Page 26 of The Lie Maker

“Sorry.”

“Jesus. This is ridiculous. Why can’t you tell me?”

“I was told not to.”

“Oh, my God, I think I know what it is,” she said.

Lana was good, but could she be this good? Was she able to intuit what it was I’d been hired to do?

“What?” I said.

“Speechwriter,” she said, smiling triumphantly. “It makes perfect sense.” Now she was scrunching up her face, thinking it through. “The question now is, for whom? You going to write speeches for the mayor? Good luck with that. Or maybe state. You’re going to put words into the mouth of our governor. He could certainly use help with that, given how few he seems to know. Or maybe federal? Senator? Huh? Is that it? You’re going to write speeches for a senator?”

I had to admit, I was enjoying this. There was a kind of thrill in being drafted to work for the witness relocation program, even in a tangential kind of way. Composing histories for people who were going to be sent off into hiding for the rest of their lives had filled me with a sense of purpose.

God, how I wanted to tell Lana what I was up to. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. But hell, she was in the news business, and even if she did keep my secret, if Gwen ever found out I’d blabbed about what I was up to, I was pretty sure I’d lose this gig before I’d even gotten started. I could kiss that grand a day goodbye.

She rested one elbow on the bar and stared at me so intently, it was like she was trying to see what was in my soul.

“Or maybe not a politician,” she said. “Politicians don’t usually keep it a secret that they have speechwriters. No one expects them to come up with all that bullshit themselves. So maybe it’s something corporate. Big companies are totally paranoid about everything. Is it something in big tech? Or maybe it’s what we were talking about the other night. You’re ghostwriting a book. No, you already admitted it was government related. So it’s not that.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless it’s a bio for some former government official, so not technically a government gig but kind of.”

I shook my head. Not as an answer, but in exasperation.

“Okay, okay, I know. There was a shake-up recently in the mayor’s PR office. That has to be it. You are writing speeches for the mayor, but you can’t talk about it until they see if you work out.”

“If that’s what you want to think, then that’s what I’m doing,” I said.

Lana shook her head disapprovingly. “I don’t think this will make you happy.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Whoever you’re writing speeches for, whether it’s the mayor or somebody else or if it’s corporate, you won’t find it satisfying. It’s not what you’re meant to do.”

“You think I should go back to RV Life and see if they’ll reconsider?”

“Okay, so whatever you’ve signed up for is probably better than that, but still. It’s just, you won’t be able to write what you want to write. You’ll have to write what they tell you to write. Sure, you can get creative up to a point, but you’ll have to follow the script. Espouse policy you may think is total bullshit.”

“You done?”

“Fine. Whatever it is, I hope it makes you happy. But writing speeches for self-serving shitheads and liars might not be very satisfying.”

Lana held a rather low opinion of most elected officials.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. Now I was feeling ever so slightly annoyed. Lana had a great job that paid her well, and now that I had an opportunity to turn things around, she was putting it down without even knowing what it was.

“Sorry,” she said, as if reading my thoughts. “No more negativity. If you think this is a good fit, then great. And I won’t pester you with more questions.” She smiled. “But I’m going to be listening to the mayor’s speeches more closely now, in case I pick up any of your figures of speech.”

“If that’s it,” I said mischievously.

“I should warn you,” she said. “You know what I’m like. You’ve presented a challenge to me. Finding out what you’re up to.”

There was already so much she hadn’t uncovered about me that I wasn’t particularly worried.

We were both finished with our meals. The waiter appeared and said, “Anything else?”

“We’re good,” Lana said as the waiter put the check on the table. Lana was going for her purse.

“I got this,” I said.