AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jeff called me into his office as soon as I was off the phone, and I was dreading getting into it with him again. When I had arrived this morning, the first thing I had done was to check my stats for my column. This series of articles was already higher than any of my last publications in the previous month, and we are only on day two of ten. I didn’t have a chance to read all the comments yet, but people seemed to be enjoying the sincere advice that was sprinkled with a little bit of sarcasm. I just hoped my boss appreciated it too.
“Hey, Jeff, you wanted to see me?”
“Yeah, close the door.”
I closed it and took a seat in front of his desk as he shuffled papers around and then leaned back and stared at me for three full seconds. “So, I talked to Hobart.”
He paused, and I waited. Talking to his boss, Hobart, I assumed was a daily thing; why was he making such a big deal out of it? When he didn’t continue, I spoke. “And what was that conversation about?”
“You.”
Again, I waited—and nothing. “What about me?”
“I asked Hobart if he would consider giving you some front-page space for your story from yesterday.”
As the words came out of his mouth, my hopes started to soar. A moment later, those hopes took a nosedive like a parachutist without a parachute.
Greg had told me that I shouldn’t talk about it, and the police had also reiterated that fact during the interview.
“That’s great, Jeff. When I’m allowed to speak about it, I’ll be happy to share every detail.”
“What do you mean, when you are allowed to speak about it?”
“I can’t talk about it right now, Jeff. It is an active investigation, and I can’t discuss what I saw until after the men are prosecuted.”
“Yes, you can. You have the freedom of speech behind you.”
“And if I spoke, it could affect the outcome of the trial.”
“If you don’t talk, it could affect your job.”
I startled back. “What are you talking about, Jeff? You’d fire me for not doing the article?”
“No, I wouldn’t fire you, but any hope you had of getting out of romance advice would be cut short.”
“That’s not fair, Jeff! You know that I’m a damn good reporter. If they have room on the news floor, you know I should be there. I’m too damn good to be writing a stupid romance column.”
“Then maybe you should have stayed in Atlanta since you were such an up-and-coming big-shot reporter.”
“And you know that I came home to be near my mother so I could care for her.”
“That was a sacrifice that you were willing to make, Maggie. I didn’t make it for you. You have to decide how important your career is.”
“Excuse me?” I hissed out. “You know that my career is important to me, Jeff. I work my ass off, and I deserve to be on the news desk.”
“Yeah, well, if you want a shot, then write the article.”
“I can’t. I told you that. Not until after the trial. We can cover it, and my memories of it could be a great closing piece for it.”
“And not one person will give a shit, Maggie. It’s now or never. Your choice, but if you don’t write the article by midnight, don’t expect another chance for a long time.” His phone began to ring, and he dismissed me without another word as he answered and started talking to someone.
I left the room, feeling a mixture of numbness and anger. I didn’t want to lose this chance, but how could I write the article and not affect the criminal case?
Chapter Eleven
Gregory
Isure didn’t expect our meeting to get pushed again, or for it to only last ten whole minutes when we were finally given an audience. This committee was willing to authorize over a million dollars’ worth of medical supplies to be sent into a war-torn countryside but wanted to remain negligent of protecting it. They didn’t have enough of a substantial threat to warrant a military escort at this time, hence the reason they had hired private security. Now that we had drawn up plans and gone over them in great detail, they wanted to hang us out to dry on the contract. They thought that civilian contractors currently working in the medical facility could handle the situation.
