The Wolf is at Your Door by Simon Maltman

Author:Simon Maltman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mysteries & Thrillers
Publisher: Aesthetic Press
Published: 2021-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 39

Rory arrived early to meet Vicki. He walked back around half the block, smoked a few cigarettes to kill some time. The streets were crowded. Almost oppressively so. And the heat was as usual- suffocating. From above him, the beaming glass sky scrapers all around appeared to be angled so to direct the hot sun right at him. Rory slipped in his earphones and pressed play on his walkman. He’d brought Electric Mud with him. A Sixties Muddy Waters album, it wasn’t to everyone’s tastes. It was commercial, but sometimes good things are. Though thinking of himself of somewhat of a blues purist, he couldn’t write off the irresistible urgency and punch of the music. Rory listened to a side, bought a can of Coke off of a yellow fingered street vendor, then made his way back to the front door of the news room. This time his welcome was noticeably warmer and he was whisked away to a private waiting area. He was given a coffee and was told he could smoke, availing of both of them.

“Rory, sorry to keep you waiting, come on through.”

Vicky was impeccably dressed once again and led him through to her office with a friendly smile.

“Water, coffee?”

“No, not for me thanks, I’m grand, just had a coffee.”

“Good, good. Well, I’ll get right down to it. I spoke to my editor and you’ll be glad to hear that he is very interested in running your story.”

“Okay, great,” said Rory cagily.

“Yes, but there are a few conditions.”

“Sure, okay.”

“If you are happy to proceed, we could even make tomorrow’s edition. It would mean your committing to some time now if that is possible? I’ll order in come Chinese food, some beers, and we can thrash it out.”

“Okay, well yeah I’m free, but what are the conditions exactly?”

She adjusted her chair and took out a small pile of papers. She pushed her blonde bangs from over her face and set on a pair of expensive looking purple rimmed glasses.

“Right. First off, we would need to you to sign a few waivers. We would pay you a generous fee for your exclusive story. That means it would only be us that you could speak to on the record about this for a minimum of three months. Not including the police of course.”

Rory nodded his understanding. She made a few lines on a page and slipped it across to him.

“This would be the figure.”

Rory looked down at the page. The figure was for a thousand dollars.

He pursed his lips, “That looks fine. But like I said, it’s not really the money that I’m after.”

“Yes, I understand that. On that issue we are willing to make contact with our source and recommend that she speak with you. In fact, we would also cover any of her, expenses. However, I can’t give you a personal guarantee. I don’t know what she would say.”

“No guarantee? I’d prefer if she was on board first.”

“I appreciate that Rory. I’m afraid that our legal team could not agree to such a deal.

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