“I was a Homicide detective for twenty years. You won’t be able to shock me.”
As the rehab facility shut down for the night, Sidney sat next to a stranger and for the first time in her life told the story of her father’s conviction.
CHAPTER 50
Thursday, July 20, 2017
EARLY THURSDAY MORNING, WITH HER VOICE MAIL FILLED WITH MES SAGESand unanswered texts blinking on her phone, Sidney emerged from the elevator to find her office floor empty, too early yet for staff to be present. She walked in and sat behind her desk, immediately assaulted by a barrage of yellow sticky notes pasted to her computer, her desk, her phone, and any flat surface available.
Where are you?
Are you alive?
Corporate needs edits today!
Left you several messages, I’m pissed!
They were all written in Leslie’s familiar handwriting.
“Shit,” Sidney said to herself. She spun her chair toward the window to look out over the city, grabbed her phone from her purse, and dialed Leslie’s number. She pressed the phone to her ear and heard a chiming ringtone behind her. When she swiveled back around, Leslie stood in the office doorway, holding the ringing phone up for Sidney to see.
“Oh,” Leslie said in an exaggerated tone, looking atSidney’s name on the phone. “It’s my friend and coproducer calling. Since we’re under a shit storm of a deadline and I know she’s calling about said shit storm, I think I’ll let it go to voice mail.”
Sidney ended the call with a quick finger tap. The chiming stopped.
“I’m sorry, Les.”
“And then,” Leslie said, “when I see that she left a message, plus a thousand texts, I think I’ll ignore them all.”
“Got it. I’m a bitch.”
“And you’re selfish. The suits threw a fit yesterday when we missed the deadline. And since none of them could get ahold of you, they took it out on me.”
“Yep. They left me a few messages, too. None were very pleasant, if that helps at all.”
“It doesn’t.” Leslie walked into the office and stood in front of the desk. “What the hell, Sid?”
Sidney shook her head. “Look, I’m sorry I was gone yesterday, but we’ve got a major problem. Or, I don’t know, possibly a major problem.”
“Yeah. Production needed cuts for episode eight yesterday, and we didn’t deliver them. We have nothing decent to give them, and even if we did, there’s not enough time to pull an episode together by tomorrow night. So, yeah, I’d say we have a major problem.”
“Well,” Sidney considered this, “then we’ve got more than one problem, but mine’s bigger than yours.”
Leslie crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s going on?”
Sidney stared at her producing partner for a moment as yesterday’s events spun through her mind.
“I think Grace killed Julian Crist.”
CHAPTER 51
Thursday, July 20, 2017
“GOOD,” GRAHAM SAID AS HE ENTERED SIDNEY’S OFFICE. “YOU’REhere.”
“Graham, before you start—”
“Nope,” Graham said in a calm voice. “Not before I start, not after I start. I’ll talk, you’ll listen. You too,” he said to Leslie. “You are an employee of this network. I’m your boss. When I call you regarding a deadline, youcall me back.Not the next day, not a week later. We have millions of dollars tied up in a project that you’re producing. None of your staff knew where you were yesterday. No one had answers to why the deadline was being missed. This is not some shit show for Netflix. This is a prime-time production for a major television network. You follow our rules, or we cut you loose. We don’t have renegades here. You want to act like some free-spirited filmmaker? Go back to the Internet. The edits were due to production yesterday for Friday’s episode. Where are they?”
