Read Online 08 - December Dread by Jess Lourey - Free Book Online Page A

you a tour. You can just have a seat over there.”
    “Okay,” I said, choosing the least uncomfortable-looking plastic chair. I picked up the copy of the Reporter next to me. The layout was clean, the articles well-written. It reminded me a lot of Battle Lake’s paper, except with more ads in the back. So many, in fact, that it had a separate insert for them.
    “Mira?”
    I glanced up guiltily, feeling like a spy. Which I was. The man walking toward me was in his late 20s if he was a day, with long, straggly hair pulled back into a ponytail at his neck. “Jake?”
    “At your service.” He glanced at his watch.
    His body language was impossible to ignore. He had much better things to do. I couldn’t blame him. “Thanks for making time for me.”
    He nodded once, abruptly. “This is going to be a short tour. We don’t have a lot here. Mind if I ask why you’re interested?”
    “Didn’t Ron tell you?” I asked, stalling for time. I hadn’t formulated a believable lie yet.
    “No, but I figured it’s because our circulation numbers just bumped and he wants to know our secret.”
    I immediately decided to like this guy. I didn’t need to waste any good fibs on him. “You figured right. Are you one of the reporters?”
    “I suppose I am. I’m also the editor and the publisher, just like Ron. I only have two other employees, one you met at the front desk and the other sells ads for us. Keeping the overhead small is the only way to make a newspaper work in a small town.”
    I studied him some more as he led the way down the narrow hallway. “You look pretty young to have your own newspaper.”
    “My parents owned it before me. Didn’t you graduate from here?”
    “Yeah,” I said, wondering if he knew my history. I hoped he didn’t. “I didn’t get out much, though. I grew up eight miles out of town, over by Lake Koronis.”
    He nodded in a distracted way. I got the sense he was a habitually busy man. “Well, this is the do-all room,” he said, flicking on the light. “You’ll recognize the layout table, computers, file cabinets. We don’t have all our archives transferred into a computerized form yet, but we’re working on it.”
    A fully-extended copy of the front and back pages of the newspaper caught my eye. “Your paper comes out tomorrow?”
    “Yep. Deadline is Monday and the paper comes out every Wednesday.”
    I pointed at the headline article. “You’re reporting on the River Grove murder.”
    He pushed a strand of hair behind his ear, his brow furrowed. “I rearranged what I thought was the final layout to make room for that story. The victim graduated from here.”
    “I know.” We both stared at the headline for a couple beats, the atmosphere in the room suddenly heavy. “Did you find out anything that they haven’t aired on the news?”
    He shook his head. “Not really. The same FBI crew that covered the case in Chicago and Wisconsin is handling it in Minnesota. The supervisory agent is Walter Briggs. He’s with the Behavioral Analysis Unit, and he’s not big on answering reporters’ questions.”
    “So we all just wait.”
    “Yeah.” He regarded me thoughtfully. “Some more than others.”
    I pushed back my hair. “I wonder if I should dye it.”
    He shrugged. “You can’t change your life. If I were you, I’d make sure I wasn’t ever alone, though.”
    “Thanks. I’m actually taking a self-defense class. Starts tonight.” I didn’t know that I’d reached that decision, but something melancholy in his gaze made me want to stay positive.
    “Good idea,” he said, walking back toward the front of the building. “That’s about it for the tour. Got a bathroom over there, my office across from it, and you already saw the front desk. Not a lot of magic here.”
    “But your circulation, it’s going up. Can you tell me the secret?”
    He stopped and turned, offering me the first hint of a smile. “No secret. Good writing, clean layout, loyal community. Oh, and