Scoop

  Media. Now that word he understood.

  Her face twisted into an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry. Am I talking over your head? I tend to do that sometimes.”

  “No…”

  “Great. So you understand why I need to look at that computer. Chances are we’ll find no connection, but if we do, you could find yourself on the cover of People magazine.”

  “Right this way.”

  Ray was coming up empty. Without Gilda’s computer, he had no way to clarify her relationship with Chad. Without a reason as to why those e-mails disappeared, his story was at a dead end. He needed more time. Mack had said she was going to investigate, but he hadn’t heard from her all afternoon.

  It didn’t help that Hayden had come by his desk and told him how much she appreciated him. He needed to be focused, but part of him just wanted to run off into the sunset with this woman and leave all his troubles behind.

  Unfortunately, that would mean leaving Roarke behind, and he couldn’t do that. He’d talked to his friend by phone, assuring him they were making progress. But he knew he didn’t sound very hopeful, and Roarke didn’t sound like he believed him.

  Ray’s stomach felt woozy as he realized it was time for the afternoon meeting. He gathered his notes, and then he noticed Chad come out of his office for the first time all day. He’d seen Hugo go in a couple of times but had yet to see Chad since witnessing him accept the briefcase from Crumm. It was going to feel strange sitting at a table opposite him, but Ray was going to have to deal with it and hope that Hugo had kept the information to himself.

  Strangely, Chad had energy in his step, and there wasn’t an ounce of concern on his face. A few others made their way to the conference room. Ray decided there was nothing he could do but join them.

  Hugo called the meeting to order fairly quickly, and he spent the first ten minutes detailing what the other stations had reported. Then he finished by explaining that they were going ahead with the report on the sewage plant as their lead story.

  “Ray, what do you have new?”

  Ray glanced around the room and said, “I’m still working on some leads.”

  “What leads?” Chad asked.

  “Well, um, there seem to be a lot of missing pieces to the story. And”—Ray held his breath for a moment—“Gilda’s disappearance may be a part of it.”

  The mood of the room indicated both surprise and skepticism. “I know it sounds crazy,” Ray said, attempting to speak over the alarmed voices and nervous laughter. He avoided Chad’s eyes. “But we do know that Gilda was contacted by Petey Green, and maybe she had too much information.”

  “What do you have other than those letters to prove that?” Chad asked.

  “I’m working on it,” Ray said.

  “Look,” Chad said, “I know we all want to know what happened to Gilda, but right now we’ve got to set our emotions aside and realize that we’ve got a news station to run. And the top story right now is Gilda’s disappearance. Jill, you’ve got quite a few good sound bites, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Jill smiled, “including one eyewitness who swears she saw Gilda on the south side of town.”

  “The other stations have been covering this all day, but we’re the station with the missing anchor. People are going to tune in to us to see the personal side of the story,” Chad said. “I think we should do some in-house interviews, talk to some of the staff, see how they’re feeling.”

  “What?” Ray could hardly believe what he was hearing.

  “It’s human drama, Ray,” Chad said. “One of our own is missing, and one of our own is suspected in her disappearance. I want interviews with people who worked closely with Roarke. How are they feeling? Did they ever suspect anything? What odd behaviors did he have to indicate he might be a stalker?”

  Ray jumped to his feet, slapping his hand against the table. “No! I Won’t stand for this! We all know Roarke, and we know this is just a huge misunderstanding. They haven’t even charged him yet!”

  “But they are calling him a person of interest,” Jill said smoothly, smiling at Chad.

  “How can you all even think of doing this to him?”

  “Ray, you’re letting your emotions get the best of you,” Chad chided. “And you know one of the top rules of the news business is to leave your emotions out of it. We’re simply reporting a story here, and it is certainly a sad turn of events. But are we going to censor ourselves and keep the public in the dark simply because we want to protect one of our own?”

  “This is ridiculous!” Ray shouted. “You and I both know that this is being spun for ratings purposes at the expense of Roarke’s integrity.”

  Chad said, “Hey, I’m not the one who wrote love letters to her.”

  Ray was seconds away from springing across the table and punching the daylights out of Chad. But he caught a glimpse of Hayden and her wide, scared eyes. He took a breath to get himself together.

  Chad glanced at Hayden and deliberately ran his eyes from the top of her head downward. Then he looked back at Ray, grinning. “We’re cutting the wastewater treatment plant all together.”

  “What?” This time it was Hugo. Ray didn’t have any breath left. Anger and shock rippled through him.

  “Come on, gentlemen. Aren’t we just stabbing in the dark here? Yeah, it has some compelling pieces to it, but that’s like covering a wildfire while a hurricane strikes. The wildfire is interesting until something bigger and more threatening comes along. Scandal and embezzling can go a long way, but it’s no match for kidnapping, murder, and one man’s obsession for a woman.” Chad smiled at everyone like he’d just announced bonuses.

  “You’re saying cut the whole story?” Hugo asked, bewilderment evident on his face. He didn’t look angry, just confused.

