None of us said anything until we were in the parking lot.
At best, newsrooms are hotbeds of eavesdropping. KWMT-TV’s newsroom had the deeper drawback of the shadows of Thurston Fine and Les Haeburn.
The camaraderie in the bullpen had risen exponentially in the past year, while Fine retained several adherents. More dangerous were the ones who presented themselves as part of the new attitude, while scuttling back to report to Fine, huddling under the shreds of his patronage.
Haeburn?
He had no adherents. He had only Fine.
Or Fine had him.
Hard to tell.
One theory was that Haeburn did whatever Fine wanted — or mostly did — because he intended to attach himself to coattails as Fine ascended.
I found that theory deeply flawed, because I couldn’t imagine any decent station manager not seeing through Fine’s fatuous exterior right to his fatuous interior.
No, if Haeburn had a brain, he’d attach himself to Mike’s coattails, because he had talent, ambition, and the right amount of connections — enough to open doors, not so many that he was dismissed when he got inside the door.
However, Haeburn didn’t have a brain.
Which left the theory that he took the easy way out by letting Fine have his way.
We stood in the parking lot, our clothes and hair streaming before a brisk west wind, to discuss.
Not much of a discussion.
“Strange reaction.”
“Could be nothing, but…”
“Need to find out more about her before writing it off completely.”
“So, what’s next?” Jennifer asked.
“I have to work,” Diana said.
Mike gusted out, “Suppose I should, too. Hey, aren’t you scheduled now?” he belatedly asked Jennifer.
“Yeah. I could get Dale to fill in for me, if there’s something important.” She looked at me hopefully.
“Not important enough to pull you off your shift, especially since Dale worked late last night. Besides, you have work to start on already.”
“What about you?” Mike asked me.
“I’m going to call Odessa Vincennes to schedule the end of our interview—” That drew nods all around, recognizing that would be a great opportunity to pump the woman about her reaction to the news of Furman York’s death. “—then do a little grocery shopping.”
This time the nods were joined by grins.