Irene Ward’s story about the arrest of Lorraine Pierce and the recovery of a top secret cipher machine was splashed across the front page of the morning edition of the Herald. Amalie and Matthias were drinking coffee with Hazel and Willa in the kitchen of the Hidden Beach Inn when the paper was delivered.
Willa read the headlines aloud. “Famed Gossip Columnist Arrested for Murder of Robot Inventor. Top Secret Invention Recovered.”
An entire paragraph was devoted to glowing praise of the brave, professional work of Detective Brandon and the officers of the Burning Cove Police Department.
Matthias picked up his coffee mug. “A special agent from the FBI is probably yelling at Brandon and the chief of police at this very moment, but there’s no putting the cat back in the bag, and everyone knows it. The only thing the Feds can do is go along with Irene’s version of events and pretend to be grateful to the Burning Cove Police Department.”
Hazel got an anxious look. “Do you think the FBI might arrest Irene Ward because she ran the story?”
“The Bureau will be annoyed with Irene but there’s nothing they can do about her, either,” Matthias said. “It’s not as if she released classified information. She’s just a reporter who covered a red-hot story about a Hollywood gossip columnist and a stolen invention. They’ll play along. After all, they got the Ares and they’ve taken a suspected killer and gunrunner into custody. It will be interesting to see if they can hang on to both.”