As Laurie entered Brett’s spacious office, her eyes immediately fell on the man sinking a seven-foot putt on the boss’s newly installed indoor putting green, the two of them seemingly oblivious to her arrival.
“Nice one,” she said.
“Ah, Laurie, glad you could make it,” Brett said, taking the putter from Ryan and leaning it against the adjacent floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink. He was in his early sixties with a full head of iron-gray hair. His expression was sealed in permanent displeasure, but he was nevertheless handsome, and she knew from their years working together that he favored other attractive people. Laurie was by all accounts nice-looking, yet how many times had he suggested that she get some tips from Jennifer Marciano, whom he referred to merely as the studio’s “makeup girl”?
Laurie offered her best smile. “Of course, Brett. Dana indicated it was urgent.” She resisted the urge to give a knowing glance to the golf putter.
Brett gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa, and she obliged. He took his usual spot in one of the two modern black leather chairs across from her. Once Ryan occupied the other, she felt like a suspect being interrogated by two detectives, albeit in much more luxurious digs.
“Glad to see you’re in the office despite your six-month anniversary,” Brett said pointedly.
“That was something my son arranged.”
Brett mustered a small smile, which was always unsettling. “Sweet kid, that one. Did you find a case for your next special yet? I’m eager to hear the pitch.”
“We’re close, but not quite.”
Brett leaned forward, his fingers steepled, his gaze focused on Laurie. “We’re at a crossroads, Laurie. The true crime space is more crowded than ever, with streaming shows, podcasts, and a new generation of armchair detectives. We need to stay relevant, and we need to do it fast.”
Laurie nodded. She was thirty-nine years old and had worked as a journalist for seventeen years, twelve of them as a producer. She understood the pressure of the media industry. “I agree, Brett. But I still believe in the unique approach of Under Suspicion. We’re not just rehashing old cases or speculating about crimes. We’re actively involved in solving them. That sets us apart.”
She noticed Ryan let out a puff of air as he looked up at the ceiling.
“You don’t agree?” she asked.
“That just feels a little dramatic. Are you saying the other true crime shows don’t chase leads or do real journalism?”
Laurie felt her patience wearing thin, but she maintained her composure. “Of course many of them do, but not all. What I’m saying is our show has a different investigative approach, and we have a track record of making a difference. I don’t want to break our streak.”
“Well, I don’t want to miss our earnings projections,” Brett said pointedly. “The problem with your show is that the concept is too narrow. Why do we need someone who’s under suspicion? Plus you’re focused entirely on cold cases. And to younger viewers, cold means old. Your demo is a bunch of gray-hairs.” She chose not to remind him of his own hair color. “Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake green-lighting the idea, but given your family situation at the time, I thought it was just what you needed to get back in the saddle. But now we’re saddled with this very narrow concept.”
When Laurie had gone back to work after Greg was killed, she had been distracted. Her shows flopped, and her position at Fisher Blake was on thin ice. The success of the first Under Suspicion special had been her comeback. Now Brett was making it sound like a liability.
“So what exactly are you suggesting?”
“We need to be more current,” he said. “We could shift into cases ripped from today’s headlines instead of a decade ago. Tell her your idea, Ryan.”
And there it was. First he mentioned Laurie’s six-month anniversary. Now Ryan had a suggestion. She had run a few minutes late, and he had seen an opportunity to undermine her with Brett while the two of them played pretend golf.
“The Sorority Sister Slaughter,” he said.
“Please don’t call it that,” she said. “Seven innocent women lost their lives to some maniac who broke in at night with a gun.”
Ryan gave Brett a glance that said, See what I’m dealing with?
“A scandalous tag line means ratings, Laurie,” Brett said, his tone straddling a line between patience and frustration. “I appreciate your passion for the show, but we need to start thinking outside the box. In retrospect, we should have had cameras on you last year when your nephew went missing.”
“You can’t be serious. His life was in jeopardy.”
“All right, fine. Bad example. But Ryan’s on the right track with these sorority murders. It’s a high-profile case with a lot of media buzz. It could be a game-changer for us.”
“It only happened two weeks ago. The police are actively investigating. By the time we finished our special, there could be no new information or the case could be solved.”
“Or we could change the model entirely,” Ryan said. “Have a new episode every day that viewers could stream on demand.”
“So now we’re saying hot cases instead of cold ones. No identified suspects. No deep-dive investigation. We’d be replacing everything that is special about Under Suspicion and creating a completely new show.”
