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“Sleeping at work?”
“You should try it sometime. Hey, I was just going to call you. ”
“When you woke up?”
“When I woke up,” he confirmed. “But you’ve beat me to the punch. ”
“We crazy psychics are good for that,” I said. “So tell me, what happened down at Riverside last night?”
“Huh? Oh. Someone set fire to something. ”
“I know that much; I can read the paper. I want to know what else happened. What’s going on?”
“What do you care?”
“Because I’m supposed to move into one of those apartments soon, and I’ll be real pissed off if it doesn’t work out. ”
He yawned, and behind the yawn I heard the rustling of papers, clicking of pens, and the ringing of phones. “What makes you think I can tell you anything about it? I can give you the same blurb I spit out for the morning news, but it won’t tell you more than the paper, I don’t think. Someone torched one of the half-finished buildings. Dragged in a bunch of trash, doused it with an accelerant and tossed in a lighter. Dumb kids. Same old bullshit tricks. They’ll get it cleaned up soon, and you’ll have a spanky new place to live. Don’t worry about it. ”
“I’m not worried, exactly. Never mind. What were you going to call me about, anyway?”
“Huh? Oh. The Read House thing. I think I know who Caroline was. You want to do lunch and talk about it? We’ll get pizza, and I’ll see if I can scare up any skinny on the arsonist. ”
“Yeah, okay. That sounds fine. Say noonish?”
“I can live with noonish. Come on down to the station, would you?”
“All right. Noonish. ”
I hung up on him and stood there in the kitchen, staring down at the newspaper. I had an idea about the vandalism, and I didn’t like it at all. The arsonist might have been a dumb kid. But I doubted it.
I killed a little time around the house and took a shower before dressing to go see Nick at Channel 3. I didn’t go too crazy with it—just jeans and a T-shirt. The weather couldn’t seem to decide what it wanted to do, so I carried a sweater with me in case it cooled off beyond my comfort level. January in Tennessee is funny sometimes—it might be single-digit temperatures, might be in the seventies.
A glance outside reminded me to bring an umbrella, too. It wasn’t raining yet, but there was a whiff of ozone in the air and the clouds hung low and bleak.
By the time I’d made it down the mountain and over to the TV station, the first droplets of a shower were beginning to slap against my windshield. It wasn’t enough to warrant the umbrella yet, so I left it in the back seat and made a quick dash inside.
The receptionist called Nick’s desk and invited me to wait in a cheesy little lounge with ’80s furnishings. I sat down on an oversized beige couch that faced a big television tuned to Channel 3. Since the remote control was missing, I stared vacantly at the mid-afternoon news broadcast while a woman talked about using garden vegetables in homemade bread.
The door to the main set of offices and cubicles popped open. Nick emerged with a couple of bags and a suit wrapped in dry cleaner’s plastic.
“There you are,” he said, shifting sideways to pull himself and all his baggage out into the lobby. “Let me stash this shit in the news Bronco. And I know I said lunch, but I need to make a stop first. I think you might be interested. ”
I rose and held out a hand, offering to help carry something. He pushed the suit towards me and I grabbed it. “All right. Where to?”
“Riverside. ” He flashed one of the big bags, and I saw that it held a video camera. “I was going to take a few minutes of tragic-looking arson footage to layer with a voiceover for the 5:30 show,” he added.
“Didn’t you do the morning show today, too?”
“I did, and it sucked ass. A couple of people are out sick and one guy’s on vacation. But I’m flexible. I’m versatile”
As we made our way outside and out of the secretary’s earshot, I clarified for him. “You’re sucking up. ”
“Not exactly. I’ve been on shaky footing here ever since—well, pretty much ever since I met you. Besides, I think they’re looking for an excuse to dump me and pick up someone blonder, perkier, and breastier. ”
“Yipe. ”
He shrugged. “It’s the nature of the business. I’m just trying to stay relevant. ”
