“We still have to pay journalists and editors and copy editors and designers,” she said.
“Okay, if it’s not this paper, maybe another paper would be interested in your article. Maybe a paper in Boston.”
“Doubt it. Zoning is a local issue. Anyway, my piece is dead if the paper is dead. Kent says he’ll keep trying to help the local businesses. He’s the only one looking out for us here.”
“If Kent is so tied into all the politics here, why can’t he save the newspaper? I’d think the mayor and everyone would want it to exist for fluff pieces like you wrote. And you should be the editor.”
Ames shook her head in disbelief. “You think I should ask Kent to save the paper?”
If Kent was as heroic as Ames was saying he was—which turned my stomach—I had to follow her logic through. “If he wants what’s best for East End the way you claim, then why wouldn’t he? This town needs a newspaper. Hasn’t that thought occurred to you?” I asked.
Chapter 39
Ames closed the door and leaned against the wall. “I don’t have the power over him like Channing does.” She sounded almost wistful. Did she wish Kent was obsessed with her the way he was with my cousin? I stayed silent. “You’re right about the piece that came out the other day,” she continued. “Kent told my editor how the piece should run, and then he had the nerve to call me about convincing Channing to give him another chance.”
I walked over to her, raising my voice. “Anotherchance? She was never interested.”
“But she stole his watch.”
“For the millionth time, he grabbed her and then wouldn’t let her out of his room. He did that with all those people in his house. When did she even have time to steal his watch?” I said.
She let out a breath and studied her hands. There was a gold ring with a small sapphire on her finger. “I can’t believe Kent would do that though.”
“What’s up with you and Kent?” I looked straight into her eyes. A moment passed in which I saw embarrassment and then she averted her gaze
“Kent means well,” she said, and flashed her ring at me.
“Ames, please help us.” I waited. My hands tingled but I didn’t dare move.
She frowned at the floor. No reply. I was ready to leave then. My feet felt so heavy.
“Give me a minute,” she suddenly burst out. Then she rushed to a chair and opened her laptop, stared at it, and then closed it shut again. I joined her.
“Kent was the only guy who didn’t have a crush on Alice. I respected him for that.” She scowled at me then as if I had an expression on my face she didn’t like. “What?” she continued. “Kent worked at Mrs. Ku’s bakery and then for Channing’s dad as an intern. Unlike everyone who went into tech, Kent really, and I meanreally,wanted to go into public service here in town.”
“So what are you saying?” I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but did Ames have genuine feelings for this man?
She rolled her eyes. “No, I never liked him like that, but I thought for a minute that we could make sense, that maybe with time I could develop something for him and him for me, that we could make a relationship work.”
Slowly I was beginning to feel sorry for her and distressed that she cared for someone like Kent. “You deserve real love, Ames,” I said. I was beginning to sound like Channing when she talked to me about relationships.
Ames kept talking as if she hadn’t heard me. “We dated for two months last winter. I felt bad for him because his parents are in Korea now so he’s here alone.”
I sat in the other chair and waited for more. She said, “Okay, I never slept with him, but he almost got me to. Part of why I didn’t was because one of his ex-girlfriends told me to be careful because he likes to record everything, in his bedroom.”
“So?” I asked when she paused. When I didn’t understand something, a tactic I’d learned as a child was to encourage the person to keep talking, which gave me time and more information to figure out the context from the rest of the conversation. She gave me a look I’d seen from people before when they suspected I was clueless.
“Look, I’m not uptight, I like sex, and if it’s recorded that doesn’t bother me as long as it’s for me and whomever I’m with,” she protested.
I realized she thought I was judging her, which wasn’t the case at all. It was hard talking to Ames. She misread everything on my face.
“I don’t understand what you mean by recording. Recording like a camera?” I asked.
She nodded. “His ex said she’d caught him looking at footage without her. So it’s a long shot, but if he was so intent on getting Channing to his room like she said today, then he might have wanted to record something. I mean when he made his move on me, we were in his bedroom, and he was all weird about kissing me in a certain spot by this old piece of furniture. I broke up with him right after. I don’t like being manipulated.”
“There’s got to be a recording of Kent attacking Channing in his room then,” I practically yelled.
Ames nodded again. “I don’t know how you can get it, but that would prove what he did to her.”