Laurie couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Last year, it had seemed like she and Ryan had fallen into a good working relationship, and her show’s success had finally convinced Brett to trust her instincts. But lately, it seemed as though her ideas and contributions were being pushed aside. She glanced at Ryan, who was watching her with a smug expression.
Brett was looking at the ceiling, deep in thought. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea. Maybe get Ryan more involved behind the scenes instead of only on camera. It would certainly lighten your load so you can focus more on your home life.”
And then she saw what was happening. She flashed back to the day Ryan told her in this very office that, unlike Alex, he would be working full-time at the studio, leaving behind his law practice to focus on Fisher Blake Studios. In addition to hosting her show, he’d be pitching in on the other news programs, giving legal opinions on the pop culture shows when celebrities got into trouble, and serving as a legal consultant to the scripted shows. “If it works out,” he had said, “I may produce a show of my own,” as if creating a news-based show was a cute little skill he could pick up along the way. If I take to playing in the sand, I may even build my own castle, Laurie had thought at the time.
Now that day had come. But instead of doing the work of creating his own show, his plan was to take over hers. And he had clearly been using his buddy time with Brett to create a false narrative that her “home life” was somehow interfering with her work.
“If I can speak candidly, Brett, I’m surprised by the tone of this conversation. If Ryan is so interested in being involved behind the scenes, he might know that the reason I haven’t chosen one of the cases we’ve been bouncing around is because we’re very close to getting the family on board to reinvestigate the murders of Richard and Sarah Harrington.”
“Never heard of them,” Ryan said flatly.
It was exactly the response she had expected… and wanted. “Twins long suspected of killing their parents,” she said.
Brett’s eyes lit up as he recognized the case. “The Deadly Duo? Now that would be huge. They’ll go on camera?”
Laurie was constitutionally incapable of lying, but under the circumstances, she was willing to let Brett believe what he was eager to believe. “I need to nail it down, but their younger sister has been in touch. She was opposed to the idea when I first suggested the case for our second special, but”—she gave Ryan a knowing look—“sometimes the hard work takes time to pay off.” Every word of it was true. “If we work quickly enough, we could go to air by the tenth anniversary of the killings.”
“I love it!”
The quick turnaround in her boss’s attitude felt like Laurie’s version of sinking a thirty-foot putt. Now that Ryan realized what case she was pitching, she could see him scrambling for a way to sway Brett back to his side.
“Everyone knows those boys did it together. Two identical twins at their well-attended graduation party. When the parents went home early, one drove back to the house and shot them. The other one stayed behind and pretended to be both brothers depending on who he was talking to. That’s why they wore identical outfits.”
“We don’t know that,” Laurie said. “It could have been because the dress code was summer-white, and it would be fun for twins to match. Those are the things we’d ask them.”
“What I would ask them,” Ryan said.
“Of course,” she said. “As always.” You have your job, and I have mine.
Brett was already out of his chair, ready to move on to the next unfortunate person who caught his ire. “Sounds like a plan, Laurie. Go lock it down. And quick. And tell Alex I said hi and happy mini-anniversary. You’ve got a good man there.”
“And he’s got a pretty good woman,” she added.
“Touché.”
Ryan said nothing to her in the hallway as they turned to go their separate ways.
Grace glanced up from her workstation as Laurie approached her office. “How’d that go?” she asked. “You look upset.”
“Old Ryan is back with a vengeance. I’ll fill you guys in, but I need to make a call first.”
Frankie Harrington’s phone went directly to voicemail. “Frankie, it’s Laurie Moran from Under Suspicion. I’m so glad you kept my number. Let’s talk soon.”
Laurie was updating Grace and Jerry, invoking her best impersonation of ratings-hungry Brett, when a new call came in on her office phone. She recognized Frankie Harrington’s number from the message Grace had taken.
“This is Laurie,” she said.
“Ms. Moran, this is Frankie Harrington calling you back. You might remember we spoke a couple of years ago—”
“Of course I remember. I’ve wondered many times since then how you’ve been, and please call me Laurie.”
“I’ve been well. I mean, mostly. As good as can be, I guess. But I’ve been thinking about your show. Do you have time to meet with me? In person? Soon, if possible?”
She and Alex had tickets that night for a Broadway show, and Tim’s school had a science fair the following afternoon, and then she was supposed to meet her friend Charlotte for dinner. But she knew Brett and Ryan would view any sign of delay as a problem with her priorities. “Of course. I can take the next train up to Boston.”
“No, I’m in New York City. I’m at work now, but I get a lunch break at noon.”
“Tell me where to meet you.”