It looked exactly like Matthew’s own water bottle, the one that had been stolen from the weather office.
“What the heck?” he said aloud as the EMS workers pushed him out of the way and started dragging Tom from the car, laying him on the ground and attempting CPR. As Matthew had predicted, there was not an ounce of life left in the man. Matthew watched it all in horror. His brain was not ready to compute what he was seeing. It was like watching a movie, and he could only stare.
The police officer stepped forward.
“Sir, I need your name and ID, please.”
“Of course, Officer. I’m Matthew Hayes.” He dug into his back pocket for his wallet. The officer took his driver’s license and looked at it.
“I need you to get into the back of the squad car.”
“OK, but why? I just got here right before you. I came upon the scene. What happened? Did he have a heart attack? Did he call you guys for help?”
“Get into the squad car,” said the officer with such force that Matthew just complied. The officer stayed outside the car and moved a little away, talking into the radio strapped to his vest. The EMS workers were putting Tom on a stretcher. Matthew looked at them through the window and wondered if anyone had realized yet that this was Tom Archer, main anchor for Channel 9. The reality began to hit Matthew. Who would tell Perry? Tom’s wife? Veronica? How could the station lose two of their main talent in a week? This was unfathomable. He began to feel nauseous.
The officer came back to the car just as Matthew heard more sirens coming their way.
“I’m taking you down to the station, you have a lot to talk to investigators about,” said the officer.
“What do you mean? I told you I just got here. I got a text from Tom asking me to meet him and when I got here I came upon this scene.”
“Tell it to the detectives,” said the officer. “It sounds like they were planning to contact you today for other things and then this.”
“Other things?” Matthew’s mind began to race. He thought of Steve the stalker and the emails Tara had sent, and his nausea reached new depths. Was this his worst-case scenario coming true? But that was only one thing. What did the officer mean by other things?
“I’m not saying anything else,” said the officer sternly. He turned on his own siren. As soon as the other squad cars arrived, they took off through the park headed for the police station. Matthew had no way of contacting Tara or anyone else. His phone was still in the console between the driver’s seat and passenger seat in his own car.
He sat paralyzed with fear as the squad car sped toward District 3.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Laura
June 6 and 7
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.
He had gotten a call from the police, he told the group. Tom was found dead in his car in a remote spot at Ford Park, poisoned. Next to him were two water bottles with the remnants of champagne in them. One had been laced with cyanide. And Matthew was there when police rolled up, telling them a story about Tom texting him and Matthew just coming upon the scene. Matthew was now being questioned at District 3.
One of the news managers started to sob. Another cried out, “Fuck noooo.” Laura was having an out-of-body experience andtruly felt as if she were floating above the scene. How could another main anchor for Channel 9 be dead? What would they tell the public? How would they pull off another vigil and remembrance? What was happening that anchors were being killed? Were theyallin danger?
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.
That night after the 6:30PMnews Perry ushered them back into his office.
“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? Everytime 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.”
PART THREECHARITY
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
