Scoop (38 page)

Ray nodded a little. Though her voice was calm and even a little cheerful, the words and the threat weren’t lost on him.

“I think you two would make a great couple,” she continued, still keeping her focus ahead. “You’re really cute together. And Hayden likes you a lot. She talks about you all the time.”

“Oh…good…,” he tried to pull off casually.

“So it perplexes me as to why you would also be interested in another reporter. I think her name is Jill.”

“Jill?” Ray nearly shouted. “I’m not interested in Jill! I hate Jill!” Ray cleared his throat. “I mean, I dislike Jill. I very dislike Jill.”

“That’s not what Jill said,” Mack said, finally looking at him. She pulled her glasses down to the tip of her nose.

“Jill said what?”

“That you two were an item.”

Ray bit his lip, trying to keep a string of profanity from traipsing out of his mouth and making a really bad impression. “I just learned that Jill has feelings for me, but the feelings are not mutual,” he said eagerly. “I can’t stand Jill, and I can only imagine that her intentions were to ambush my relationship with Hayden.”

Mack studied him for a moment. “I believe you.”

Ray’s head throbbed with stress and sleep deprivation. And he noticed, for the first time, that Mack’s gun was barely visible beneath her sweater.

Mack smiled again. “Glad we got that cleared up.”

“Yeah…”

At the same time they noticed the large iron gate in front of Chad’s home slowly swinging open. Ray couldn’t deny how uncomfortable he felt spying on his boss. But then again, he couldn’t explain those missing e-mails either.

“Here we go,” Mack said as Chad’s silver Jaguar turned onto the street. “Let’s see where Mr. Arbus takes us.”

Ray nodded and slid down a little in his seat. It was going to be a long day.

They followed Chad for fifteen minutes on the highway. Mack was concentrating hard, and Ray didn’t want to break that, but he also wanted to clear up a few things.

“Mack,” he said gently, “I want you to know that I really like Hayden. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever known. But I don’t know if she’s the right person for me, either. I’m just getting to know her.”

Mack didn’t glance over but nodded. “I know, Ray. You can’t just jump in without getting to know a person.”

“Okay, just so we’re clear.” Ray couldn’t take his eyes off her gun. “You carry that weapon with you all the time?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You know, I thought you and Hayden were a lot alike when I first met you, but now I’m realizing you two are pretty different.”

“We are,” Mack said. “And it doesn’t surprise me you’re drawn to Hayden’s innocence. She’s been like that her whole life. Some people mistake it for stupidity, but she’s not stupid. Naive, yes. But that seems to get her from one place to another. And sometimes I wish I had a little more of that, you know?”

Ray smiled. Yes, he knew. “Some people just seem to be born with good hearts.”

Mack nodded. “Yeah.”

“So let me ask you a question. Where did you all get your names? Being from a conservative family, it seems you’d all be named after people from the Bible or something.”

“We were all born during an unfortunate time in my mother’s life when she was addicted to soap operas.”

Ray laughed. “Really?”

“Yes. We’re all named after soap-opera characters. Finally my dad made my mother stop watching them.”

“I had a different picture of your family. I can’t really see your mother watching soap operas.”

“My mother was a saint. She homeschooled all of us. I think soap operas were an escape for her during the day. I remember her up in her bedroom, huddled around an old black-and-white television. None of us were allowed to disturb her between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.”

“Wow. Who would’ve thought?”

“I hate my name. Mackenzie. It sounds so…”

“Soap opera-ish?”

“Exactly. That’s why I go by Mack.” She suddenly sat up taller and pointed. “Look, he’s getting off the highway.”

She slowed down a little and followed carefully as Chad made two right turns and then a left into a mall parking garage.

“He’s doing a little shopping?” Ray asked.

“Yeah, except the mall isn’t open yet.” Mack pulled the car onto the first level of the garage and watched Arbus go up. “Come on. We’re going to have to follow on foot.”

Chad checked his rearview mirror as he headed to the top story of the parking garage. The morning light was getting brighter, but he’d made a good choice to meet him here. The mall employees were coming in, and there were several cars around so as to not draw attention to his.

He slowed down and found a parking spot. Rolling down his window, he looked around cautiously for a tan Oldsmobile. He spotted it a few cars away from his. Through the dark tint he could see a shadowy figure inside. As calmly as possible, he got out of his car and walked to the other car. He didn’t flinch as the Oldsmobile’s car door opened. Howard Crumm’s oily hair stayed stuck to his head even in the morning breeze. He didn’t look happy and didn’t mind showing it. Chad watched carefully as Crumm pulled out a briefcase and met Chad a few feet away.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Howard said. “You knew I would come.”

