Thirty-nine
Nadine liked to start the morning by glancing through the thirty-plus browser tabs on her favorites bar to make sure all was right but was usually wrong with the world. Celebrity news she scanned religiously but with some shame at her emotional investment in the latest red carpet outfits. Today she spent an ungodly amount of time trying to decide if there were monthly meetings where Hollywood stylists all voted on the color de jour, because every second star was in pine green. Next were her favorite obituary sites. What would Dot have made of the woman who got her first tattoo at the age of ninety, telling her grandkids that she’d always wanted one? Probably cheered her on.
She also made sure to check the Herald ’s competitor websites, such as the Spear , which was why she was the first one to see the story. As Wes slept beside her, face buried in his pillow and Erma curled in the small of his back flicking the occasional ear in Nadine’s direction, she stared at the web page, unable to believe her eyes.
Political scandal unearthed by literary connection , read the headline. By Tyler Dawlish. In tiny font was research contributor Wes Chen .
“Wes. Wes!” She shook his shoulder.
“What?” He sat up bleary-eyed as Erma leapt off with a disgruntled hiss. “Are you okay?”
“No! What the hell is going on?” She passed from shock to fury. “After we talked about this? I said I’d think about it, but you already had plans to run the story? We don’t have the details of what happened.”
Wes held his hand up. “Am I dreaming?” he asked in a groggy voice. “What happened to the dog riding the shark? Did she win the surf contest?”
“Shark ride this.” She shoved her laptop in his face and got up, feeling at a disadvantage to be lying in bed. “How could this happen?”
The color in Wes’s face collected into two red spots high in his cheeks. He scrolled to the bottom before lifting his gaze. Immediately she knew he had no more clue than she did.
“This wasn’t me,” he said. “I don’t know why my name is on it.”
“I know it’s not. Of course it isn’t. It’s missing information we have. Sorry for losing it. I was surprised.” She rested her hand on him for a moment in apology before taking her laptop back. “The question is how Tyler what’s-his-face got this and why his name is on it. You said you only gave him a vague outline. You’re sure you didn’t mention Wilson?”
“No.” He frowned. “I only told him it involved Dot and a senator…” He trailed off. “My files.”
“The ones you left at work?” Despite the heat in the house, Nadine felt cold. She wrapped her arms around her chest. This was a bad situation.
“I left them on my desk with a printout of my draft.” He looked sick. “Tyler must have gone through them. Oh my… Wait here.”
He ran out of the room, and Nadine took the opportunity to find some clothes. She was fully dressed by the time Wes came back with his own laptop open and typing with one hand.
“Thank God I didn’t mention Matt White by name in that draft,” he said. “I might be looking at a pair of concrete shoes. It just says ‘criminal elements.’ How quaintly 1950s of Tyler.”
Nadine closed her eyes. “Surely Tyler wouldn’t be so reckless even if Matt’s name was in it.”
“You’d be surprised,” Wes said darkly.
“It says John Wilson didn’t answer an email with questions,” said Nadine.
“Tyler’s method is to give someone about ten minutes to reply. Chances are Wilson didn’t see it before the deadline.” He sat beside her. “I can’t believe that asshole.”
“I can because I’m looking at the story.” Nadine rubbed her temples.
“At least you’re not mentioned,” said Wes. “The Herald won’t connect you to this.”
“What about you?” Dread replaced the anger. “Your name is on it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how Tyler did this, but it can’t come back on me. I never submitted it, and it wasn’t approved. The story wasn’t done .” They sat for a few minutes, looking at the screen as Wes scrolled through again. “How did this get through editing?” he asked. “It was published an hour ago.”
“I bet he didn’t put it through,” said Nadine. She put her arms around Wes and tried to warm his chilled skin. “Why would he do this?”
“That’s like asking a snake why it bites. He’s an unethical guy who saw a chance for a byline with minimal work. Anyway, his motivation hardly matters. It’s out there.” Wes put the laptop aside and lay back with his arm over his eyes.
“This probably won’t go anywhere,” she predicted optimistically. “The media cycle is short.”
“Right,” said Wes.
“Shit.” Nadine was looking at her phone. “It’s Lisanne.”
