Chapter Thirty-Two
Laura
At first everyone thought Tom was just out sick again, but that he had not bothered to call in this time.
The producers were complaining. Then Perry brought Laura into a meeting with HR, the GM, and three other top newsroom managers.
Perry’s eyes were so red you could hardly see a trace of white.
His voice was only a small octave above a whisper.
At first they all just stared at him as if in a trance. What he was saying did not compute.
Perry asked them not to talk about it in the newsroom, but places like that were notorious for whispers and rumors and soon the whole newsroom was aware.
Veronica had to solo-anchor the shows and they called in Chuck to fill in for Matthew.
They hadn’t told the public yet but it was coming soon.
HR was arranging counselors for staff, and PR was figuring out what to say and when.
“Team, Matthew has been arrested. His water bottle with his DNA on it was in Tom’s car.
It looks as if they were having champagne together for some reason and Matthew put poison into Tom’s drink.
But there’s more. A rock-solid police source tells me they scoured Matthew and his girlfriend’s computers and found Google searches about poison plus an email address where Matthew’s girlfriend sent pictures of herself pretending to be Faith.
She sent them to a stalker, a guy named Steve that Faith had reported to HR some time ago.
It looks like Matthew and Tara were setting up Faith.
Finally, the source tells me someone sent footage from a pen camera to the police anonymously and it recorded Matthew basically admitting to killing Faith.
In fact, my source even sent me the verbatim so that I would believe it was true. ”
Perry looked down at his phone and started to read:
“‘I’m filled with … I don’t know, regret?
Guilt? Worry? Every time I look at her desk I think about what we did.
We were stupid. We could jeopardize everything we’ve worked for.
Yeah, hopefully a new contract and much more money will make this all worth it.
Maybe someday you and I can move on and forget—as long as we don’t get caught, of course.
People will eventually turn their attention to other things, right?
OK, I’m trying to act normal. I love you.
I’ll try to keep my eye on the wedding and a new condo we can finally afford.
I’ll try to stop thinking about what happened and about Faith’s death.
We lied to the police once and they seemed to buy it.
They haven’t been back around so I think we’re in the clear. ’”
Perry looked up at them. No one said a word.
“I’m so sorry to be the one delivering this shocking news. We are all in complete disbelief but we do need to let the judicial process play out and we need to honor Tom. I will be putting out a push alert later tonight. We’ll do a second vigil this weekend.”