The Shady Park Chronicles by Rea Keech

Author:Rea Keech
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary fiction: The series follows a suburban mother, a newspaper reporter, and a high school teacher as they work to fight the corruption and xenophobia of their town.
Publisher: Real Nice Books via Indie Author Project
Published: 2019-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

28

Trouble in the blogosphere

Through Thee will we push down our enemies:

through thy name will we tread them under

that rise up against us.

—Psalm 44.5

Anthony sat running his finger over the blank screen of his phone. He dialed Pari. She didn’t answer. Probably still in her car. He texted: I love you, Pari. No response.

He was furious with Victoria for giving Pari the idea they might get back together. He dialed Victoria. No answer. He texted her: Now I’m really angry. No response.

He dialed Pari again. He phone went to an automatic recording. The temptation to give up all investigative reporting hit him again with force. No confidential sources. No secrets. No scoops. Just cats in trees. Just Anthony and Pari.

Anthony didn’t get much sleep that night.

In the morning, he picked up the phone as soon as he woke up. A message on the screen said Searchlight has been updated—an automatic notice he’d set for Pari’s blog.

Searchlight has received a threat in response to its recent report that the newly approved school curriculum was backed by a corporation called RES-RECT that stands to profit from the sale of the new textbooks. The threat came after Searchlight named real estate developer Beatrice Doggit, Pastor Mitchell Rainey, and investor Derrek Grosbeck as the RES-RECT owners.

Pari answered on the first ring. “I don’t want to talk about Victoria.”

“OK.”

“If you look at the blog, you’ll see what I’ve been up to. I need to work from home for a while on this right-wing curriculum thing. Comments are pouring in now, and I’m replying to them. If I get fired, so be it.”

“Who threatened you?”

“Your friend Bea, of course. And her friend the pastor. They say I can’t prove they own RES-RECT. If I don’t retract the claim, they’ll sue me for slander and ruin my reputation as a journalist.”

“Pari, I’ve looked into this. It’s a limited liability corporation set up in Delaware. The names of the owners are secret. So they’re right. I don’t see how you can prove it.”

“I have a witness who heard them say they own it.”

“You do? Who?”

“Ahem. Can’t say, Anthony. You have your confidential sources. I have mine.”

He sat staring at a white silk scarf Pari had left on the back of a chair. When he took it in his hands, a faint whiff of lavender rose like fairy dust from the absent Pari. He wanted to be with her, work together with her, not separately. A lot of their stress could be eliminated if they just settled down and stuck to the stories Pop wanted them to write. Or if Anthony quit the newspaper and they worked side by side on the blog ....

His phone rang.

“Anthony, it’s Emma. There’s something I thought you should know. Pastor Mitch went to Esmeralda’s apartment this morning before she left for work. Her husband and son had already left, and she says the pastor pushed the door open and walked in. He’s blaming her for something. Something about books and resurrección. That’s what she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.