Yikes what a mess , she’d written. Daniel is in a rage thanks to that story making it look like the Herald was helping to cover for Wilson. No connections made to other writers though.
Thank God. She was grateful for Lisanne’s deliberately vague wording even in a private text.
Who are they assigning? wrote back Nadine. There would obviously be a story in the Herald .
There was a minute’s pause before Lisanne replied. Me.
Nadine stared at the screen as Wes let out a low whistle.
Another message came. Unfortunately, I had a lengthy and in-depth interview with a source that took me two weeks to set up, so they had to reassign it when I made a fuss. A winky face ended the message.
Thanks , Nadine wrote.
No problem, but anyone involved in this is going to have a real bad day.
Wes, reading over her shoulder, sighed. “She’s probably right.”
Nadine put the phone down. “What are we going to do?”
***
What were they going to do? First, be grateful he wasn’t alone. Nadine believed him. She’d said we , not you , and that word went far to reassure him.
When she’d woken him up, the cold rage on Nadine’s face had convinced him there was no coming back from this, although it wasn’t his fault. Or wasn’t totally his fault. After all, he’d been the dud who talked to Tyler and left his notes at work. With a single word, she had confirmed they were a team. They hadn’t started the job that way, but they would finish as one.
“I need to tell Jason I had nothing to do with this.”
“Time for some serious CYA,” she agreed.
“Cover your ass,” indeed. This was not the story Wes was ready to tell, and its issues made him nauseous. He always knew Tyler was a shitty person, but this was next—and fireable—level. He needed to be careful Tyler didn’t bring him down with him.
Why had Wes put the story on the Spear ’s platform? It gave Tyler proof that he was working on it before it was posted.
“Are you going to tell him Tyler is a plagiarizing thief?” asked Nadine.
“Seems redundant as plagiarists are de facto thieves.”
“Thanks, Dr. Pedantic. Are you?” she pressed.
Wes looked out the window to the hot-pink Bentley. WWDD? What would Dot do? No doubt make a god-awful fuss, but that wasn’t Wes’s style. “I’m going to lay out the facts for Jason,” he said. “There’s no way a reasonable or rational person can look at what happened and think I’m in the wrong.”
Nadine gave him a hug and left him to work while she made coffee. It was vital to get to Jason as soon as possible, so Wes called and left a message when he didn’t pick up. Then he texted for good measure and sent an email asking to talk and an instant message on the Spear platform. He tried calling Rebecca as well before remembering she was out of cell range. Damn. He left a message and then emailed her to call him urgently. He didn’t give a summary, not wanting to have anything in writing. She’d be upset he went to Jason to pitch the story but on his side when she heard what he had to say.
Wes debated calling Tyler. In the end, unable to construct a sentence that wasn’t filled with profanity, he decided to wait until he cooled down.
He got dressed with one eye on the phone, feeling his tension twist higher. It was still early, but despite leaving the messages, he’d feel better if he went into the office to see if Jason was there or to catch him as he arrived.
As he went to tell Nadine his plan, she came over with coffee. His phone rang with an unknown number, usual for the Spear . “This has to be Jason,” he said.
Nadine looked at the screen, frowning. “Wait, Wes, I’m not sure…”
Too late, he’d swiped the screen. “Wes Chen.”
“Wes, long time.”
“Hi?” It was not Rebecca or Jason or that sack of shit Tyler.
“It’s Keith Lovel with the Telegraph .” Keith’s voice was warm and friendly.
In his perplexity, Wes answered normally. “Keith. What’s up?” He glanced up to see Nadine making dramatic slicing gestures over her throat, and chills hit him when it finally clicked. This wasn’t a social call.
“I saw the story in the Spear . Tyler’s not answering, so I figured I’d give you a ring. It’s quite the accusation against John Wilson, and I noticed a few gaps I’d like to ask about.”
This was what it was like on the other side of those calls. He tried to think of a good answer. Nadine held up her phone to show her Notes app, where she’d written “LOVE TO TALK BUT GOING IN A MEETING. BYE.”
What meeting was she talking about? He could barely think.
