I TOLD JACK Faron everything when I got back to the office. Well, almost everything.
“This could be one of the biggest serial killer stories of all time, Jack,” I said after running through the details of my encounter with Scott Manning. “Bigger than Son of Sam, bigger than the Zodiac Killer, bigger maybe even than Ted Bundy. We’re talking about close to twenty potential victims—and there might well be more we don’t know about yet. But we can do even better than report this story; we can own this story. ‘The Wanderer’ will belong to Channel 10—all the way until they finally catch him—if I’m a part of the FBI investigation.”
“Or we could go with the story we have on air tonight,” Faron said. “Break it wide open. We’ll get all the attention; we’ll get big ratings, too. That’s what we’re here for, Clare, to report stories to our viewers. Whatever it is we know at the moment. Our job is not to sit on a big story to meet the demands of law enforcement as to when we can run it. I say we put you on the air tonight with whatever you’ve already got.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Why not? You told me the FBI guy confirmed there was a solid DNA match on some of the cases, and likely matches on many of the others. You also said you never went off the record with him on anything he revealed. What’s the problem?”
“I gave him my word we’d hold it.”
“Tell him you changed your mind.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you can’t tell someone you’re giving them your word, then say you changed your mind about it afterward. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of the ‘I’m giving you my word’ pledge.”
“You shouldn’t have done that without consulting with me first.”
“Let’s give it a try, huh? I’m supposed to go back there tomorrow and meet Manning’s boss to get a fuller briefing on the status of the investigation. We can always revisit the decision after that. All we’d be doing is holding off on the story for a day. But, if I am part of the FBI team going after this guy, we would have the complete story from the inside.”
“Unless someone else breaks it first.”
“No one else knows about this.”
“What if someone from the FBI office leaks it to another media outlet?”
“That won’t happen.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Scott Manning gave me his word,” I said.
“Are you even certain that this guy Manning can pull off something like this? He’s new to the FBI, right? He only left the NYPD last year. He might have said anything he could think of to get you not to air this story, but that doesn’t mean he can back up his promises with the bureau.”
“Manning was the first one at the FBI who found out about The Wanderer. He’s bringing it to the FBI’s attention. That makes him a big player in all this, no matter how new he is. And I’m the one who brought the information to him. That’s how we can sell this all to his boss. In any case, we’ll know more about how all this will play out—or if we should just go ahead on our own and not work with them—once I meet Manning’s supervisor tomorrow.”
“Just to be clear, isn’t Scott Manning the same guy who was involved with you on the Grace Mancuso/Dora Gayle story last year? The same guy you had working for us then? And the same guy you were sleeping with at the time, which I didn’t find out about until later?”
“We only slept together once.”
“Not the point.”
“I thought you’d want to know.”
“But you don’t have that kind of relationship with him now?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re not still having sex with him?”
“No sex whatsoever except for that one time last year.”
“You have no personal feelings of any kind toward Scott Manning right now?”
“Absolutely none,” I said.
That was the part where I said before that I wasn’t being completely, 100 percent truthful to Faron about everything.
I went through with him next what my people would be doing on this for the rest of the day. I was going to ask Maggie and others to gather more information for me on the victims—and the crimes themselves—from the list. I knew Manning and the FBI were surely doing the same thing right now. But I wanted to have as much information as possible with me when I met with Manning’s boss.
Before I left Faron’s office, he asked me about Gary Weddle.
“How’s everything going between you and the consultant?” he asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. It seems to be working—based on what I’ve seen so far in the newsroom and in our ratings numbers.”
“Yes,” I told him. “We’ve accomplished a lot in terms of meshing the ‘The News Never Stops’ concept of Weddle’s together with our normal newsroom schedule. Feeding stories in instantly via texts, tweets, video streams, and the rest. But we’ve still maintained the integrity of the actual news broadcasts. Gary Weddle and I are working extremely well together.”
“I’m surprised.”
“Why?”
“You don’t generally get along with people like that. And you were resistant in the beginning to me bringing him in here at all. Why the change in your attitude?”
I shrugged. “I like him, Jack.”
“Like him how?”
That question startled me.
“What do you mean?”
“People here tell me you two seem to get along maybe too well. Nothing obvious, but there seems to be some sort of bond there, I’m hearing. Are you having a personal relationship with this guy, too, Clare?”
I thought about the conversations Gary Weddle and I had had about our future. About the times we’d managed to sneak away to spend a bit of private time together. About the stolen kisses between us.
“Of course not.”
“Good. Because you know how complicated that kind of a relationship can be in an office these days. I’m already getting enough stress about what’s going on between Brett and Dani. I mean, I’m not sure whether they’re going to have sex on the air some night or file lawsuits against each other. I don’t need another Brett and Dani situation in this office. Which is why I asked about you and Weddle.”
“My interest in Gary Weddle is simply putting out the best—and most profitable—newscast we can do here at Channel 10.”
“Glad to hear that,” Faron said.
Okay, that was the second untruth of the conversation.
But who’s counting?
I called Maggie into my office afterward and gave her the list of crime victims to check for more information. I said I wanted newspaper articles, TV broadcasts, videos, social media coverage—anything she could find out about any and all of them. I did not tell her why I wanted this. Which was the first question she asked me.
“I can’t tell you that, Maggie,” I said.
“You can, but you won’t.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
“Then I’m not doing this assignment for you unless you tell me what this story is all about.”
“You’re my deputy, Maggie. You’re supposed to do whatever I tell you to do. No questions asked.”
“I’m also a journalist. I ask questions for a living. My question now is what’s going on here? Wouldn’t you ask the same kind of question if you were in my place?”
Maggie was right.
I’d promised Manning that I wouldn’t tell anyone else at the station so that it couldn’t leak out. But I’d already told Faron because I knew I had to cover myself that way in case this all blew up in my face. Now I decided to tell Maggie, too, making it clear about the need for secrecy from anyone else in the newsroom.
“Wow!” she said when I was finished. “That is a helluva story!”
“It will be once we’re able to put it on the air. Hopefully soon.”
“And you’re working with that ex-cop Scott Manning again?”
“That’s right.”
“The same guy you slept with last year?”
“Not the point.”
“Are you sleeping with him now?”
“Everyone keeps asking me about that.”
“It’s an obvious question, Clare.”
“No, I have no personal relationship of any kind anymore with Scott Manning. Please try and put together as much of this stuff as you can before the end of the day so I can have it when I go back to the FBI tomorrow. That’s all I’m concerned with right now.”
It was a nice little speech, and it sure sounded good.
And there was no question that I was focused on the story—which could be the story of a lifetime—at the moment.
That was the only reason I was looking forward to returning to the FBI office again tomorrow, I told myself.
Except why was I still so excited thinking about seeing Scott Manning again?