The First Three Talk Radio Mysteries by Mary Kennedy

Author:Mary Kennedy [Kennedy, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bleecker Street Books

Chapter 17

“Your momma called during the break, sugar,” Vera Mae said. The show had just ended and the never-delightful Dr. Grayson was ushered out of the studio. From the murderous look on her face, it seemed doubtful she’d ever agree to be a guest on my show again. At least not in this lifetime.

So every cloud really does have a silver lining, as Lola always tells me.

“What’s up?” I asked, taking a quick look at my viewer mail. I noticed the pet psychologist had sparked some interest in animal shows and loads of listeners were angling to get their pets on the air. I decided to sort through them later, and was just about to toss them aside, when one envelope caught my eye.

My name was written in block capitals and I felt a funny little blip in the pit of my stomach as I ripped open the envelope. The message was short and sweet. Just two words.

BACK OFF.

Back off? Someone had cut the letters out of magazines and pasted them on the page, like they’d read too many noir mystery novels. I felt a chill, almost like a breath of frost on the back of my neck. They meant back off on the murder investigation, right? What else could it be?

“Lola wants you to pick her up at the set,” Vera Mae said, breaking into my thoughts. “I really think she wants you to watch some of the filming.” She must have noticed the stricken expression on my face because she put her hand on my arm. “What’s wrong, sugar?”

I handed her the letter and she widened her eyes as she scanned it. “This is someone’s idea of a joke, right?” I gave a nervous laugh, hoping she’d agree with me.

“I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “What do you think it means? Something to do with Adriana would be my guess.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I thought for a moment. my mind scrambling for a different explanation. “We haven’t aired any shows lately that were really controversial, have we?”

Every once in a while we do a show that causes a rash of “negative audience feedback” as Cyrus likes to call it, and we try to analyze what went wrong. But lately all the show topics and guests had been as bland as baby oatmeal. No drama, no controversy.

Vera Mae scrunched up her face, considering. “There was that cooking show you did last month. Remember the big debate on fried okra versus sautéd tofu cubes? As I remember, that got kind of heated and there were some raised voices, as I recall. Might have been some hurt feelings, that’s all I can think of.”

I shuddered, remembering that train wreck of a show. Cyrus had been awed by the success of A Chef’s Table, a popular PBS radio cooking show, and he’d decided that WYME could do a copy-cat version. Except it hadn’t turned out that way.

“I don’t think anyone would get upset enough over fried okra to send me this,” I said.

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