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Roscoe cracked his knuckles. “I don’t know. More ornery than usual. He’s under a lot of pressure on costs. What was the thing about underpants?”
“It’s not the same news business it was.”
“If it bleeds it leads, if it roars it scores, if it snoozes you lose it. That’s still the same.”
“But now the truth matters less than whether the story is entertaining. Whether the dress is black and blue or white and gold. We’re competing for readers with Pokémon, Netflix binges and Pornhub.”
“It was white and gold,” said Roscoe. “Nearly got divorced over that. I see your point. We can still make Bob Bix bleed if you bring in the fraud story by Thursday night’s deadline. I love the idea of that crook getting what he deserves. Jack, you gonna let celebrity underpants take your column inches?”
Henri Costa had gone cold. He wasn’t answering, email, phone or text. Without another source Jack was sunk. Almost all the victims defrauded by Noakes and Whelan had been promised recompense. Someone inside Keepsafe knew the Courier was investigating and was trying to neutralize the story. They’d succeed unless Jack could join the dots. He now knew of fifty other doctors scattered around the country who had higher than average levels of claims denied. But he couldn’t connect them to Bix or each other like he’d been able to do with Noakes and Whelan, to prove a conspiracy.
He stood to leave. He couldn’t see another way forward with this. “No paper ever got sued for penguin stories.” There was no legal risk in running the mismanagement angle either. Maybe that was Madden’s game. Playing it safe. Making sure costs were contained.
“No penguin story ever righted a wrong. I can’t believe you’re going to give up on this.”
“I’m trying to roll with it.” If rolling with it felt like being pummeled by an avalanche, buried with no clear path to the light. It’s what he’d told Derelie she’d have to learn to do. Time to suck it up.
“I’ll hold off clearing this story Phil wants till the last minute.”
That would give him hours, not days, but he’d take what he could get.
“It could be worse, Jack.”
He stopped in the doorway to look back at Roscoe. “Yeah, we could both be unemployed.”
He spent the rest of the day with Berkelow trying to track down Henri Costa or someone inside Keepsafe who was close to him, without tipping them off to what Henri had been doing. According to Keepsafe HR, Henri was on a leave of absence. According to the guy who had the internal extension one digit higher than Henri’s and sat in the cubicle next to him, Henri was simply missing.
“This is bad,” said Berkelow. “Like head in a bag in a Chinatown parking lot bad.”
She’d said what Jack was worried about, and by the time he’d filed the next day’s story on a grain supply antitrust conspiracy, Derelie had left a string of messages.
Oiling firefighters is exhausting work. Who knew?
By oiling firefighters, I totally mean yoga.
By yoga I mean I sat on the couch with Martha and now my legs are on strike.
Also we’re out of groceries.
Bring pizza.
“You’re smiling.” Berkelow rested her elbows on the partition between their desks. “Is that Henri?” The dark circles under her eyes were a matched set to the ones Jack sported.
It was the one thing better than hearing from Henri. “No.”
She sagged. “We’re not going to get the fraud story, are we?”
He shut his computer down. There was nothing more he could do tonight. He had a date with a deep-dish pizza. “We’re not going to give up till the last minute.”
“Barbra Shenker called. They got their money from Keepsafe. It’s going to change their lives. She said to thank you.”
But millions of other victims wouldn’t get the same attention. “Go home, Berkelow.”
“You know, before I worked with you I thought you were a manipulation. Someone the Courier created because you looked good on a billboard and you’ve got a good voice for broadcast. You made it look easy to get the headlines.”
“And now?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but a manipulation had gotten him the woman who was marooned on the island of his couch starving for pizza, so he was more open to the discussion than he might’ve been.
“I want to be you when I grow up, Haley.”
