newsroom. Three of the reporters who had attended the doomed press conference were dead already; she and two others remained. Maybe Uncle Lucas was right. The image of that long black barrel flickered before her eyes. Maybe she should go into hiding until it was over.
“No way,” she muttered. Piper lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. “No damn way.”
“STOP RIGHT THERE,” Piper instructed as she studied the images on the monitor. “Now go to the skyline and fade.”
“You got it.” Ned’s nimble fingers flew over the keys and the scene ended just as Piper had envisioned it, complete with her voice-over. The story was timed and ready for broadcast.
“Perfect.” She pushed out of her seat, satisfaction sighing through her. “Dave wants to run that package at noon today. Kind of as a teaser for tonight’s prime-time spot.”
“I’ll get it to him ASAP.” Ned smiled up at her. “Great job, Piper. The audience is going to eat it up.”
“Thanks.” She gave Ned an appreciative pat on the shoulder. “I’ll tell Jones you approve. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“Jones is definitely top-notch,” Ned agreed. “And so are you.”
Pride welled in Piper as she strode across the WYBN-TV newsroom. Jones was the best cameraman, videographer, he would remind her, in the business. They had worked as a team since her first day as a naive but hungry reporter almost four years ago. Dave, the news director, had made a good choice when he’d teamed the two of them, and Piper would be forever grateful. No matter how hard a good reporter worked, if she and her cameraman weren’t in synch or if they simply didn’t mesh, the results could be disastrous for a fledgling media career.
If this piece on the problems with the ever-growing local gangs garnered the attention she felt certain it would, Piper would owe Jones dinner at Ray’s. She smiled. A table at Ray’s with a view of the Chattahoochee River would be a far cry from the drive-through cuisine they usually grabbed on the run to a breaking news scene. There was never time to waste in this business. Dave’s motto was News Happens Now, and he was a firm believer in not allowing the moment to pass.
Ringing telephones and the buzz of conversation underscored the steady hum of newsroom activity. Several twenty-four-hour news shows were currently showing on the overhead monitors. The new desk assistant raced around with his notepad delivering phone messages and instructions from the news director. Reporters shuffled papers around on their desks to find a clean space on which to write the passed-on information. Piper felt herself smiling again. This was the heart of the station. No matter what the prime-time anchor would say, or anyone in any other department, the lifeblood of WYBN flowed right here in this room with the beat reporters.
And Piper Ryan was incredibly grateful to be a part of it. According to her agent, her recent notoriety beyond the local viewing area was the first step in moving up the ladder. Dave wouldn’t be able to keep her much longer. And she would surely miss this place. Her agent was already feeling out larger markets. But she would not go anywhere that Jones couldn’t go with her. They were a package deal. She might be Atlanta’s “sweetheart,” but Jones was the one who captured it all on film for the world to see. Dave Sullenger would just have to be prepared to lose them both.
No two ways about it.
“Piper!”
Speak of the devil, Piper glanced toward the news director’s office. He waved from the open door, motioning for her to join him. They’d already had their Monday-morning staff meeting; surely nothing had changed in the last hour. She hadn’t mentioned why she’d been late, and was more than a little surprised he hadn’t questioned her. She supposed that the Feds had decided to follow their own chain of command. And she could see no point in sending Dave’s blood pressure into the red this early in the morning. He’d hear about it soon enough, she felt certain. As soon as the Feds had relayed the event to Lucas, he would call Dave and rant at him again for allowing Piper to continue working the territory.
She pushed the thought away. She had to find Jones and head out. She had an interview set up with several families residing in Hope Place, the area currently suffering from serious gang problems. Next week it would be another block near that same area. It was an ever-evolving situation. But this time someone was trying to make a difference, trying to break that never-ending cycle.
Thus, a serious, in-depth look into the increasing gang problems in Atlanta’s less fortunate areas had been born. Piper planned for the story to include about five segments. And hopefully, call enough official attention to the issue to get something done. In an effort to help themselves, the families in the area now hit with the most strife had formed a neighborhood watch, which was good, but they needed far more help from local law enforcement. If telling the ugly truth on the news would get the residents that attention, Piper would take it as far as she could.
“What’s up?” Piper paused at her boss’s door and waited expectantly for whatever it was he wanted to say.
“There’s a situation we need to discuss that I didn’t want to bring up in this morning’s staff meeting.”
Dave looked too serious. He had that you’re-not-going-to-like-what-I’m-about-to-tell-you air about him. Tension raced up Piper’s spine. “What kind of situation?”
“Jones had to take an emergency leave. He’ll be out of town for a couple of weeks.”
Piper blinked, taken aback. “But I just talked to Jones last night. He didn’t mention anything to me then.”
“He didn’t know until this morning. It’s a personal family issue that he didn’t want to discuss at length. So he left for Detroit on the first available flight this morning.”
It must have been really urgent for Jones to leave without so much as a quick call to Piper. She couldn’t remember him ever doing that before. They were more than co-workers. They were friends. “I should call and see if there’s anything I can do,” she said more to herself than to Dave.
“I’m—I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” Dave hemmed and hawed. “Jones gave me the impression that it was a very private matter and that he would call us when he could.”
Piper flared her hands in a gesture of bewilderment. The whole thing sounded entirely too clandestine and made absolutely no sense at all. “Well, okay, if that’s the way it has to be.”
“In the meantime I’ve got a new cameraman for you,” Dave went on. At Piper’s distressed expression, he added, “Don’t worry. He’s only temporary until Jones gets back.”
“I didn’t know we had any new temps.” Piper tried to stay on top of personnel changes at the station. It made life easier when you needed something in a hurry. And she was relatively certain that no new faces had appeared recently. Well, other than the desk assistant, but he’d been there a couple of weeks already. Tech support personnel were usually replaced by temps who had understudied to the point that their ability to do the job could be counted on. It was the first rule of the station’s manager.
“I interviewed the guy just a few minutes ago,” Dave explained. “Here he is now.” The news director shifted his gaze beyond Piper. “Martinez, I’d like to introduce you to Piper Ryan.”
Great, just what she needed, some hotshot off the street. Piper turned to greet WYBN’s newest staff member. She felt her mouth drop open the moment her gaze lit on the guy in question,
