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“Some sort of meeting at the studio. We’ve all been ordered back. No idea what’s going on. You haven’t heard anything on the news about the network, have you?”
“Nah, babe. But I haven’t really been listening either. Hang on, I’ll ask Ash.” A shuffling noise came through his speaker and muffled words before Katy spoke to him again. “Nope, Ash hasn’t heard anything either.”
He made good time back to the studio, missing the peak-hour rush. He smiled as he stepped away from his car, reading Connor’s message—Glad to have you home tonight. We would have missed you.
Opening the door to the studio, Levi smiled at the receptionist waiting there. She picked up her phone and dialled, speaking in a hushed tone as he made his way through the long and narrow space. They had a simple setup in the onsite offices, a desk, couches, and a large wall-mounted TV. Signage for the station adorned the wall behind the large desk and pictures hung along each of the others, one for every show filmed on the Gold Coast.
“Go straight on through, Levi. They’re waiting for you.”
“Ms McLaughlin here yet?” he asked, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans, his nerves getting the better of him. When Allison nodded, he swallowed, hoping the bad vibes he had were over exaggerated.
Levi entered the meeting room after hearing, “Come in,” when he knocked. Three people sat across the long boardroom desk from where he stood—Eva McLaughlin and two others, a man and a woman, neither of whom he recognized. A thin manila folder was the only thing sitting on the desk.
“Mr Flaherty, thank you. Please, take a seat,” Ms McLaughlin said, pointing to the vacant seat before him. Levi blew out a breath and sat. There were no introductions to the others sitting in the room. He didn’t know whether to be grateful or more nervous. Either way, he just wanted to get things over and done with.
Shuffling into his seat, Levi tried to tamp down his nerves. “So, this is highly unorthodox. Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“We find ourselves in a highly unorthodox situation, Mr Flaherty,” Eva began. “But it’s manageable with some discreet handling, if that becomes necessary.”
Levi stared at her, clueless as to what she could be talking about. She saved him asking, speaking to him in a tone that was completely devoid of emotion. It unnerved him more with every passing second. “Mr Flaherty, can you please explain this photograph to us?” She slid a printout of an image to him. It was pixelated, as if it had been enlarged, but there was no question what it was.
“It’s me kissing my girlfriend goodbye. Looks like it was from this morning. Who took this? Why is it even an issue? We’ve lived together for years.”
“It’s not the issue, Mr Flaherty. This one is.” She slid another sheet of paper to him. This one had two images. In the first, Connor was standing naked inside the doorway from the house into the garage, with Levi walking towards him. The second had had been taken sometime after the first. In it, Levi was lifting Connor up, pinning him against the wall. Wrapped around each other, lips connected and every inch of their bodies pressed together, it was obvious what they were doing. Levi flipped the papers over and closed his eyes. Mortification and cold fury warred for top place within him. No, it wasn’t that. He felt violated, creeped out by someone having captured he and Connor in a moment which was meant just for them.
“These pictures were found online today. Your personal profile was tagged in them. I’m guessing you haven’t seen them?” When Levi shook his head, she continued. “The good news is that they haven’t gone viral yet, but it won’t take long for people to make the link between your personal and professional personas. We’ve petitioned the social media sites to have them taken down pending an order from the federal court. A few of them have been pulled because of the sexual content, but the other is taking longer. It’s only a matter of time before the shit storm hits.”
Levi nodded again, unable to find the words to reply. It was as if his mind and body were disconnected. He couldn’t process what was happening before him. He couldn’t get past the fact that someone had been spying on him. It wasn’t easy to see into their garage from the street. The land sloped down, away from the road. Whoever it was had been close. That and the lack of light left him with only one conclusion—it was an intentional shot. There was someone out there spying on them.
His skin crawled and worry pricked at him. If they were being watched, who knew what that person was capable of? Who the hell was it? Would they try to hurt Katy or Connor? He needed to call them, needed to make sure they were safe. He held up his phone. “I, um, need to call Katy and Con. I….” He trailed off, not even knowing how to begin to explain what he needed to do.
Oblivious to his struggles, the man beside Eva began talking, “You might be best off taking a proactive approach on this—get your friend to find a bloke who’ll stand in as his boyfriend for a while and put up some pictures of them online. You’ll have to make some comments congratulating them, something like that. That way there’ll be an explanation if the images do get circulated more broadly. Worst case, you can do a press release stating that the images were of your friend and his boyfriend.”
“I’m sorry, but who the heck are you?” Levi asked, annoyed that they’d barrelled on, regardless of the turmoil coursing through him.
“Francis Medley, PR for the network.” The other man held out his hand and years of ingrained manners had Levi standing and reaching out.
“I’m Louise Arcadia. I’m in Human Resources.” The lady beside Eva stood and reached over the boardroom table. After shaking her hand, Levi sat down and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“I need to get Connor to pick up Katy from work. If there’s some psycho taking pictures of us, I can’t have her alone. Give me a minute, okay, then we’ll talk about these.” Levi motioned to the two pieces of paper in front of him. He dialled Connor’s number and stood to walk out of the room.
“Levi, stay in here, please. You walk out there and anyone can overhear. This needs to be handled delicately,” Francis chastised when Levi reached for the doorhandle.
Ignoring him, Levi opened the door and walked out into the hall, crossing it to use one of the empty offices. Connor’s phone rang out, clicking over to his message. Frustrated, Levi spoke after his recording finished. “Hey, I need you to do me a favour. I need you to pick up Katy from work. Something’s happened here and I’m…” He paused, blowing out a breath. “I’m freaked out. Please don’t leave her alone. I need to know she’s safe.” Levi’s voice broke on the last words and he breathed deeply, forcing his fear down. “Call me as soon as you get this. I need to know you heard it.” He hung up and walked back inside the meeting room, placing his phone on the desk in front of him.
“Is there any way of finding out who took the photos? Or even who posted them?” Levi asked the three people sitting impatiently across from him.
“We aren’t sure. It’s not really relevant,” Francis replied bluntly.
“Ah, yeah, it is. Some crazy bastard is out there taking pictures of us at four in the morning.” Levi’s voice rose as he grew more angry and frustrated. “Of course it’s relevant. What if Katy was alone out there and that maniac hurt her?”
“I’m sure that’s an issue the police will want to talk to you about,” Louise replied, shooting a look at Francis. “It’s not our focus, but it’s obviously important.”
“Levi, we need to set a plan in motion. If the federal court denies the application—and there’s a distinct chance they might—or the news or current affairs outlets get a hold of the pictures before we can get them pulled off the web, you must have deniability.”
“Deniability?” Levi asked incredulously. “You did look at the pictures, didn’t you? It’s pretty damn obvious it’s me in both of them. For god’s sake, I’m wearing the same clothes here in this office.”
“Mr Flaherty, we’re trying to give you some options. You’re a children’s TV presenter, and not just any presenter, but a Logie winning one. Your private life is private. However, it also needs to be discreet.”
