Page 27 of Head Room

Mixed in was his gauging that I might use that acknowledgment as permission to use my judgment about not giving him information in a future circumstance.

I liked all that.

Especially because it kept him occupied with those considerations, so he didn’t come back to potentially asking questions about anything else about the scene...like me receiving a paper bag from Hannah, currently under the dog hammock in the back seat of my SUV.

I’d have no compunction about lying to him should he ask if I’d noticed or learned anything else on the scene, but why waste a lie if unneeded.

I stood.“You can thank me later.I want to go home and take a shower.”

“Good idea,” Richard muttered.

When I glared at him, he dropped his head, but not fast enough to mask a grin.

Shelton said nothing as I left.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It felt likeI’d deposited more irritation tokens in the Bank of Shelton than appreciation points.

Still, I’d covered our civic duty for both Diana and me.

No greater gift hath any TV journalist than handing over footage.I’d definitely earned those appreciation points, even if I had to wrest them out of him at some future date.

The phone rang while I was backing out of the parking spot.I hit the answer button without looking at it.

“Hey, Elizabeth.”

Michael Paycik.Ordinarily, I welcomed his calls.

But between my desire for a shower and the less than chipper tone of his greeting, I was not thrilled.

He was my boss in that he owned the station.

He was my colleague in that we’d worked together when he was the sports anchor for KWMT.That not only was before he bought the station, but before he moved on and up to a spot at the sports desk of a network affiliate in Chicago.

He also was my good friend and collaborator in pursuing investigations.

But I wasn’t ready to tell him about Colonel Crawford’s request.I needed to sort out my own thinking about it first.

Besides, I knew him well enough to read his mood from those two words.

“What’s wrong, Mike?More dropouts?”

For some reason top TV news people weren’t clamoring to come to the smallest market in the country — no kidding, the absolute last on the list.Somebody has to be and Sherman, Wyoming, was it.

But we had a few candidates lined up for Mike to interview, then, if they were still possibles, come here to visit.

“No.In fact, we might have an addition.Needham has someone he wants us to talk to.”

“Needham?”Needham Bender, publisher and editor of theSherman Independence, was another friend and a journalist I respected.Also a professional rival.“But he’s a newspaperman.Granted he’s well-connected in print, but not in TV.”

“Yeah, but out of respect for him, I said sure.You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

“Of course not.When?”And would I need to get Mom and Tamantha to check their schedule spreadsheet?

“Tomorrow lunch.”

“Tomorrow?”Pretty sure there was nothing on the spreadsheet for then.