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“Nick, you seem like a cool guy, but there’s nothing I can do to help you. Go chase something you can prove, or something you can get on camera. A man is dead, and he was killed by another man—not by a ghost, and not by Old Green Eyes. There’s no story here except an ordinary murder. ”
He snorted. “Ordinary? Are you serious?”
“Ordinary enough,” I insisted.
“You know, you keep referring to the killer as a ‘he. ’ Are you sure you didn’t see anything that could be of use to the authorities?”
I hesitated, and gave him the benefit of a moment’s thought. “I think it was a man. I saw his shape through the fog. It was something about the way he moved, the way he carried himself. He moved like a man. ”
“Mr. Reynolds didn’t say anything about that, though he said he thought he saw the shooter too. ”
“Mr. Reynolds?”
Nick bobbed his head left to right, and gave me another fla
sh of the eyebrow. “The A/V guy? From the Marshall crew? With which you were ‘volunteering’?”
I could hear the quotation marks around the word “volunteer. ” It was easy to guess that we’d made up half our story, and I couldn’t tell whether or not he meant to imply a small spot of blackmail. I didn’t care. He’d already let it slide that Dana had our back, so he could hint around all he wanted. Or maybe I was only being paranoid and defensive. It was hard to judge.
“Oh, yeah. Him. We barely knew him—last night was our first night on the job. ”
“Hell of a way to break into the biz, eh?”
“Tell me about it,” I said, catching a glance from Benny—who also sent me a quick ‘thumbs-up’ for the fib-on-the-fly. “So, is Charlie okay?”
“He’s fine. He made it out the back way, same as your other buddy, past the tower and into the subdivision. ”
“And Dana?” I asked. “You said she checked out of Erlanger? Do you know where she went?”
Nick fluttered his notebook, flipping the pages closed with a whip of his wrist. “Back to her hotel? I told you, I don’t know. I couldn’t track her down. I thought you might know how to reach her, but I guess not. How did you ever meet the Marshalls, if you didn’t know where they were staying?”
“At the camera store,” Benny butted in with the truth, which was fine by me. “We ran into them while we were getting some film developed, and we started talking. They invited us out there. We met them there. ”
While Nick was looking at Benny, I flashed my pal a thumbs-up in return.
“Anyway, it’s like I said—there’s nothing I can tell you that you’ll want to use. I’m sorry you’ve gone to so much trouble to find me up here, but I’ve said everything I’m going to. ”
He looked like he was going to press the issue, but I put him off with a moment of inspiration. “Let us catch up to Dana and see if we caught anything interesting with our equipment. There were cameras and digital voice recorders, so you never know. We might even turn up something we could fork over to your station. ” Whatever it took to get him off our case.
He leaned back with suspicion. “Didn’t the cops keep that stuff? I know they’ve got at least the tape from Charlie’s camera. He ditched it at the scene. ”
“They didn’t take mine. And they didn’t take the camera I had, either. ”
“And if you find anything, you’ll give me first dibs?”
“You’ve got the scoop if you’ll leave us alone for now. Come back in another few days and I’ll see what I can do. No promises,” I added with a warning finger. “No promises. But I’ll try. ”
“Fucking-A. Seriously?”
“Swear to God. ” I offered him my hand, and we shook on it. He pressed a business card into my palm, and I took it as a means of facilitating his departure.
I couldn’t believe it was that easy to get rid of him, but then again, the news around here is slower than molasses more often than not. Nick didn’t talk like he was from around here; maybe he was looking for a little pizzazz to boost him into a big-city broadcast. I didn’t think for a moment that I could give it to him, but if he was willing to bargain for it, I was willing to fake it.
Benny and I waved him and his cameraman away, standing on the stoop like two of the lesser-known Beverly Hillbillies. When the Channel 3 SUV pulled out of the driveway and into the street, we both relaxed and stepped back inside.
Dave had emerged into the living room behind us.
“You may end up wishing you hadn’t promised him that,” he said, brandishing the envelope.
