“Shelly Martindale. I looked her up.”
Cooper ran a hand across his unshaven cheek. “I’ll need to watch this documentary.”
Bev reached into her bag and removed a DVD. “This includes all current episodes, including last night’s. Ryan is producing them in real time. The next one airs Friday.”
“How many hours?”
“Five, so far.”
“Do you have somewhere to stay for the night?”
“Yes, sir. The Winchester Hotel in town. I have it booked for two nights.”
“Can you be back in the morning?”
“Of course.” Bev stood and fastened her bag over her shoulder, knowing the disc and files on the table had produced the effect she suspected they would. Her boss’s vacation was over.
CHAPTER 34
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
WEDNESDAY MORNING WAS GROGGY IN NEW YORK, THE FIFTH OFJuly. The city began to fill late Monday evening and the streets were moderately crowded Wednesday morning with those who did not tack onto the long weekend. Busy but light, the traffic crept along with a smoother consistency than would be typical for the middle of the week. Tomorrow things would be back to normal.
Sidney watched from her network office as the thin crowds shuffled in unison along the sidewalks, and traffic shifted and halted at intersections. She had worked every day of the weekend, including the Fourth. She and Leslie had finished cutting and editing the sixth episode, her best yet, that contained the rehashing of the Dr. Cutty experiments that showed the impossibility of Julian Crist’s injuries being caused by the paddleboard oar, the reenactment of the crime scene, and the teaser footage that introduced a more logical explanation for the blood found in Grace’s Sugar Beach cottage. The episode ended with the suggestion that the so-called bleach cleanup of Grace’s bathroom was a tortured hypothesis made bySt. Lucian detectives that picked their suspect at the outset of their investigation and forced every finding during their search for answers to match that narrative.
Sidney and Leslie had created another explosive installment, and Sidney could hardly wait to screen it for the suits before the episode aired on Friday. She paced the conference room now. The holiday weekend could either help or hurt ratings. If enough people went out of town and forgot aboutThe Girl of Sugar Beach,her ratings would slip. More than anything, Sidney was worried about how she fared against Luke Barrington’s White House special.
The room filled slowly over fifteen minutes. Network executives, TV personalities, producers, and writers talked about where they spent the long weekend and when they got back in town. Graham Cromwell prepared the projector and tapped on his computer while everyone took their places at the table. Graham took a minute to prepare his presentation, then pointed to the only empty seat in the room.
“Sorry, we’re just waiting for Luke,” he said. “He’s coming from the Hamptons and running a few minutes late.”
“Maybe we should start without him,” Sidney said.
“I thought about it,” Graham said, “but his special aired this weekend and he wants to be here for the discussion.”
“Then he should have come into the city last night, like everyone else.”
“Settle down,” Luke said in his deep, practiced voice as he strolled through the door. Not due on air until evening, he was ridiculously dressed in a long-sleeved golf sweater and short shorts, which bared his pale, liver-spotted legs. It was his routine to attend morning meetings and go through show prep before hitting the course at noon and returning in time to record his show. As the network’s prime-time ratings king, only Luke Barrington was allowed such a schedule.
“I’m not even technically late.” He looked at his watch. “Itake that back, I’m one minute late. You’ll all forgive me?” He lifted his Starbucks cup. “They had to brew it while I waited, otherwise I’d be drinking from the bottom of the barrel. You know what that’s like,” he said to Sidney. “Coffee grounds and bitterness.”
Graham brought the screen to life, and several schematics appeared. It drew everyone’s attention immediately away from Luke, who shuffled along the side of the table and found his seat. Graham covered the news segment ratings, down as they typically were during a holiday, but on par with other networks. He then reviewed the other prime-time programs, leaving Luke Barrington’s White House special until the end.
“Okay, that leaves Luke and Sidney, whose specials are leading the way. Luke, great job. Friday’s installment brought in two-point-six million total viewers, with a typical breakdown in demographics that we usually see with your audience.”
There were no murmurs around the table. The silence was worse. Projected numbers had been 4 million total viewers.
“You gained on Saturday night, up three hundred thousand. Fell slightly on Sunday and then had a great ending on the eve of the Fourth. Monday-night numbers were just over three million. Huge success.”
Luke lifted his chin to acknowledge Graham, but his eyes gave away his disappointment.
“Finally,” Graham said. “The Girl of Sugar Beachcontinues to surge. Episode five on Friday night played to the biggest audience yet. Fueled by word of mouth, and a cover piece inEventsmagazine, Friday’s installment pulled in nineteen million total viewers. Demos are great, with all the keys met and exceeded. Eighteen to twenty-five is through the roof, which is driving ad revenues.” Graham looked at Sidney. “We are heavily promoting the teaser over the nextforty-eight hours, promising an explosive development that challenges the forensic and blood evidence key to the case ten years ago. Sidney and Leslie provided a rough cut and I screened it this morning. It’s an amazing production and a blockbuster episode. Really, you two, it’s the best you’ve done yet.”
“Thank you,” Sidney said. “Leslie’s cutting the episodes, and she’s doing an amazing job.”
“Sidney’s getting the footage, which makes my job easy,” Leslie said.
“You make a good team. We all know you’re putting in the hours and are fully committed to this project. Everyone is impressed and grateful for your effort.”
