Deadly Exposure. Cara Putman
I’ll find him.”
“That isn’t your job. Leave that to the police.”
Dani gritted her teeth. Caleb wasn’t the only one with investigative skills. She vowed to find out more about the usher before the police did.
He rolled his eyes. “I see you’re still stubborn. Who did you talk to about the murder?”
“Andy Garrison, a producer at the station, and Logan Collins, the photographer with me.” Dani looked at her watch, ready to end the conversation. “I have to leave now to get to work.”
Both men pushed back from the island and stood. Caleb reached into a pocket and pulled out a card. He handed it to her. “My cell’s on the back. Call if you remember anything.”
Ten minutes after their departure, Dani pulled into the station parking lot and scrambled out of her car. With a quick hello to the receptionist, she raced through the lobby and into the newsroom.
The studio and advertising offices dominated the station, leaving a large room filled with cubicles for the news team. Dani entered the cavern and absorbed the chaos as the familiar insanity calmed her.
The assignment editor sat at the front surrounded by white-boards showing three days’ worth of assignments. As she walked to her cubicle, the day assignment editor’s shout followed her. “I need to talk about your assignment.”
Vic Davis juggled the phone and scanners like a pro, but Dani never found herself on his good side.
“Kate wants you on the theater-killing story.” He grunted out the words.
She flashed her best Katie Couric smile at him. “That’s why I’m here.”
His dour expression deflected her smile. “Play things up with the police.” With that, Vic returned to his kingdom and its telephone chime.
They needed to get rolling on the story. Dani glanced around the newsroom for Logan. Kate Johannson, the tiny news director with a nose for what viewers wanted, waved Dani to her office.
Logan reclined on the love seat in the office. “You’re slow this morning.”
“I’m here now. I’ve already talked to the police this morning.”
Kate settled in behind her desk. “Today you’re slated for live shots on the 5:30 and 10:00 p.m. shows, as well as shorter packages during the other newscasts. The noon show is covered. I want you to figure out who the victim is so we can tell her story today.”
“We already know her name. I interviewed her last week. Haven’t the police released her identity?” Dani looked from Logan to Kate, brow wrinkled.
“They haven’t said anything.” Kate crossed her arms, and let silence linger.
“Kate, her name is…Renee Thomas, though I need to verify it.”
“Do it and get the name in a story. Don’t stand there like a decoration.”
Dani pirouetted on her pointed heel and left Kate’s office. Logan stood at an edit bay, arms crossed. She quickened her pace, oblivious to the clatter of noise in the background.
“Ready to get to work?”
“You can’t release the name, Dani.”
Dani opened her mouth to argue back. “Why? Trying to do my job, too? Who do you think you are?” With each syllable her voice rose. She was moments from losing control in front of her colleagues. She spun away from Logan. “Outside…now.”
Reaching the exit, she pounded on the release bar. With a satisfying thud the lock released and the door flew open. Blinking in the bright sunlight, she stepped past the doorway. A shadow grazed her when Logan joined her in the parking lot.
“Logan, you are the best photographer I’ve worked with, but you are not a reporter. That’s my job.”
Logan stepped out of the doorway. “You’ve known Caleb as long as I have. You’re making a mistake if you release the victim’s name before he releases the information.”
“He never asked me to hold it back. It won’t hurt anybody unless she has a secret life.” Nervous energy propelled Dani back and forth in the parking lot. “This is my story. I found the body, and I knew Renee. I owe it to her and the station to get this right. This is our break. We have a window when we know something no one else does. We’ll make the most of it.”
His brows knit together, and he remained silent.
“Unless you give me a good reason, I’m running with it. If you won’t help, I’ll get a photographer who will.” Dani winced. The words sounded more threatening than she’d intended.
Logan nodded. “All right. Let’s get to work.”
“Grab your equipment and meet me at my desk.”
Logan returned to the editing bays on the inside wall of the newsroom as Dani charged to her cubicle. Half of the cubes were empty. With five shows scattered across the day, the reporters and anchors rarely overlapped. That happened on exceptional days like 9/11 or the launch of a war.
Dani grabbed a notepad from the pile that teetered on the edge of her desk. Logan pulled a chair around and straddled it.
Before Dani could open her mouth, Kate approached. “Glad to see you two made up. Dani, track down everything you can about the victim. We need more than her name by five-thirty. I want her to come alive. Logan, have your buddy at the police station confirm her name. Isn’t he in charge of this investigation?” As Logan nodded, Kate glanced at her Rolex. “We’ve got fifteen minutes to airtime. Dani, you’ll do an on-set report.”
Adrenaline surged through Dani at the new deadline as she watched Kate storm back to her office. “There went my five hours to prepare. Is she always this intense?”
“Only when the story’s big, and we have an edge. I’ll call Caleb.”
“Wait.” Dani turned to her open notepad. The victim’s name wasn’t enough to fill a report in fifteen minutes. And she couldn’t release the name without confirmation. “Can you find the tape of our interview with Renee? From last week?”
Logan nodded. “I’m on it.”
He sprinted toward the tape room. Dani crossed her fingers. This had to work or her silence was all that’d fill the air during the newscast.
She quickly outlined talking points and uploaded them on the network. The producer would call them up for Dani to ad-lib from when Rochelle tossed the newscast to her.
That taken care of, Dani typed Renee Thomas and Lincoln into a search engine. Five hundred results. She hoped a handful highlighted her Renee Thomas but would settle for one.
Glancing at her watch, she put her computer in hibernate mode, grabbed her jacket and hustled to the studio for the noon newscast. She hurried to the mounted mirror and counter inside the door to touch up her makeup. Unlike her time in St. Louis, here she had to apply her own. She topped it all off with a coat of powder and walked to the side where the director could signal her to join the anchors.
She resisted the urge to rock on her heels as she waited. Each sound echoed off the studio’s concrete floor, and the sensitive microphones the anchors wore picked up everything. Would Logan find the interview tape? The floor director flashed a hand signal. She had thirty seconds to get seated and micced. She slid an earpiece on and heard Tori talking to an assistant producer.
Dani cut in. “Tori, did Logan get you the tape?”
“Not yet. He’s trying to cue it up.”
“I need it now.”
“Do what you’re paid to do. Ad-lib.”
Dani painted a smile on her face and faced a camera as the package wrapped up. Without the video confirmation she had nothing to report. Logan entered