Bombshell by Stuart Woods & Parnell Hall

Author:Stuart Woods & Parnell Hall [Woods, Stuart & Hall, Parnell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

46

Teddy called Josh Hargrove at the Culver City Chronicle, and wasn’t surprised to find the reporter wasn’t there. Hargrove was a stringer and worked out of his apartment.

Teddy called him at home. “Josh Hargrove? You write for the Chronicle, right? I got a hot tip for you.”

“Oh?”

“I know, I know, everyone’s giving you tips. Most of them are crap. I’m the real deal. I’ll give you a tip, and if you don’t want it, you don’t use it, no hard feelings. If you write it, you give me what you think’s fair, and we got a working relationship.”

“What’s the tip?”

“It’s hard for you to pay me over the phone, no? Let’s meet.”

“Fine.” Josh gave Teddy an address in an old building that had been renovated since the war.

When he arrived, Teddy rode up in the refurbished elevator to apartment 14F.

Josh let him in but didn’t invite him to sit down.

“What’s the tip?”

“Tessa Tweed was drinking at an Oscar party.”

Hargrove frowned. “That’s in the paper.”

“Yes, it is. Who gave you that tip?”

“None of your business. You got a tip for me or not?”

“Yes, I do. Stop writing about Tessa Tweed.”

Hargrove scowled. “I’m going to ask you to leave.”

“When?”

“What?”

“When are you going to ask me?”

“I’m asking you now,” Josh cried in exasperation.

“Yeah, but you’re so wishy-washy about it. Afraid to make a definitive statement. But let’s assume you asked me to leave. I’m not going to. So, who gave you the story?”

“I can’t reveal my sources.”

“Of course you can. We’ve already established you have no ethics. We’re not in a courtroom. There’s nothing legal about this. It’s just you and me. And I’m asking you to tell me who gave you the story. And you’re going to do it because you’re a coward, and you always take the coward’s way out.”

“Now, see here.”

“Oh, don’t make up any more bullshit. You’re not writing these stories because you want to. You’re writing them because you have to. Someone scared you, and you’re more scared of them than you are of me. We need to flip that.”

Teddy looked out one of the living room windows. It was the old-fashioned type, with a rickety wood frame and many panes of glass.

Teddy marched to the window and threw it open.

He grabbed the reporter by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and gave him the bum’s rush straight at the window as if he were going to throw him out.

Teddy stopped just in time. He smiled at the man and said, “Just kidding.”

Before Josh could react, Teddy reached down, grabbed him by the legs, flipped him up, and hung him out the window.

Josh screamed in terror.

Teddy waited for him to subside, then said calmly, “Want me to pull you up?”

“Yes!”

“I thought so,” Teddy said. He smiled. “Who gave you the story?”

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