Hard news - Jeffery Deaver [16]
“Go on,” Courtney said.
Pretending to read, Rune said, “Well, the sun was so hot that the snow princess remembered how much she missed her parents and she kissed her husband good-bye and climbed back up to the mountain village, where she moved back in with her parents, and got a job and met a neat guy, who was also made out of snow, and they lived happily ever after.”
“I like that story,” Courtney said in her tone of an official pronouncement.
Claire came out on deck. “Time for bed.”
Courtney didn’t complain much. Rune kissed her good night then helped Claire put her pajamas on her and get her into bed.
“You know, if you’re interested,” Claire said, “it’s much easier to meet men in Boston.”
“You want me to go to Boston with you? Just to meet men?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Because most men are damaged to start with. Why should I go somewhere where it’s easier to meet men? I’d think you’d want to go where it’s harder.”
“What’s wrong with men?”
“Haven’t you noticed something?” Rune asked. “How many men do you know whose IQ matches their age?”
“You gonna marry Sam?”
“He’s a great guy,” Rune said defensively uneasy with the M word. “We have a good time….”
Claire sighed. “He’s twenty years older than you, he’s going bald, he’s married.”
“He’s separated,” Rune said. “Anyway what twenty-five-year-olds with hair have you met that’re such good catches?” Admitting to herself, though, that the married part was definitely an ongoing problem.
“You move to Boston, you’ll be married in six months. I guarantee it.” Claire pirouetted. “How do I look?”
Like a hooker, circa 1955.
Rune said, “Stunning.”
Claire grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “I owe you one.”
“I know you do,” Rune said and watched her clatter unsteadily down the gangplank on high-heeled saddle shoes.
chapter 6
THE NOTE ON HER DESK THE NEXT MORNING, FROM MAIsel, was to the point.
Sutton’s office. The minute you come in!
—Lee
Rune had received a lot of notes like this and they were usually the preface to flunking a course, getting fired or getting yelled at.
Heart pounding, she left her Morning Thunder tea on her desk and walked out of the studio. In ten minutes she was standing in front of Piper Sutton’s secretary. Yesterday’s look of terror at Rune’s unauthorized entry had been replaced by a subtle gloat.
Rune said, “I’m supposed to see—”
“They’re waiting for you.”
“Is it okay to—?”
“They’re waiting for you,” the woman repeated cheerfully.
Inside, Sutton and Maisel turned their heads and stared as she approached. Rune stopped halfway into the big office.
“Close the door,” Sutton ordered.
Rune obeyed then walked into the room. She smiled at Maisel, who avoided her eyes.
Oh, boy, she thought. Oh, boy.
Sutton’s eyes were flint. She said, “Sit down,” just as Rune was dropping into the chair across from the desk. Rune felt a shiver down her back and the hairs on her neck stirred. Sutton tossed a copy of one of the city’s tabloids on her desk. Rune picked it up and read a story circled in thick, red ink that bled into the fibers of the newsprint.
NETWORK WANTS TO FREE KILLER OF ITS EXEC
By Bill Stevens
The story was short, just a few paragraphs. It recounted how a reporter from Current Events was investigating Randy Boggs’s conviction for Lance Hopper’s murder. Boggs’s defense lawyer, Fred Megler, had no comment other than to say that his client has always maintained his innocence.
“Oh, shit,” she muttered.
“How?” Sutton tapped her glossy fingernails on the desktop. They were as red and hard as the finish on a Porsche. “How did this happen?”
“It’s not my fault. He lied to me.”
“Bill Stevens?”
“That wasn’t the name he gave me. I was at the Department of Corrections and this guy came up and said he worked for the press department and could he help me and he was real nice and he even told me things off the record so I assumed it was okay to—”
“Assumed it was okay?” Sutton’s voice rose. She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “I don’t believe it.