  “That’s what I’m saying. Folks, I’ve been in this business a while now, and I know what makes good news. We’re going with Gilda’s disappearance, and I want it covered from every angle. Jill, get interviews with the staff. Trent, I want you live from in front of the jail. See if we can get some good sound bites from the police. And Ray…” He paused and locked eyes with him. “Why don’t you go out and see what the public thinks about it? Go to some nursing homes and see what the elderly are feeling and thinking. They must be devastated.”

  “You’re making a huge mistake,” Ray said. “You know this sewage story is big. You just don’t want…” Ray paused, wondering if he should show all his cards. He could expose Chad right now, but was that the smart move? And would Ray just look like he was desperate? Who would believe him without evidence?

  “Yes, Ray?” Chad asked, looking as if he wanted Ray to make a spectacle of himself.

  “Nothing,” Ray mumbled and sat down, shooting Hugo a look.

  Hugo didn’t make eye contact but instead said, “All right, everyone. You have your assignments. Let’s make sure we’re at the top of our game today, okay?” Hugo looked at Ray and tried to give him a reassuring nod.

  The first one out of the meeting, Ray couldn’t begin to disguise his disgust. He went to his desk and shuffled papers in an effort to keep himself from going off on a certain someone. Chad walked out of the meeting and smiled at Ray as he passed.

  But no matter how many papers Ray shuffled, he couldn’t stop the imaginary conversation in his head in which he told off Chad Arbus and, more important, told Chad Arbus that he knew his dirty little secret too. What that dirty little secret meant, he didn’t know, but he was going to find out. Right after he went to the nursing home.

  “Hey.”

  Ray looked up. Hayden was smiling at him. He couldn’t smile back. The time of faking his own serenity was over. The fact of the matter was he was a flawed human being, and he couldn’t see the rainbow after every storm like Hayden. He just didn’t have a faith like hers, and he was done pretending he did.

  “Ray,” she said calmly, “it’s going to be okay. I know you’re worried about Roarke. We all are. But God knows what he’s doing.
It’s all going to work out for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For everyone else, I can’t say. But there is a reason behind all this, and we just have to trust him.”

  Things were messed up right now. And his friend was suffering in jail because of it. Injustice was rearing its ugly head, burning everyone with fire, and Ray was supposed to believe this all had purpose? That God was in control?

  Ray looked down and wished Hayden would go away. But she didn’t. She started to say something, but he cut her off. “Look, Hayden, you’re an extraordinary person, okay? I recognize that, and so do half the people here at the station. You live your faith. You believe God, you take him at his Word. I’m not like you, though, okay? I have doubts. Lots of them. Almost all of the time. Yes, I pray and go to church and read my Bible. But sometimes I shake my fist at God. It’s not the picture of peace, I realize, and I certainly make no claims of wearing the armor of God. I’m lucky if I can get the underwear of decency on, all right? All I care about right now is getting my friend out of jail. Of all people, Roarke doesn’t deserve to be in there, and he certainly doesn’t deserve to be exploited so we can conquer sweeps week.” Ray’s voice cracked, and he could feel his eyes tearing up. “So go ahead, say whatever you were going to say. But don’t expect me to smile and agree, okay?”

  He finally looked up at her, and more than anything, she looked concerned. But he also saw hurt in her eyes. Ray felt horrible. Of all the people who could have hurt Hayden, he was the one to do it. Shame swept over him, and he wanted to crawl under his desk.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

  Hayden rushed around his desk and took his hand. “Don’t apologize, Ray. And don’t think more highly of me than you should. We all have our doubts. I have many, just like you.”

  Ray looked at her. He had a hard time believing she had doubts. He was also having a hard time swallowing the feet that he’d mentioned his underwear.

  “What were you going to say?” Ray asked. “I probably need to hear it, even if I don’t want to.”

  She smiled and took his hand. “I wanted to tell you that I heard from Mack. She told me to tell you she thinks she’s figured it out. She wants you to call her from a secure location.”

  Chapter 35

  Mack pulled the car up in front of a hotel. Ray could only imagine that the occupants inside were as sleazy as the outside. It looked greasy, from the roof to the sidewalk below. They were on the south side of town, a place Beaker absolutely refused to go. Ray hadn’t been here much either.

  He looked up at the neon sign. In pink cursive it read The Laguna. “Are you sure?”

  “No,” Mack said. “But I have a good hunch.”

  On the way over, Mack had explained what she’d found on Gilda’s computer. It was not in her e-mail, but in her Word documents, notes containing information Gilda had found confirming Crumm’s shell corporation scandal and the fact that the chemical being used at the plant was unsafe. Mack said there were ten pages of notes in all, including testimony from two other plant employees, neither of whom were Petey Green.

  “The two people the Electric Horseman mentioned,” Ray said. “So Gilda knew. Then why didn’t she go forward with the story? That’s not like Gilda. She lives for stories like this.”

  “That’s what we have to find out,” Mack said, opening her door.

  Ray got out too, jittery with anticipation.

  As they walked toward the dimly lit front desk, he asked, “Why do you think she’s here?”

