye contact: the infants stared longer at the attractive women, suggesting that people's perceptions of beauty were instinctive. The study was given prominent play in Newsweek and Time.

  He'd wanted to write a column criticizing the study, partly because it omitted what he felt were some important qualifications. Exterior beauty might catch someone's eye right away--he knew he was just as susceptible as the next guy to a supermodel's appeal--but he'd always found intelligence and passion to be far more attractive and influential over time. Those traits took more than an instant to decipher, and beauty had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Beauty might prevail in the very short term, but in the medium and longer terms, cultural norms--primarily those values and norms influenced by family--were more important. His editor, however, canned the idea as "too subjective" and suggested he write something about the excessive use of antibiotics in chicken feed, which had the potential to turn streptococcus into the next bubonic plague. Which made sense, Jeremy noted with chagrin: the editor was a vegetarian, and his wife was both gorgeous and about as bright as an Alaskan winter sky.

  Editors. He'd long ago concluded that most of them were hypocrites. But, as in most professions, he supposed, hypocrites tended to be both passionate and politically savvy--in other words, corporate survivors--which meant they were the ones who not only doled out assignments but ended up paying the expenses.