“Wes, you there? Did the Spear contact Wilson with these allegations?”
His lack of understanding must have been clear, because Nadine made an exaggerated pointing motion to him and mouthed, You.
Oh . “Keith, I’d love to chat, but you caught me about to go into a meeting. Talk to you soon, okay?” Then he hung up, feeling rude but also incredibly relieved.
Nadine leaned against a box. “Nice save,” she congratulated him.
“Thanks to you.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead. Was his own approach so nerve-racking? He’d have to monitor that.
She reached over to hold him tight. “I don’t want to be a bummer, but I don’t think that’s going to be the last of it.”
He rubbed his temples. “Should I call Amy?” It seemed like overkill, but maybe it was better to be safe.
“Doesn’t hurt for her to be on guard,” agreed Nadine. “I’ll give Brent a heads-up.”
His sister picked up on the second ring. “What’s wrong?”
“How do you know there’s anything wrong?”
“You never call this early.”
“It’s not a big deal, but there’s a story at work I’m attached to that’s getting traction.” He tried to play down the impact. “Don’t answer the phone to anyone you don’t know or an unknown number, and can you tell Ma? I’ll text Ella.”
“What I’m hearing is that I shouldn’t tell people you’re dead to me after the Havana incident.”
That made him laugh for the first time since he woke up. “It’s probably best to say you can’t speak and hang up, if you answer at all.”
“Wes, are you in trouble?” She sounded worried.
“No, no,” he reassured her. “It’s only a misunderstanding.”
“I trust you. Tell me if you need me.”
Once off with Amy, he sent a quick message to Ella and turned to Nadine. “I can’t believe I had to do that.”
“It’s weird being part of the story instead of reporting it,” she said.
“There’s nothing I can do about it, is there?”
“You can only control what’s in your control.”
“Right.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the nose to see her wrinkle it. “Which is what exactly?”
She paused. “Making sure the truth gets out?”
He held up his keys. “On my way to the office to make that happen.”
“Do you want company?” Nadine asked.
He considered this before shaking his head. “We can’t risk you being associated with the story. It’s better if you stay here.”
She didn’t answer at first, too busy looking at her phone. “I can’t believe this.” Nadine pushed her phone under his nose and leaned over his shoulder. This was an extremely sucky experience, but Wes had to admit having Nadine there made it slightly less so. He’d take the small win because the rest of the morning was a huge loss.
On Nadine’s phone was another message from Lisanne, with a link to a story published on the Herald home page. It included quotes from John Wilson, who said he’d called his legal team to defend his honor against libel. Wes read it again because he hadn’t been able to make sense of the words the first time.
“I’m shocked the Spear stooped to gossipmongering and lies in a blatant attempt to increase their readership and negatively impact my important and selfless work on behalf of my fellow Canadians,” said Senator Wilson. “This story is absolutely false and a disgusting fabrication. I resent the implications about my character.”
Nadine whistled when they finished. For the first time, they hadn’t competed about who could read fastest. “Legal team,” she said. “He’s coming out swinging.”
Wes didn’t need to see more. “I’ll see you later.” He gave her a quick kiss and lingered when she hugged him fiercely, icy hands on his arms.
“Go get ’em.”
He hadn’t made it halfway down the driveway before his phone beeped again, this time with the message he’d been waiting for. It was from Jason and simply said Call me in the subject line. It wasn’t sent in reply to any of Wes’s Hey, can we talk? messages, which gave him the nasty feeling Jason was not going to have his back on this.
He didn’t want to take this call in the car. Going back into the house, he met a surprised Nadine coming out of the kitchen. “Wes?”
“Jason wants to talk to me.” He faltered. “I don’t think it looks good.”
Nadine wrapped her arms around him again, and Wes took comfort in the solid pressure of the hold. “I can give you a continuous thumbs-up for moral support from the corner.”
Her suggestion, bad as it was, was enough to give him courage. “You can do that when I’m off the call.”
She sobered a bit. “Good luck, Wes. You did nothing wrong. Remember that.”
He let himself enjoy the feel of her for another minute before untangling himself. “Here I go.”
Nadine’s eyes were serious, but she smiled at him. “You got this.”