“Your past speaks for itself,” Chad replied.

Crumm kept a steady expression as he handed over the suitcase. “Count it if you’d like.”

“Sure. I’ll open up a suitcase full of money right here in the middle of a parking lot. Nobody will notice.”

“There’s a security camera up there,” Crumm said, without averting his eyes toward it.

“I know,” Chad said. “That’s just in case you decided to do something crazy, like kill me.”

“But if I don’t do anything, then nobody has any reason to look at those tapes.”

“Exactly.”

“In return for this,” Crumm said, “you will stop the investigation into the explosion.”

“Yes.”

“Enough damage has been done, but I can handle it as long as nothing else leaks out.”

“I’m sure you can,” Chad said. “You’re a capable businessman.”

“Save the compliments,” Crumm said. “I have your assurances there will be no more of the story aired, and that you will retract what you’ve already said?”

“We’ll smooth it over,” Chad said. “We’ll make a reference to our sources as untrustworthy, something like that.”

“It’d better look authentic.”

“Believe me, it won’t take much. The big story around town is our anchor’s disappearance. We’ll have no problem distracting our viewers.”

“And this reporter, Duffey, isn’t going to be a problem any longer?”

“I can assure you I will take care of him. Personally.”

Crumm’s face turned sour as he looked at the briefcase. “I’ll be on my way. I’d better never see you again.”

Chad smiled and turned toward his car. It was time he went back to the office and earned his money.

Mack kept a hand on Ray’s shoulder as they stayed in the shadow of the stairwell.

Ray was speechless. They’d watched the two men exchange a briefcase and a few words, though they couldn’t quite hear what was being said. What in the world was Chad Arbus doing meeting with Howard Crumm? And what was in the briefcase?

“We have to get closer!” Ray had whispered as they watched the two men. “I can’t hear anything they’re saying.”

But Mack kept her hand against Ray. “A picture speaks a thousand words, my friend.”

“What’s in the briefcase?” Ray asked.

“I don’t know,” Mack said. “But we’re one step closer to explaining why those e-mails disappeared.”

They watched both cars drive off and then walked back to Mack’s car. “Gilda knew something,” Mack considered, thinking out loud. “But what? What would Gilda know that Chad Arbus wouldn’t want anybody else to know?”

“Or vice versa,” Ray said. “Who knows who erased those e-mails? Maybe it was Gilda, maybe it was someone else.”

“True,” said Mack. “We’re going to have to get back on Gilda’s computer somehow.”

P
lease tell me you have more to the story,” Hugo said, his eyes full of desperation. “Because right now, I can’t figure out how to spin Gilda’s thing in a positive way. We’ve got to have something big on the sewage plant.”

“Mr. Talley, I’ve got a huge break in the story,” Ray answered, then paused. “I think. But I’m going to need access to Gilda’s computer.”

Hugo grumbled. “Why?”

Ray quietly closed Hugo’s door. “Mr. Talley, I don’t know how to tell you this, and right now I think it’s best if I give you as little information as possible.”

“Me too,” Hugo said, looking like he might just start crying.

“We know that Petey Green tried to contact Gilda concerning the plant and the chemical. But there may be more. And”—Ray took a deep breath—“this may go up into management.”

“Management.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you talking about—what are you talking about?”

“Chad Arbus.”

“How could he be involved in the plant explosion?”

“I don’t know exactly. But I do know that Mr. Arbus and Howard Crumm met this morning in a parking garage.”

“How do you know
that.”

“I’m an investigative reporter, sir.”

“You’re spying on our boss?”

“What legitimate reason could Mr. Arbus have for meeting with Howard Crumm?”

“I don’t know, but there are always two sides to a story. We can’t just go around making assumptions, Ray. I need cold, hard facts.”

“I know, sir. That’s why I need Gilda’s computer. I happen to know that a bunch of e-mails between Gilda and Arbus are missing. I checked this morning with the IT department, and the techs said they’d also been erased from the backup system.”

“Ray, you’ve always been gutsy. That’s one thing that I like about you. But you’ve gone too far. Implying that—well, whatever you’re implying could get us all in a lot of trouble.”

“You know me well enough to know that I don’t chase rabbits. If I didn’t think there was anything significant to this, I wouldn’t ask. Sir, not only is sweeps week on the line here, but so is the integrity of our station. You’ve got to at least let me check this out. If I don’t find anything, I’ll back off.” Ray took a step closer as Hugo contemplated this. “Let me take a look at her computer.”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that. The police confiscated it this morning.”