The Darkness - Jason Pinter [72]
have been offended, he could have told me it was none of
my business, and I wasn't sure if it was. But as long as I
was working with him, as long as I was trusting him, I
needed to know he was all there.
That wasn't the only reason of course. If I found out Jack
was back on the sauce, to be honest it would have devastated me. I needed to see Jack the way he'd been during his
prime. Even if he'd lost a few miles off his fastball, I needed
to see the Jack O'Donnell who'd earned the reputation of
being one of the best newsmen in the city's history. Though
I wasn't sure if I needed it more for Jack's sake, or for mine.
"Two months," Jack said. There was sincerity on his
face, and it made me breathe easier.
"I'm glad to hear that, I..."
"It's not easy," Jack said. "I'm not going to lie to you,
Henry. You do something every day for almost fifty years,
it's not like a switch you can just turn off. It's almost a
part of you. And when you don't do it--drink, I mean--
it's like there's a space that needs to be filled."
"Hence the soda," I said.
"Sometimes the space is literal," he said, patting his
stomach. "Not the exact same, but it helps."
"Like a nicotine patch."
"Kind of like that, only that doesn't rot your teeth."
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205
"If you need any help," I said, "physical, emotional..."
"Sexual?" Jack grinned at me.
"I'm not into necrophilia, old man."
This time Jack closed his eyes when he laughed.
"Come on, Parker, let's go. Victoria Kaiser is probably
being held by the cops for questioning and protection. I have
a man at One Police Plaza who can put us in touch with her."
"Sounds like a plan," I said. "I'll meet you outside. Just
gotta make a quick call."
"To who?" Jack asked.
"Amanda," I lied.
"What about?"
"We're planning a vacation. Just wanted to see if she
booked it yet."
"That's nice. You could use a little time away. I'll be
waiting in the lobby. Don't take so long that I'll need
to sit down."
"I'll be right there."
Jack left. When I saw him enter the elevator vestibule,
and the doors closed on him, I picked up my phone. I took
out my cell phone, scrolled down to the number I'd just
recently entered and filed under Ray's Pizza. Didn't need
anyone knowing the truth right now.
I dialed the number, and chewed a fingernail as it rang.
Finally a voice answered.
"I recognize the prefix," Paulina Cole said. "There had
better be a reason somebody's calling me from the Gazette. "
"It's Henry Parker," I said.
"Oh. Parker. What do you want?"
"What do I want? The article you wrote today,
what's the deal?"
"I don't know what you mean," she said, defiance and
annoyance battling for supremacy in her voice.
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Jason Pinter
"The cops don't have any idea what you're talking
about. And nobody has seen this drug. Not to mention you
didn't even mention it when we spoke."
"What, I ask a favor of you and suddenly I need to tell
you everything I'm working on?"
"No, but I..."
"I told you there was a quid pro quo."
"Wait...the guy who threatened your daughter...did
he make you write that story?" I waited for Paulina to
answer. "Hello? You still there?"
"I told you there was a quid pro quo," Paulina said.
"That's all you need to know. Goodbye, Parker. Thanks
again."
She hung up.
I sat there, shaking.
Paulina Cole was no pushover. I'd believed her when
we spoke, but for her to do this kind of favor, to write
a story that might have had no factual basis, it went
beyond morally wrong into ethically wrong. Paulina
was a good reporter; too good sometimes. She might
have had a nose for the tabloidy, for the melodramatic,
but she almost never got her facts wrong. So why the
heck would somebody want her to print that? Why
invent a drug if it didn't exist? Why falsely quote a cop
if the story was grounded in a lie? For her to print this,
it either meant she'd fabricated a hell of a story with
somebody else's help...or that the story was true. And
whoever wanted the story written wanted it seen by
millions of people for a reason.
Did that