Lethal Little Lies (Jubilant Falls Series Book 3) by Debra Gaskill

Author:Debra Gaskill [Gaskill, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: D'Llama Publishing
Published: 2013-06-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21 Addison

“I hate Thursdays,” I muttered to myself as I slid my key into the back door at the Journal-Gazette. The winter sun hadn’t begun to come over the horizon and last night’s dip in temperatures left deadly patches of black ice on the parking lot where shallow puddles had been. I’d nearly fallen twice before getting to the door.

I arrived early, hoping I could get out of the office and drive to Columbus. I needed to talk to Rick Starrett’s statehouse staff and continue to dig into Rowan Starrett’s mysterious life, now that I’d gotten confirmation he really wasn’t dead.

But first I had to get through today.

Thursdays were hell, plain and simple. In addition to finishing today’s live pages—pages one, two and three—it also meant the inside pages for both Friday and Saturday’s papers were due. Saturday’s paper deadlined at midnight Friday, rather than Saturday at ten thirty in the morning, in order to give the pressroom staff the weekend off.

Dennis had the morning off so he could work an ungodly long day Friday to put together Saturday’s live pages. In better times, we could count on an extra copy editor to take on the responsibility of the live pages while I worked with staff on their stories. Thanks to furloughs and cutbacks, those responsibilities came to me like a giant line of falling dominoes.

I passed through the empty pressroom, stopping long enough to take in the pungent odors of old ink and fresh newsprint. From there, I walked into the adjacent employee break room, pausing to pour coffee into a chipped white mug, its interior ringed brown and black from lack of regular cleaning.

Peggy, the sour-faced bookkeeper, was beside the coffee machine, stirring powdered creamer into her cup. If she was here early, it could only mean one thing.

“It’s the end of the quarter, Addison,” she said in greeting. “I’ll need your expense reports by three.”

Fuck, I thought. Instead of answering, I kept on walking, gulping down coffee and nodding without looking at her. I’ll never get out of here this afternoon to get to Columbus.

Upstairs in the newsroom, the lights were already on. Elizabeth Day was finishing a bagel at her desk. She licked cream cheese off her finger and pointed at my office.

“You got company,” she said.

“Shit. This day is getting off to a great start,” I answered, throwing open my office door.

“Well, thanks! Good morning to you too!” Marcus was leaning against my desk. His son, PJ, was sitting in one of my office’s faded wingback chairs.

“You know I’m kidding,” I said hugging him. “What are you doing here? Is Kay OK?”

“They say she’s going to make it. She’s still pretty doped up, but they say she’s improving every day. We’ve also got some movement in the investigation.”

“Good. We haven’t had an update on the case for a couple days. Are you willing to sit down and give Graham some time this morning?”

“Sure, on one condition. Can you give PJ an internship?”

I looked over at the kid, who’d come dressed in a white Oxford shirt, dress pants and a blue tie.

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