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The police scanner crackled. She turned it up. “Car two five. Dispatch. Car two five. Attend six-five-four Rivers Drive for multiple reports of animal?—”
“Lucy?” Reid called from across the newsroom.
Lucy clicked off the scanner and rolled the chair away from her desk so she could see him. “What’s up?”
“We’ve got a situation.” Reid placed the phone back in the cradle. “An alligator’s loose in the river.”
Lucy shook her head dramatically. “I’m sorry. For a second I thought you said there was an alligator in the river.”
Reid didn’t laugh. “That’s what I said.”
“Quit joking around.” She rolled back to her desk.
“It’s not a joke.”
Okay, so he was being totally serious.
“How would an alligator get in the Confluence River? Don’t they need salt water?” She stood and propped an arm against the side of her cubicle.
“No idea. But a guy apparently lost an alligator—some kind of zoo transport. We just got a tip that it’s in the river.”
“Am I being punked?” She glanced around the empty room. Stranger things had happened on slow days in the newsroom.
“If you are, then I am. All the media is at your boyfriend’s press conference, so we could get the exclusive if we hustle.”
Her heart dropped at the mention of her “boyfriend.”
“We could totally scoop them. Who do you want to send?” Reid asked.
“No one.” She didn’t want to call down a reporter. It would raise eyebrows if she pulled any of them away. The other news outlets in Confluence might start sniffing around.
She could do the job, and she didn’t exactly have many options here, desperate times and all that. Besides, this was a plan—get on camera and get out of Confluence.
“How long since you practiced your photog skills?” She tossed a notepad in her purse and zipped it closed.
Mischief flashed across Reid’s face. “You’re going to scoop this, aren’t you?”
Yes, she was. An alligator in the freaking river meant she was absolutely going to scoop it. If they got some video, a few interviews, this would be a great story. The kind a reporter would add to a demo reel.
“What do you say? You want to go rogue with me?” She hitched her purse over her shoulder.
“Been a while, but I think I can remember how to turn on a camera.” Reid grabbed one of the camera bags and a tripod by the exit. “They said it went in near the Market at the trailhead. You driving or am I?”
Lucy grinned and snatched her press pass from her desk. “You’re driving. Let’s go find our gator.”
“Hey Lucy, what’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?”
“What?” She played along.
“No idea, but we’re about to find out.” He winked at her.
Lucy barely made it out the door when Neilson stepped in front of her. How the hell did he do that?
“No.” He set his feet wider. “Not without me.” He slid his aviators from the pocket of his polo shirt and propped them on the bridge of his nose.
“Fine.” She jerked her thumb to her bodyguard. “We’ve got a third wheel.”
“Better than a third nipple,” Reid replied, deadpan.
