Deadly Blessings Read Online Free

from the Tiffany-style, Wal-Mart priced lamp that I’d
bought to cozy up my office a little.
    But it wasn’t only the dark and quiet office
that had surprised me, it was the shimmer of the city lights that
met me when I turned around. Just past Thanksgiving, the city had
been strung with the glow of Christmas. Tiny white glints lit up
the night. Across the river, the massive evergreen in front of the
Tribune towers was so coated with light, the beauty of it caught in
my throat.
    Despite the fact that I was bone-tired and
had a headache from twelve hours work, I saw possibility. Drawing
on energy reserves that unfailingly appear when an appealing idea
dawns, I managed to move the heavy desk, so that it now sat
perpendicular to the window, allowing me to view my slice of the
city all the time.
    The following morning, everyone who stopped
in gave me a curious look, but no one said a word. Not only was I
the only female in a managerial role, but I was also the eccentric
one as well.
    That was then. Right now, I
needed to call Dan. Another fun thing on the agenda for the day. We
still had issues to work out. If we were going to work them out. Dropping into my
chair, I pulled the phone over and dialed.
    His “hi” was tentative. “How was your trip
to Springfield?”
    After I told him, he said, “Tough
break.”
    At that moment, I could hear his mind get up
and leave the conversation, looking for something more interesting
to engage itself in.
    “ Yeah,” I said. I let the
silence hang. “And I lost the priest story.”
    That got his attention.
    Dan worked for the
competition, Up Close
Issues , the number one, locally filmed
television newsmagazine. They were so far ahead of us in ratings
that they’d recently moved from the weekly format we followed, to
twice weekly. And they were trouncing us further.
    Dan and I had met at a
fancy-shmancy television awards dinner over a year ago, right after
I started at Midwest . Dan was the anchor, which meant he got much better pay than
I did. Although most of the time we weren’t working on the same
feature, or the same angle, we still enjoyed discussing our
“cases.” This time, as luck would have it, we’d both drawn the
“fleeing priest” gig. Dan had been assigned first. When he’d heard
that I’d gotten the nod, too, he’d brought home champagne to
celebrate. Not only was this a big one, but he was expecting to
benefit from whatever information I uncovered. After all, I’d be
able to interview Milla without the impediment of an interpreter.
Not to mention that my being a woman and Catholic would likely
encourage her to open up more.
    Sure, I would have shared some information.
Not everything, of course. I had a responsibility to my station
after all. But over time, Dan and I had developed a symbiotic
relationship with regard to breaking news, and there was room for
cooperation.
    “ What? They can’t do
that.”
    “ They did.”
    “ Shit.” I could tell by the
way he spat the word that he wasn’t upset solely on my
behalf.
    “ Let’s talk about it
later,” I said, changing the subject. “I was hoping to cut out
early, but Bass has me following something else. I thought I might
get back around seven.”
    “ You mean my apartment?” he
said, sounding slow and stupid.
    So, it was “my apartment” now, even though
I’d been staying there for most of the past six months. “Yeah …” I
let the sentence hang.
    “ I thought you were staying
at your folks’ old house for another week or so. Till everything
was settled with their move.”
    “ Everything is settled with their move. Remember?”
    “ Oh, yeah,” he said, but
something was wrong. “Listen, why don’t you take it easy and not
worry about making it back to my place tonight. You’ve had a rough
day.”
    I knew we weren’t the stuff of which long
relationships are made, but his easy dismissal bugged me. Stung, I
forced myself to say, “Okay, sure. Not a problem.”
    “ Maybe you and I can