ERICA, EILEEN, AND GLORIA ARE in their car, being driven from the Bismarck airport to the Holiday Inn. Every room within fifty miles of the capital is booked, with media from all over the country and a decent chunk of the world descending on North Dakota. The latest polls have shown Mary Bellamy a point or two ahead of Governor Snyder. While Synder could still pull it out, people are starting to focus on what Bellamy’s first moves as governor will be. She has already created the most successful secession movement in American history. Soon she may have real power. What will she do with it?
Erica looks out the car window. The excitement is palpable, people holding Homeland and Bellamy signs line the sides of the roads, shouting and high-fiving passing motorists. Everywhere Erica looks she sees Bellamy bumper stickers, lawn signs, vehicles festooned with bunting, speakers on their roofs encouraging voters to support Bellamy. Clearly Mary Bellamy’s campaign has incredible momentum; she doesn’t want to just win, she wants a landslide, a mandate. And she wants to send a message to the rest of the country. There are secession movements in every state, but they’re strongest and most vocal in those contiguous to North Dakota, where the leaders are following Mary’s example, eschewing violent and extreme rhetoric for victory at the ballot box. Could she be advising, even coordinating, them?
Looking out the window at the raucous scene, Erica sees the darkness under the signs and screams, the hoopla, the near hysteria. Her adrenaline starts pumping, and part of what it’s pumping is fear. This state is not a safe place for her. She’s in their sights. Whoever they are.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Eileen says. “It’s going to be intense.”
Gloria says nothing. She sits there looking troubled and frightened and trying to disguise it. That’s been her default expression all week. When Gloria was pressing Erica on her investigation of the murders, she probably didn’t realize she was the current focus of it. Erica suspects that somehow Gloria has found out that her liaison with Pete Nichols has been uncovered. But Erica has no proof, no evidence other than the whistling of a two-bit hood with a sadistic streak. It’s time to turn the screws, but she has to do it artfully, gently. She’s starting to question Gloria’s emotional stability, and things could turn ugly. When people are cornered they become desperate and take irrational, even violent, action.
The women stop at their motel just long enough to drop off their bags, then they head downtown. Without a studio of its own or a local GNN affiliate, Eileen has rented a downtown storefront and set up temporary shop. It’s a great visual, with Erica sitting at a desk in front of two huge corner plate-glass windows that have a view of the downtown’s busiest intersection.
“This looks great, Eileen, good work,” Erica says. “I think we should get out on the street to try and capture the energy and excitement, do a few on-the-spot interviews. We can shoot that segment ASAP and run it tonight.”
“Gotcha,” Eileen says. Gloria is standing there, looking like a third wheel; it gets a little awkward. “Spotlight’s offices are up on the third floor,” Eileen reminds her.
“All right. I guess I’ll head up there. I want to get organized and then take a crew out and get some establishing shots of the Bellamy house and the capitol.”
“I’ll head up with you, I have a few thoughts,” Erica says.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay down here and prepare for tonight’s show? We have a lot more time to pull Spotlight together.”
“No. I want to talk to you,” Erica says firmly.
They step into the elevator and the doors close behind them. Erica stands with her back to the controls, blocking them. Gloria has almost wedged herself into the far corner of the car. She can’t look Erica in the eye, and Erica sees her brow start to glisten.
“Gloria, is there anything you want to tell me?”
“Tell you?”
“Yes, tell me.”
Gloria starts speaking very fast: “Nothing pressing. I’m sure a lot of questions will come up but right at this moment I can’t think of any, I want the second Spotlight to be as strong as the first, no slump for us, ha-ha, so I really want to get some expert analysis on what the long-term ramifications of Bellamy’s win will be, that’s why I thought Leslie Burke Wilson’s idea might work and . . . Erica, why are you looking at me like that?”
Erica lets her twist in the wind for a few endless moments. She looks afraid. Well, Erica was afraid in the trunk of that car. Erica is afraid now. For herself. For her daughter. So, Gloria, what goes around comes around.
“When I went up to Boston for the symposium at the Kennedy School I was kidnapped, stuffed in the trunk of a car, and taken on a terrifying ride.”
Gloria’s mouth drops open in a semblance of surprise. Then her eyes well with tears. And is she shaking? “Erica, I’m sorry. I’m not in the best shape these days. The pressures of the show are getting to me. This is the big leagues—in DC I was swimming in a much smaller pond. I just feel overwhelmed. And personally, I’m feeling, well, I love James Jarrett. Oh, Erica, I’m so in love with him, and, well, I’m not sure how he feels about me.”
“I thought you were engaged.”
“That’s what I told people, but . . .”
Now that’s weird. Erica feels slightly queasy. And then there’s a momentary surge of pity for poor Gloria, who clearly isn’t the woman Erica once thought she was.
“I’m sorry,” Gloria says. “I let you down.”
Erica has no proof that Gloria had a role in her kidnapping. Looking at her now, cowering in the corner of the elevator, she hardly seems capable of such twisted machinations. Pete Nichols could have been playing a double head game, a feint, with his whistling. Sending Erica down a rabbit hole in search of a wild goose. And Gloria’s recent erratic behavior could be attributed to work pressure and lovesickness.
“So you didn’t know anything about my kidnapping?”
“Me? Your kidnapping? No, of course not, how could I?”
Gloria sounds so sincere, looks so stunned. What if this is all Erica’s paranoia running away with her? In any case, she has a show to prepare. It suddenly feels as if the elevator walls are closing in on her, she feels dizzy with confusion. And under it all, the telltale beating of her frightened heart. She turns away from Gloria and presses the Open button. The doors open, but the two women don’t move.
Gloria takes out a tissue and dabs at her eyes, wipes her brow, stands up straight. She gives Erica a forlorn smile. “If you’d like me to resign, just say so.”
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
“We’re heading up to Grand Forks tomorrow to cover Mary Bellamy’s final rally. We need that footage for Spotlight.”
“You want me to stay?”
“We’ll revisit this when we’re back in New York.”
Erica steps out of the elevator with long strides, her shoulders back, hoping that her posture will project confidence—and keep her from drowning in a sea of doubt.