Chapter the Sixth -- Of A Certain Phone Call and We Meet A Certain Intern
Ten thousand miles away from someone
Ten thousand miles away from you
Who's your friend on the end of a telephone line
A telephone line's like a life line
10cc - Life Line
Chapter 6 -- The Distance In Between?
Back at the newspaper, Mara ushered Rafe to her office, bade him sit at her desk, and punched in the speed dial for Kevin's private line. Rafe looked at her, alarmed, when she also punched the speaker phone button.
They could hear the line ring a couple of times and then...
"Kuntzler here."
"Hi Kev, it's me, Mara, and your friend Rafe, as I promised earlier.
"Mara?" Kevin asked questioningly, the utterance of her name inflected to ask her if she were going to be part of the conversation.
"Oh, don't worry, Kevin. I'll let Rafe and you converse privately, if only just to give you a chance to come up with something better than a fricking picnic." There was no mistaking the edge in her voice now. "I'll be stepping out now, hope to speak with you soon. Ta." She picked up the handset, handed it to Rafe and turned off the speaker phone.
She turned to leave the office. At the door she significantly glanced back at Rafe and left, gently shutting the door behind her.
"Kevin?"
"Well?"
"Mara, ah, stepped out. So unless she has another phone somewhere she can listen in on..."
"She won't. She's not happy that we're keeping something from her, but she's no eavesdropper. So what's going on?"
Rafe rubbed his face with his free hand and sighed. "I saw a page 10 article in the Sun-Times about my special friend, you know, the one with the gun that had a bullet with my name on it?..."
"Oh."
"Kevin, what's going on? I thought all I had to do was wait for the court date a couple months down the road to testify against him. And now he's loose. What the hell happened?"
"He was let go on some sort of procedural technicality. I'm not entirely sure what, maybe they didn't mirandize him properly or something."
"Yeah, it was a little blurry for me at that point," snarked Rafe.
"Mmm, I suppose. You'll be okay in Pittsville. By the time you come back from your vacation, they'll probably have him stitched up for something else. Look at it this way, you won't have to spend any time in the courtroom to testify against the bastard... How are you doing? When Lara and I saw you in the hospital that night..." Kevin exhaled loudly, not willing to go further into what had been a traumatic night all round.
"I'm feeling better, no, no..." this at Kevin's snort of disbelief. "I seem to be healing well and you've taken a load off my shoulders by reassuring me that that punk won't be coming after me. You don't think he will, do you?"
"Not a chance. Besides, he'd have to find you first. The only people that know where you are are Lara, myself, and anyone you've met in Pittsville."
"Which isn't that many people, just yet, but I'm sure I'll be the center of attention soon, if I know my small towns. So why all the games with what phone to use?"
"Just to be on the safe side. I almost never call Mara at home because I know I'm more likely to get a hold of her at the office, so I didn't want to set a precedent on the off chance in a million that someone is actually looking. By the way, don't use your cell phone."
"I wasn't planning to. What about your office phone?"
"I had it swept for bugs after I read your email before I called Mara..."
"Oooooh, Mr. Kuntzler. Going all high tech for lil' ol' me?"
"Shut it. I have it swept on a regular basis. One of the IT guys is specially trained for that and has all the latest gadgets. I certainly don't want any of our stories getting scooped just in case the competition decides to play dirty and bug my phone."
"Damn, Kevin, I never would have pegged you as the paranoid type."
"It's not paranoia, it's more of a case of better safe than sorry."
"What about your home phone. Would you or Lara ever call here or at Mara's home from your home? Hey, now I'm really suspicious. Mara's your ex-now-best-friend, your wife's name is Lara, they almost rhyme. I don't suppose Lara's caught on to your long distance affair here has she?"
"Rafe. No affair. I promise you," Kevin chuckled at Rafe's sally. "You, my friend have a filthy and distrustful mind!"
"I learned it from the best at "Kuntzler Acadamy of Newspaper Etiquette."
Kevin snorted. "So, now that everything is a little clearer, I'll bid you farewell so I don't run up Mara's phone bill too badly."
"Hah. I can take a hint."
"I think the sooner you are back on your feet and doing a little light reporting for the Prairiedog, the better you'll feel about the whole thing. Goodbye, Mr. Moretti."
"I'm wholly reassured now that you've brought that to mind. Goodbye, Mr. Kuntzler."
Rafe shook his head at the dialtone and hung up the phone.
-------------
Mara, meanwhile, had been passing the time with the intern, a fluffy brunette named MarySue Tschetch, who seemed to have an even fluffier brain. She was trying to derail the young woman's latest chuckleheaded idea for a story. The woman had utterly romanticized the news media business and was hell bent on writing the next Pulitzer winning story. Unfortunately she didn't have the skill to write that well, yet. There was hope, she certainly had a way with words.
