Page 18

CHAPTER 18

Lucy

The Tuesday After the Flight

It was a busy news day, but my mind was elsewhere. After Bruce gave me the green light, I kept formulating texts in my head. What could I say that might put a person into a trap? If it was Steph and she was just being weird, we could all laugh it off later. But if it wasn’t…

At lunch, I saw Nora in the break room. I needed a co-conspirator, so I pulled her aside and quickly briefed her on everything.

“Help me think of some trappy texts,” I whispered.

“What if you made up some names?” Nora asked. “Like tell her Susan and Frank called and need to speak with her and you have to know what to tell them, or something like that.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “Let’s try it.”

I typed those exact words into a text to Steph and hit send, then waited for a reply. There was nothing for over an hour, but as I was walking across the newsroom to talk to the assignment desk manager, her reply came in.

Tell them I’m out of town.

I felt as if the blood all drained from my body at that moment into a pool on the floor. I had to grab the back of a nearby chair to steady myself. I really thought for a moment I might faint. Nora came up next to me.

“Did you get something?” she asked in an urgent whisper. Hand shaking, I handed her the phone. Her eyes grew wide and she grabbed my arm.

“Come with me. We’re getting Bruce and going to Dave’s office.”

We motioned for Bruce and pulled him into the back conference room. When we briefed him and showed him the texts, he blanched.

“Listen, guys,” he said. “There’s another problem. Dave asked me not to say anything about this, but I didn’t know that at first. If he thinks the whole newsroom is talking about it, he’ll blow a gasket.”

“The whole newsroom is not talking about it,” said Lucy. “It’s just the three of us. I haven’t said a word about this text thread to anyone but you two. I know how fast gossip spreads in a newsroom.”

“Bruce, I’ll fall on the sword if need be,” said Nora. “Dave can’t be mad at us for this. It’s information he’s going to want.”