Lee coughed despite not needing to, offering herself a mental reset as she removed her hand from her cheek, her smirk no longer visible. “I would say at least half of it now is unusable, if not all of it. Kat and I played the sympathy angle upon his disappearance. Whilst there was little information about his personal pursuits online, we sprinkled some half-truths in there as best we could about how he was a valued member of the community.”
Kat laughed theatrically, slapping her knee for emphasis in the process, making her presence known in the room for the first time since they had entered the space. “Half-truths? More like complete and utter lies. The man has the reputation of a scorned dictator. It was a fucking nightmare trying to play the sympathy angle with that jock-strap.”
“Sympathy sells, so, I would normally argue that this is exactly what we want from an article concerning a missing persons case, even if they are a jock-strap,” he said, offering a rare half-smile in the process. “But, in this instance, you’re absolutely right. I’m afraid we won’t be using that angle anymore for obvious reasons. The media seem to think that he had something to do with the disappearance of a man called Edward…” he paused. “I forgothis last name, and to be quite honest with you, I don’t really care. What else have we got?”
Perry began clicking his fingers around the room, as if the sound would suddenly spur both Kat and herself into motion like a dog salivating at the sound of a bell.
It was now that Lee realized that this was the part where she was beginning to tread upon a very thin line. Namely, being able to distinguish between what information was public, and what information exclusively belonged to both herself, and Morgan. Despite this, she had yet to learn about what the media had been saying about Arthur other than his connection to Edward, and it appeared it was playing directly into both hers and Morgan’s hands.
“Well, we do know that he and Edward Beckett were friends prior to his disappearance,” she said, nodding as she did so, as if telling her own subconscious that this answer was appropriate.
“He seems like a textbook killer to be completely honest with you, Perry. No other close friends that we know of other than Ed,” Lee continued, shortening his name as if they had been close friends themselves. “When we were trying to pull the sympathy card in the article, Kat and I realized that he didn’t seem to have any close ties to family, either, which only made our jobs harder. It’s always easier to make the article more emotional if we have interviews with close relatives. However, now that we’re changing the angle of the article, it’s perfect, really. He was heavily disliked at his place of work. To his co-workers, he was known for being impulsive, short-tempered, and well…as Kat so aptly put it, a bit of a jock-strap. He ticks the murderer box relatively well. We can use this to our advantage.”
As the words left her, she couldn’t help but think of her girlfriend. Did Morgan fit the part? Hardly, she acknowledged, almost instantly. She had Diana, her friends, and she had Lee. No, she didn’t fit the part, and yet she had to fit somewhere.There had to be an explanation as to why Morgan Finch was the way she was, because the possibility of there being no explanation was a weight too heavy for Lee to carry for the rest of her life.
Perry Graham placed his hands accordingly on both sides of the table as Lee centered herself back into the conversation. “Excellent,” he said, a full-smile illuminating his tanned features as he stared the both of them down. “Think of Arthur like your standard 17th century witch. Entice the readers. I don’t give a fuck if he murdered Edward Whatever-The-Fuck-His-Name-Is or not. I want all those keyboard-vigilantes to want to chase this fucker down,” he concluded, stepping back from the table, his hands leaving fingerprints upon the wood. “Let’s start this witch hunt.”
Lee Holmes exhaled, heavier than she anticipated, as Perry Graham retrieved his suit jacket, throwing it over his arm as he took his leave only minutes after he had entered the room, closing the office door behind him. For the first time since entering the office, she felt comfortable to lean back in her chair and simply process. Essentially, her manager was asking for a lynch mob, and she would give it to him, if only to push the spotlight onto someone else, anyone else, that wasn’t her, or Morgan.
“Wish he’d have said something about thisbeforewe continued working on the article this morning,” Kat sighed, spinning idly in her chair like a child experiencing an office seat for the first time.
Moving her foot closer towards Kat’s chair, she kicked it with enough force to spin it just a little bit faster. “Oh, stop your complaining, you big baby,” Lee said, smiling as the chair gained momentum. “We’ve written, like, a hundred words between us all day.”
Spinning wildly in her chair, Kat leaned back and allowed gravity to take her. “Yeah, well, it’s a hundred too many.”