"But, Mara, I've seen at least three brown spiders in the past week. Shouldn't we be alerting the town to the danger? I read just recently that brown spiders are even more poisonous than black widow spiders. And you know what they say about roaches, you see one, there's probably a thousand more hidden in the wall. Three thousand brown spiders is practically a plague!"
Mara had to cover her mouth to hide her smile at that interesting leap in logic. She wanted to encourage the woman, to hone her writing skills, but, DAMN, the stories she kept coming up with...
Hmmm. Maybe she should sic Ms. Tschetch on Rafe. He looked like the type that could distract MarySue long enough to set her on the trail of a real story, no matter how light it might be. Spider plagues, indeed. MarySue Tschetch's take on the Book of Revelation would no doubt be next.
She felt a faint twisting in her gut at the thought and shook herself mentally. 'Mara you silly twit, jealous over an intern? Besides she's pretty enough to keep Rafe entertained, oh dammitall!'
At that point, there was a knock on the small conference room's door. Mara called out "Come In!"
Rafe slowly opened the door and stuck his head inside. The intern saw him and immediatly perked up. And fluffed her hair some more. Mara groaned to herself and ran her hand through her thick blonde hair, messing up the short style even more.
"Rafe. Please do come in. I'd like you to meet our intern, MarySue Tschetch. Rafael Moretti. She's from South Carolina and has joined the staff here for a few months."
"University of South Carolina, College of Journalism and Mass Communication?" Rafe hazarded a guess.
"Why of course, Rafael, if you don't mind me calling you that."
Her slight drawling of his first name made Rafe flinch internally. He quickly corrected her, "Just call me Rafe, MarySue, plain ol' Rafe."
"Okay! I must say that name suits you either way, Rafael or Rafe," said Miss Journalism 2005, liking the taste of his first name and his looks.
Mara rolled her eyes as Rafe turned his full charming smile onto MarySue. "Rafe I was wondering if you and MarySue would work together on a story or two..."
"Oh I'm sure he'd be excited to explore the Brown Spider Plague with me..." MarySue butted in.
Exasperated, Mara burst out, "There IS no spider plague, brown or otherwise..."
It was Rafe's turn to butt in, flashing a wicked grin in Mara's direction, "A spider plague? That sounds most serious..."
"Oh, yes it is..."
"You think that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, not to mention the State Department of Health would be utterly unaware of this spider 'plague'? They've been hyper-vigilant about bugs ever since the West Nile virus was set loose..." said Mara, trying to stem the fictious plague.
"You see Mara, they're just watching mosquitos, not spiders, but if you like I could call them first to see what they have to say on the subject. I could do an interview with them..."
"Oh by all means! Do. Don't let me keep you from doing your research first before you go off on a tangent about spiders, for pete's sake!"
In the face of that mildly scathing bit of information from her editor, the intern was silent. Rafe jumped in and said gently, "Do let me know what you find out. I certainly don't want to get stung, or is it bitten?, by some brown spider in my sleep? You do use insecticide in your home, don't you Mara? What with all the crops around here, bugs must be a real hassle..."
"Rafe, I'll be sure to let you know if I see ANY spiders in my home. You'll know when you hear the shrieking, and the stamping as I take out whatever bug I see."
"It is bad luck to kill a spider, Mara."
"How so, Rafe?"
"I'll do my research and let you know how!"
Mara rolled her eyes again. "MarySue why don't you go and start your research while I have a word with Rafe about his?"
The intern reluctantly stood up and left the room, looking at Rafe longingly all the while. After she had shut the door, Mara burst out, "is that the effect you're going to have on this town's female population?? Oh shit, never mind, I did not just say that."
"I can't help it if the ladies think I'm charming. You do think I'm charming, don't you?"
Opening his eyes wide and batting them at Mara, Rafe caused her to burst out laughing.
"Moretti, I'll say this. You are completely and utterly...unique. The jury's still out on charming though. Sorry. And while this has been a pleasant diversion, please do clue me on what transpired in your conversation with Kevin, if you would be so kind?"
Seeing that she was back to business, Rafe decided to tell her what had happened. He did so in a rather terse manner that didn't invite questions. "The man who shot me? He's free now due to a technicality. A FUCKING technicality!" He sneered at the table.
Mara, a bit taken aback at this sudden burst of rage, quietly looked at Rafe waiting for him to expand further on the topic. When he didn't, she said, "Well that certainly does explain why you looked so..."
"Why I looked so... Huh. I never thought I'd be shot in the line of duty. It hasn't been too much fun. Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it."