  “I don’t know for certain that she is. But when I got access to her computer, I saw that she had been on the Internet late Thursday night, and she had done a lot of searches for ‘Laguna Beach.’”

  “Which would explain the summer clothes.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So why do you think she’s here? Just because the sign says Laguna?”

  “There were many signs.”

  Ray sighed heavily. “From God? He told you to come here?”

  Mack stopped and turned to him. “Yes, Ray, complete with a booming voice and fire on the mountain.” She continued walking, and Ray followed behind, kicking himself for being such a moron. “I checked to see if she had been on MapQuest. She had, and this was the address that came up. There were signs in her Internet search that showed that at some point Gilda realized she wasn’t going to California.”

  Mack approached the man at the front desk and flashed her badge. He didn’t look impressed or surprised.

  “Have you ever seen this woman?” She held up a publicity photo of Gilda she printed off the Internet.

  “I’m not very observant,” he said with a thin smile.

  “How many occupants do you have that have been here for five days?”

  The man sighed. “You know, in my business, people rely on me to be discreet.” He pulled out a dingy looking piece of paper and eyeballed it.

  “Three.”

  “How many female?”

  “One.”

  “Room number?”

  “Forty-two.”

  “Key?”

  The man grumbled and handed it over. “Stay here,” Mack instructed the man. “We’ll let you know if we need anything.”

  “Just don’t go shooting holes in my walls, okay? I just got four suites repaired.”

  “Suites,” Mack said. “Right.”

  The Laguna was a hotel, not a motel, with five stories. The elevator’s creaky doors opened halfway. “Come on,” Mack urged then grinned. “I’ll catch you if we drop.”

  “Funny.”

  Mack pushed the button for the fourth floor, and the elevator crept upward like it was carrying an extra seven tons. Ray and Mack stood with their backs against the wall. Ray was pretty sure he could hear his own heartbeat.

  “So how’d you get access to Gilda’s computer at the police station?”

  “I have my ways. The toughest part was leaving. Captain Wynn apparently likes blondes with guns. Hayden tipped me off to the fact that he also likes to see himself on television. I worked that to my advantage, needless to say. Then I had to make him believe it was all a misunderstanding and that I didn’t find anything useful on the computer.”

  “How’d you do it?”

  “I told him I thought I saw a network reporter out front. It was like magic.”

  Ray laughed. “Good one.”

  “Thanks.”

  They were only at the second floor. The ride seemed to be taking hours.

  The silence was too much for Ray. “I yelled at your sister today and mentioned my underwear. I’m truly sorry.”

  Mack didn’t look pleased. “In what regard did you mention your underwear?”

  Ray swallowed. “In a…metaphorical sense.”

  Mack raised an eyebrow. “Did my sister cry?”

  “She almost made me cry, actually.”

  Mack nodded like that pleased her. “Let’s keep your undergarments out of the relationship. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Now let’s go find Gilda.”

  There were many things Hugo should’ve been doing, and to anyone observing him outside his glass wall, he would have seemed to be in a feverish work mode. Instead, he was writing a lengthy e-mail to his wife. He knew better than to write something so personal on company e-mail. One employee had gotten burned when he thought he was passing a dirty joke along to a friend. Turned out it went to the entire station.

  But he’d tried to call her and hadn’t had any luck. On a normal day, Hugo lived for this kind of news. The fact that his station was in the middle of it made it a bit more complicated, but still, he would’ve approached it with effort and fervor.

  Instead, he was typing a letter to his wife.

  Jill Clark opened his door, interrupting his thoughts. “I need to talk to you.”

  “I’m busy,” Hugo said without looking at her. Then he heard the sound of a shaking pill bottle.

  “I stole them,” she said, placing them on his d
esk. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve seen you taking them,” she said. “I didn’t realize it was anxiety medication. I thought it was for a social phobia.”

  “A social phobia?”

  Jill looked embarrassed. “I thought it might help me approach this guy I like. I have trouble telling people how I really feel. I act one way but feel another. I don’t really know if it worked. It definitely made me feel calmer. But I felt bad for taking them.”

  “You thought I had a social disorder?”

  “Well, you are really calm. I mistook that for social problems. I’m sorry.” And she walked out.

  Hugo looked at the e-mail. He had just been explaining to Jane about the missing pills. Before, he had known in his head how much she meant to him, but he couldn’t feel it in his heart, and, he admitted, perhaps he’d become a little robotic in their relationship.

  Hugo assured her that if she wanted him to keep his job, he would, but he begged her to tell him what it was she wanted, to give him another chance.

  He closed by telling her that for a while he’d had his ideals about what his family should be like, where his wife should be and when. He’d been misguided to think that it was the modern world around him that was to blame for his discontentment. He’d realized, in fact, that he had to find contentment and peace with himself and the world in which he lived before he could make anybody else happy.

  He ended it with a few simple phrases. “I’m praying for us. I’m praying for you. Pray for me.”

  It’s what Hayden always told him, and it had sounded so foolish for so long. Now it seemed all he had to hang on to was prayer and divine intervention. He finished the e-mail and saw Hayden walk by. He rushed to his office door and called her in.