“I bet he didn’t put it through,” said Nadine. She put her arms around Wes and tried to warm his chilled skin. “Why would he do this?”
“That’s like asking a snake why it bites. He’s an unethical guy who saw a chance for a byline with minimal work. Anyway, his motivation hardly matters. It’s out there.” Wes put the laptop aside and lay back with his arm over his eyes.
“This probably won’t go anywhere,” she predicted optimistically. “The media cycle is short.”
“Right,” said Wes.
“Shit.” Nadine was looking at her phone. “It’s Lisanne.”
Yikes what a mess, she’d written.Daniel is in a rage thanks to that story making it look like the Herald was helping to cover for Wilson. No connections made to other writers though.
Thank God. She was grateful for Lisanne’s deliberately vague wording even in a private text.
Who are they assigning?wrote back Nadine. There would obviously be a story in theHerald.
There was a minute’s pause before Lisanne replied.Me.
Nadine stared at the screen as Wes let out a low whistle.
Another message came.Unfortunately, I had a lengthy and in-depth interview with a source that took me two weeks to set up, so they had to reassign it when I made a fuss.A winky face ended the message.
Thanks, Nadine wrote.
No problem, but anyone involved in this is going to have a real bad day.
Wes, reading over her shoulder, sighed. “She’s probably right.”
Nadine put the phone down. “What are we going to do?”
***
What were they going to do? First, be grateful he wasn’t alone. Nadine believed him. She’d saidwe, notyou, and that word went far to reassure him.
When she’d woken him up, the cold rage on Nadine’s face had convinced him there was no coming back from this, although it wasn’t his fault. Or wasn’t totally his fault. After all, he’d been the dud who talked to Tyler and left his notes at work. With a single word, she had confirmed they were a team. They hadn’t started the job that way, but they would finish as one.
“I need to tell Jason I had nothing to do with this.”
“Time for some serious CYA,” she agreed.
“Cover your ass,” indeed. This was not the story Wes was ready to tell, and its issues made him nauseous. He always knew Tyler was a shitty person, but this was next—and fireable—level. He needed to be careful Tyler didn’t bring him down with him.
Why had Wes put the story on theSpear’s platform? It gave Tylerproof that he was working on it before it was posted.
“Are you going to tell him Tyler is a plagiarizing thief?” asked Nadine.
“Seems redundant as plagiarists are de facto thieves.”
“Thanks, Dr. Pedantic. Are you?” she pressed.
Wes looked out the window to the hot-pink Bentley. WWDD? What would Dot do? No doubt make a god-awful fuss, but that wasn’t Wes’s style. “I’m going to lay out the facts for Jason,” he said. “There’s no way a reasonable or rational person can look at what happened and think I’m in the wrong.”
Nadine gave him a hug and left him to work while she made coffee. It was vital to get to Jason as soon as possible, so Wes called and left a message when he didn’t pick up. Then he texted for good measure and sent an email asking to talk and an instant message on theSpearplatform. He tried calling Rebecca as well before remembering she was out of cell range. Damn. He left a message and then emailed her to call him urgently. He didn’t give a summary, not wanting to have anything in writing. She’d be upset he went to Jason to pitch the story but on his side when she heard what he had to say.
Wes debated calling Tyler. In the end, unable to construct a sentence that wasn’t filled with profanity, he decided to wait until he cooled down.
He got dressed with one eye on the phone, feeling his tension twist higher. It was still early, but despite leaving the messages, he’d feel better if he went into the office to see if Jason was there or to catch him as he arrived.
As he went to tell Nadine his plan, she came over with coffee. His phone rang with an unknown number, usual for theSpear. “This has to be Jason,” he said.