"Okay. Just know that I'm here if you do want to talk about it."
Ten thousand miles away from you
Who's your friend on the end of a telephone line
A telephone line's like a life line
10cc - Life Line
Chapter 6 -- The Distance In Between?
Back at the newspaper, Mara ushered Rafe to her office, bade him sit at her desk, and punched in the speed dial for Kevin's private line. Rafe looked at her, alarmed, when she also punched the speaker phone button.
They could hear the line ring a couple of times and then...
"Kuntzler here."
"Hi Kev, it's me, Mara, and your friend Rafe, as I promised earlier.
"Mara?" Kevin asked questioningly, the utterance of her name inflected to ask her if she were going to be part of the conversation.
"Oh, don't worry, Kevin. I'll let Rafe and you converse privately, if only just to give you a chance to come up with something better than a fricking picnic." There was no mistaking the edge in her voice now. "I'll be stepping out now, hope to speak with you soon. Ta." She picked up the handset, handed it to Rafe and turned off the speaker phone.
She turned to leave the office. At the door she significantly glanced back at Rafe and left, gently shutting the door behind her.
"Kevin?"
"Well?"
"Mara, ah, stepped out. So unless she has another phone somewhere she can listen in on..."
"She won't. She's not happy that we're keeping something from her, but she's no eavesdropper. So what's going on?"
Rafe rubbed his face with his free hand and sighed. "I saw a page 10 article in the Sun-Times about my special friend, you know, the one with the gun that had a bullet with my name on it?..."
"Oh."
"Kevin, what's going on? I thought all I had to do was wait for the court date a couple months down the road to testify against him. And now he's loose. What the hell happened?"
"He was let go on some sort of procedural technicality. I'm not entirely sure what, maybe they didn't mirandize him properly or something."
"Yeah, it was a little blurry for me at that point," snarked Rafe.
"Mmm, I suppose. You'll be okay in Pittsville. By the time you come back from your vacation, they'll probably have him stitched up for something else. Look at it this way, you won't have to spend any time in the courtroom to testify against the bastard... How are you doing? When Lara and I saw you in the hospital that night..." Kevin exhaled loudly, not willing to go further into what had been a traumatic night all round.
"I'm feeling better, no, no..." this at Kevin's snort of disbelief. "I seem to be healing well and you've taken a load off my shoulders by reassuring me that that punk won't be coming after me. You don't think he will, do you?"
"Not a chance. Besides, he'd have to find you first. The only people that know where you are are Lara, myself, and anyone you've met in Pittsville."
"Which isn't that many people, just yet, but I'm sure I'll be the center of attention soon, if I know my small towns. So why all the games with what phone to use?"
"Just to be on the safe side. I almost never call Mara at home because I know I'm more likely to get a hold of her at the office, so I didn't want to set a precedent on the off chance in a million that someone is actually looking. By the way, don't use your cell phone."
"I wasn't planning to. What about your office phone?"
"I had it swept for bugs after I read your email before I called Mara..."
"Oooooh, Mr. Kuntzler. Going all high tech for lil' ol' me?"
"Shut it. I have it swept on a regular basis. One of the IT guys is specially trained for that and has all the latest gadgets. I certainly don't want any of our stories getting scooped just in case the competition decides to play dirty and bug my phone."
"Damn, Kevin, I never would have pegged you as the paranoid type."
"It's not paranoia, it's more of a case of better safe than sorry."
"What about your home phone. Would you or Lara ever call here or at Mara's home from your home? Hey, now I'm really suspicious. Mara's your ex-now-best-friend, your wife's name is Lara, they almost rhyme. I don't suppose Lara's caught on to your long distance affair here has she?"
"Rafe. No affair. I promise you," Kevin chuckled at Rafe's sally. "You, my friend have a filthy and distrustful mind!"
"I learned it from the best at "Kuntzler Acadamy of Newspaper Etiquette."
Kevin snorted. "So, now that everything is a little clearer, I'll bid you farewell so I don't run up Mara's phone bill too badly."
"Hah. I can take a hint."
"I think the sooner you are back on your feet and doing a little light reporting for the Prairiedog, the better you'll feel about the whole thing. Goodbye, Mr. Moretti."
"I'm wholly reassured now that you've brought that to mind. Goodbye, Mr. Kuntzler."
Rafe shook his head at the dialtone and hung up the phone.
-------------
Mara, meanwhile, had been passing the time with the intern, a fluffy brunette named MarySue Tschetch, who seemed to have an even fluffier brain. She was trying to derail the young woman's latest chuckleheaded idea for a story. The woman had utterly romanticized the news media business and was hell bent on writing the next Pulitzer winning story. Unfortunately she didn't have the skill to write that well, yet. There was hope, she certainly had a way with words.
