Chapter 13

In the time she had between the morning meeting and her appointment with Yelena, Annabelle quickly went through her e-mails, deleting another one of Jerome’s pleas that she finish reading his manuscript, and then she called home. The phone rang again and again until, finally, Mike answered.

“I was just about to hang up, honey,” Annabelle said, trying to keep the concern out of her voice. “Where were you?”

“Lying down.”

Her heart sank. Mike was sleeping away yet another day. In all the years they’d been together, Annabelle had never known him even to take a nap on a Sunday afternoon. A day off from the firehouse meant he was really physically ill, and those days were exceedingly rare. Now, day after day, week after week, Mike’s hours were spent alone in the apartment, lying in bed with the shades pulled down, alternately sleeping and thrashing dark thoughts over and over in his mind.

Even the twins couldn’t pull him out of his misery. Mrs. Nuzzo told her that Tara and Thomas had stopped trying to go in and talk to him when she brought them home from school each afternoon. The children had been rebuffed too many times. Instead, they stayed with their baby-sitter until Mommy came home from work, waiting to tell their other parent how their day at school had gone.

“Did you get the kids to school all right?”

“Yeah, the poor things were actually excited that I was taking them.”

“They love you, Mike.” She was tempted to add, “And they’re worried about you,” but she didn’t want her husband to feel worse than he already did. Editing herself was a way of life now, choosing her words carefully so as not to upset him. She ached for the not-so-long-ago days when they could say anything to each other.

“How’s work?”

He was interested? A hopeful sign.

“Not great. I’m about to go into a meeting with Yelena Gregory and the rest to get raked over the coals for this anthrax thing.”

“What anthrax thing?”

Her hopes were dashed.

“Remember? I told you about it this morning before I rushed to work? That’s why you had to walk the twins to school.”

“Oh, yeah,” he answered dully. “Well, I’m sure you’ll work things out. KEY News is lucky to have you, Annabelle.”

“I’m glad you think so, honey,” she answered, feeling very alone. “After this morning, I hope they do.”

Annabelle took a quick look around the president’s office. She had never been in here before, and she had somehow expected something more. Television monitors, each tuned to a different network, were mounted on the bookcase behind Yelena Gregory’s massive desk. Framed journalism awards decorated the dove gray walls, and an Oriental rug covered the floor. But the room wasn’t especially large, nor was the view out the windows particularly impressive. Snarled traffic on Fifty-seventh Street.

Security Chief Joe Connelly sat in one of the chairs across from Yelena’s desk; Linus Nazareth was in another. Feeling like an errant schoolgirl called down to the principal’s office, Annabelle took a place next to John Lee on the sofa.

“Let’s get right to it,” Yelena snapped. “I want to know how this happened.”

All eyes went to Linus, but he was looking at John Lee. The force of the stare directed the others to turn in the direction of the sofa.

“Yelena”—Lee squirmed—“I realize now that I shouldn’t have unilaterally decided to do what I did, but I was afraid if I told anyone I had gotten the anthrax and was planning to bring it on the broadcast, the plan might have gotten the kibosh.”

“So you took it on yourself to make this decision? Without discussing it with your producer or running it by the executive producer?” Yelena asked with skepticism.

Annabelle felt the heat rise on her cheeks as the room waited for Lee’s answer.

“Yes. I did it all on my own. And in my defense, it was a story worth telling. America needs to know.”

Yelena’s eyes narrowed. “Be that as it may, you had no right to go on air with something of this magnitude without running it by anyone up the chain of command. Now, for legal and reputation reasons, KEY News is put in the position of having to defend you and your actions, and I resent it. If we had known what you were planning to do and gave the green light on it, we could have been prepared with a response. Now we’re scrambling with damage control. Personally, I could wring your neck, John.”

Annabelle thought she actually heard a tiny whimper alongside her. She couldn’t stand this guy, but she took no pleasure in watching him get skewered.

Linus jumped in. “You’re right, Yelena. We have to decide how to go on from here. I’ve already told the FBI that we don’t have to tell them anything.”

“And my lawyer says the feds won’t prosecute because it will make them look bad,” Lee interjected with hope. “They don’t want to be seen as beating up on a journalist who was only exposing a public danger.”

“Is that how you see yourself, John? A brave journalist whose sole aim was to protect the public?” The sarcasm in Yelena’s voice was cutting as she rose from her desk and walked to the window. “Funny, but I think that your own ambitions had a little something to do with this.”

He should have kept his mouth shut, thought Annabelle. She was more determined than ever to speak only when asked.

Again, Linus interrupted. “Let’s face it, Yelena. Ambition is the name of the game. I can’t think of any reporter worth his salt who doesn’t want to be on the air, telling his story. That’s what a reporter does, that’s what he works for and fights for. KEY News is not going to look bad in this thing, Yelena. We look like heroes, telling the public what they need to know. That’s how we play this.” He pounded his hand on the arm of the chair for emphasis. “And though it’s the dirty little secret, that’s how we get ratings.”

With the light streaming in from the window behind her, Yelena’s large frame loomed. The others in the room waited for her to speak.

“Believe it or not, I’m not all that worried about ratings right now, Linus. My instinct is to can John. But, at the moment, I can’t. I think it’s best to stand beside him for the time being. But, believe me, it’s an uneasy alliance.”