It was 3:08pm when Lee situated herself in her own office cubicle again, as she attempted to tune out the sounds of Kat chewing on bubblegum from the other side, seemingly finished with doing anything productive for the rest of the day. Her colleagues lack of enthusiasm was not the kind of attitude that Lee adopted herself, however, as she booted her computer up, illuminating the screen with the familiar background of both herself, and Morgan, sitting on a balcony in a hotel in Italy. Lee was holding a glass of red wine, and Morgan had been holding an ice-cold beer, condensation dripping from the glass like a rain tinted window. She remembered the conversation they had shared upon that balcony almost word for word.
“You know I hate all that cheesy shit about being your co-captain and your anchor and whatever other fuckin’ team metaphors you can think of,” Morgan had said, sticking out her tongue as if to emphasise her point. “But I’ve thought a lot lately about my feelings towards you, and how much it means to me to be able to be here with you, now. And the first thing that popped into my head when you pulled open the balcony doors just now and sat down across from me was that I would go to bat for you. I’m disgusted at myself for even thinking something like that, but whether it’s sickening or not, it’s true.”
At the time, Lee had half-expected Morgan to get down on one knee and propose to her there and then. It felt like the moment proposals were designed for, after all. The sun setting perfectly in the sky, the sound of distant birds making their presence known. As she gazed down at her finger, with no ring adorningit currently, she recalled feeling disappointed, almost. It wasn’t like she couldn’t propose herself, she knew it was a possibility, and yet, Morgan Finch wasn’t the kind of girl that had any desire to be proposedto. No, Morgan hadn’t proposed to her then, but she had told her something that had stuck with her, namely, that she would go to bat for her. Thinking back to the whirlwind of a week she had just experienced, she had gone up to bat for Morgan Finch at every opportunity possible.
Writing this article felt like another opportunity to step up one more time. The heavy lifting had already been done, all that she needed to do now was amplify the work they had already committed themselves to. She would grab the bat, and swing.
She explored the tabs at the bottom of her screen and opened the document regarding the article that both Kat and herself had prepared prior to the meeting with Perry. She smiled, not hiding it this time, selecting the entire body of text and hitting delete. Upon doing so, she rubbed her hands together and began typing.
If Perry Graham wanted a witch hunt, he was going to get one.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Returning home had become an oxymoron in its own right—a safe heartache. Home had the connotations of safety, and, as Lee unlaced her boots and threw her jacket over the coat rack, she exhaled, taking comfort in the fact that the mask could fall away. And yet, its contradictory nature came into the fold the second that she acknowledged that her home was also the place in which she had made the decision to don the mask in the first place.
She made her way over towards the bathroom first and foremost, releasing water from the tap as she splashed her face with it. She exhaled gradually as the cool liquid dripped down her face, over her chin, and back into the sink.
Lee Holmes reminded herself at that moment that today was Monday, and Monday was often kind to her. It was kind to her in the respect that Monday was the day of the week in which she opened up her group chat with Sienna, Kat, and Natalie on her laptop, turned on the television, and watched, and commented on their favorite reality TV show.
She had decided to use her laptop exactly two Mondays after this routine had started, acknowledging that her opinions came to her too quickly to keep up with her thumbs as she tapped away on her phone, and her typing speed was considerably faster on her keyboard after years of working as a journalist.
Throwing her laptop down onto the couch after retrieving it from the bedroom, she made her way towards the kitchen, retrieving a few snacks in the process as an impromptu dinner and a can of cheap orange soda from the fridge that somewhat resembled a more expensive brand.
When she finally sat down on the couch, she let out an embarrassing moan of relief, grateful to finally be off her feet as she grabbed the remote control, using her other hand to power on her laptop in the process.
Lee felt more at home now than she had all week, watching her phone vibrate with notification after notification, the conversation having already started without her.
She took a quick glance at the screen without paying too much attention, her eyes predominantly focused on scrolling through the electronic guide on the television in order to find the channel that broadcasted their favorite show. The news channel, namely, the last channel she had watched previously, played in a small square in the left-hand corner whilst she did so.
Sienna 5:51pm: I literally have a ring of snacks around me right now. Kat’s looking over at me with an intense judgement that I’m not sure I can handle for the entirety of the episode.
Kat 5:51pm: ok, she’s literally lying. i’m not judging her at all but also it’s not even THAT many snacks.