"But, Mara, I've seen at least three brown spiders in the past week. Shouldn't we be alerting the town to the danger? I read just recently that brown spiders are even more poisonous than black widow spiders. And you know what they say about roaches, you see one, there's probably a thousand more hidden in the wall. Three thousand brown spiders is practically a plague!"
Mara had to cover her mouth to hide her smile at that interesting leap in logic. She wanted to encourage the woman, to hone her writing skills, but, DAMN, the stories she kept coming up with...
Hmmm. Maybe she should sic Ms. Tschetch on Rafe. He looked like the type that could distract MarySue long enough to set her on the trail of a real story, no matter how light it might be. Spider plagues, indeed. MarySue Tschetch's take on the Book of Revelation would no doubt be next.
She felt a faint twisting in her gut at the thought and shook herself mentally. 'Mara you silly twit, jealous over an intern? Besides she's pretty enough to keep Rafe entertained, oh dammitall!'
At that point, there was a knock on the small conference room's door. Mara called out "Come In!"
Rafe slowly opened the door and stuck his head inside. The intern saw him and immediatly perked up. And fluffed her hair some more. Mara groaned to herself and ran her hand through her thick blonde hair, messing up the short style even more.
"Rafe. Please do come in. I'd like you to meet our intern, MarySue Tschetch. Rafael Moretti. She's from South Carolina and has joined the staff here for a few months."
"University of South Carolina, College of Journalism and Mass Communication?" Rafe hazarded a guess.
"Why of course, Rafael, if you don't mind me calling you that."
Her slight drawling of his first name made Rafe flinch internally. He quickly corrected her, "Just call me Rafe, MarySue, plain ol' Rafe."
"Okay! I must say that name suits you either way, Rafael or Rafe," said Miss Journalism 2005, liking the taste of his first name and his looks.
Mara rolled her eyes as Rafe turned his full charming smile onto MarySue. "Rafe I was wondering if you and MarySue would work together on a story or two..."
"Oh I'm sure he'd be excited to explore the Brown Spider Plague with me..." MarySue butted in.
Exasperated, Mara burst out, "There IS no spider plague, brown or otherwise..."
It was Rafe's turn to butt in, flashing a wicked grin in Mara's direction, "A spider plague? That sounds most serious..."
"Oh, yes it is..."
"You think that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, not to mention the State Department of Health would be utterly unaware of this spider 'plague'? They've been hyper-vigilant about bugs ever since the West Nile virus was set loose..." said Mara, trying to stem the fictious plague.
"You see Mara, they're just watching mosquitos, not spiders, but if you like I could call them first to see what they have to say on the subject. I could do an interview with them..."
"Oh by all means! Do. Don't let me keep you from doing your research first before you go off on a tangent about spiders, for pete's sake!"
In the face of that mildly scathing bit of information from her editor, the intern was silent. Rafe jumped in and said gently, "Do let me know what you find out. I certainly don't want to get stung, or is it bitten?, by some brown spider in my sleep? You do use insecticide in your home, don't you Mara? What with all the crops around here, bugs must be a real hassle..."
"Rafe, I'll be sure to let you know if I see ANY spiders in my home. You'll know when you hear the shrieking, and the stamping as I take out whatever bug I see."
"It is bad luck to kill a spider, Mara."
"How so, Rafe?"
"I'll do my research and let you know how!"
Mara rolled her eyes again. "MarySue why don't you go and start your research while I have a word with Rafe about his?"
The intern reluctantly stood up and left the room, looking at Rafe longingly all the while. After she had shut the door, Mara burst out, "is that the effect you're going to have on this town's female population?? Oh shit, never mind, I did not just say that."
"I can't help it if the ladies think I'm charming. You do think I'm charming, don't you?"
Opening his eyes wide and batting them at Mara, Rafe caused her to burst out laughing.
"Moretti, I'll say this. You are completely and utterly...unique. The jury's still out on charming though. Sorry. And while this has been a pleasant diversion, please do clue me on what transpired in your conversation with Kevin, if you would be so kind?"
Seeing that she was back to business, Rafe decided to tell her what had happened. He did so in a rather terse manner that didn't invite questions. "The man who shot me? He's free now due to a technicality. A FUCKING technicality!" He sneered at the table.
Mara, a bit taken aback at this sudden burst of rage, quietly looked at Rafe waiting for him to expand further on the topic. When he didn't, she said, "Well that certainly does explain why you looked so..."
"Why I looked so... Huh. I never thought I'd be shot in the line of duty. It hasn't been too much fun. Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it."
"Okay. Just know that I'm here if you do want to talk about it."
posted by Dace @ 12:28 PM
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