After their confrontation yesterday, the absolute last thing Caroline wanted to do was talk to Linus Nazareth this morning, but she was going to make one last stab at getting a producer assigned to come to Warrenstown with her. She waited fifteen minutes after KEY to America went off the air for the morning, giving Linus time to get to his office from the KTA control room. She knocked on his open door.
The executive producer beckoned her inside. “Quite a review this morning, Caroline. Does Belinda Winthrop have you on her payroll or something?”
Caroline tried to take the remark with good humor. “Funny, Linus. That’s funny.”
“I’m only half joking, kiddo,” said Linus, sitting behind his messy desk. “I always thought that last guy we had on the entertainment beat was in the studios’ pocket. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear he took kickbacks to pay for that coke habit of
his.”
Caroline wasn’t about to get into a character assassination of her predecessor, but she was going to stand up for herself. “Look, Linus,” she said. “Belinda Winthrop was terrific in the film. I’ll give you the DVD, and you can see for yourself.”
“Don’t get all defensive on me, Caroline,” said Linus, picking up the football he kept on his desk. “But see what I mean? You could have been more provocative, more controversial. That review was a real valentine.”
“You’re paying me for my opinion, Linus. That’s what I thought of the movie. It was good, very good. I’m supposed to say otherwise, just to be controversial?”
Linus frowned. “All I know is, I found the review too vanilla. There was nothing memorable about it. Look at the reviewers on the other nets. They get in some real zingers.”
Caroline’s hands clenched in the pockets of her skirt. “I’ll try to spice things up next time, Linus, but there’s only so much I’m comfortable doing,” she said as she turned to walk out of the office. She didn’t trust herself to continue the conversation. Yesterday’s hurt was turning to anger.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Linus called as she got to the doorway. “What did you come in to see me for?”
Go for it, she thought. “How about reconsidering and giving me a producer for this Warrenstown shoot?”
“Why would I want to do that?” Linus tossed the football in the air and caught it.
“Because it would contribute to a better story.”
The executive producer leaned back in his chair, and the buttons on his blue Oxford shirt strained against his stomach. “I would hope you’d be able to handle this assignment yourself, Caroline. You can tell the crew what to shoot and set up your own interviews, can’t you?”
“Of course I can, Linus. But you know as well as I do that having a producer along will make things a lot easier. There’s more to doing this story than making some appointments and figuring out shooting locations. In fact, I can get two, possibly three, stories out of this trip,” she said, knowing that prospect would appeal to the ever-budget-conscious executive producer. “One on the Warrenstown Summer Playhouse, another on this new play that has all this Pulitzer buzz. Devil in the Details is being staged for the first time, and it will probably go on to Broadway and then to the movies. I’ve made arrangements to interview Belinda Winthrop about the play, and depending on what she says on tape, there might be enough to form the basis for a profile piece as well.”
Linus put the football down and leaned forward, close enough for her to notice the pockmarks on his cheeks. “Look, Caroline. You haven’t been in TV a long time, and you want the security of having someone along to support you, but I’m short on producers right now. It’s summer. Some are on vacation, and the others are all assigned. I don’t have anyone to send with you.”
Caroline wondered if Linus was deliberately trying to shake her confidence by suggesting she wasn’t a seasoned broadcasting veteran or if he had merely stated the blunt truth. Either way, the executive producer had effectively shut down further argument. If she kept lobbying for a producer, it could look like she wasn’t confident in her ability to pull off this assignment.
As Caroline walked away from Linus’s office, she was confused. If he thought she was such a neophyte, why was he letting her go to Warrenstown with no editorial backup? Did he actually have more confidence in her than she thought? Or did he really want her to fail so he could get rid of her?