Laura needed to direct her rage toward someone living and breathing, and right now that was Elliott. He might be her husband, but she would do anything to protect herself and Quinn, and if she needed to give Elliott an ultimatum about being a better parent or losing her, she would.
Meanwhile, Perry had asked her to come to his office when she returned, so she beelined there. The newsroom was busy at this hour and she hoped no one would ask where she had been when she came out of her chat with Perry.
Perry was on the phone but motioned for her to come in and shut the door.
“I gotta go. Talk to you later,” he said to whoever was on the other end of the line. Hanging up, he gave her a look she couldn’t place; it was like the glare of a disappointed father mixed with pity.
“How did it go with the police?” he asked.
“Just fine. Elliott and I answered every question. Of course we had nothing to do with this. We’re as shocked and devastated as the rest of Detroit. Faith and I were close, as you know.”
He nodded. Laura remembered that someone else at the station was on the list. She scrolled through a flip-book of coworkers’ faces in her mind, wondering who in the world it could be and whether they also had to be in Perry’s office answering questions.
“I’m glad to hear that, Laura,” he said. “Listen, as I told you, there’s something new. Again, I tell you these things in complete confidence. Can I trust you to not tell anyone else, not even your husband?”
Laura nodded vigorously. Perry didn’t need to know that right now she didn’t trust Elliott with anything, so that wouldn’t be a problem at all.
“OK, we may have a problem on our hands.”
A “problem” in TV news could be anything: a technical difficulty, an error they made on the air that needed correcting, someone suing them, an issue between coworkers in the newsroom. Or was this problem somehow related to Faith? If so, Laura had no idea what Perry might say next.
“What is it?” she asked, trying not to sound too panicky. It had all been so much lately. She almost couldn’t compute another issue to deal with.
“Well.” He paused and took a drink from a water bottle that had the station logo on it. “You know how we sent out another push alert this morning that Faith was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“And people have already started donating?”
“Yes.”
Laura was confused about where this was going. What could the problem be? This was everything Perry would ever want.
“So…” He looked down at his lap.
“What is it?”
“I got a call from the assistant medical examiner today after she saw the push alert. She said the pregnancy part might not be accurate.”
Laura’s eyes widened and she leaned forward in her chair.
“What do you mean? They told you she was pregnant.”
“I know, it was on the ME’s report. I told her that and she said she needed to speak with the ME. She said she would like to examine the body herself but Faith’s sister already had it removed and taken to a funeral home for cremation, so she would talk to the ME and get back to me.”
“But they can’t make a mistake like that. Wouldn’t they know for sure if she was pregnant?”
“That’s what I thought,” said Perry. “Listen, no one knows this right now and I mean no one. It’s just a massive headache for us if she wasn’t pregnant. How do we put that genie back in the bottle? People are now mourning for two. I had the title of the special changed already and we’re reshooting interviews. The whole world thinks she was. If she wasn’t… it’s just awkward to retract that.”
“But it’s not our fault if she wasn’t. We can just blame the medical examiner’s office,” Laura said, her mind doing flips likean Olympic gymnast. It was quite a one-eighty to go from pregnant to not pregnant to maybe pregnant. She tried to put on her executive-producer hat, though, and think about how to help the station.
Perry sighed. “Yes, but it still makes us look bad, like we pushed it too soon or don’t know our people, or were just doing it for profit.”
Laura bit her lip. She didn’t want to say that she thought Perry had been pushing the special just for profit, so she stayed quiet.
“Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I just wanted you to know,” said Perry. He ran his hand through his hair. “What a mess this whole thing is. I’ve never dealt with something like this in my decades in this business. I’ve only had one other talent die while actively on the air and that was from cancer in my first market. This… this is unprecedented. Murder, Jesus Christ. I’m doing my best.” He sighed and rubbed his eyes.
“You’re doing a good job,” Laura said, trying to make her boss feel better. “The vigil was everything Faith would have wanted.”
