Read Online Done to Death by Charles Atkins - Free Book Online Page B

Parks was shot and killed today. I’d ask anyone in this room who believes they have information that can help the investigation to please come forward. If you saw something unusual, it doesn’t matter how small or seemingly unimportant. If you’re aware of anyone who might have had a grudge or some resentment against Ms Parks.’ She paused. ‘A disgruntled employee, someone terminated, or in fear of termination. We want to know about it.’
    Several people coughed, and Barry heard a woman choke on her water.
    Good luck , he mused. Because similar sentiments would be running through the heads of everyone in that room. Lenore ruled through fear. And from the sounds of things, her death wasn’t about to change that. It gave him pause. How many people hated her? Feared her? Wished her dead? He thought of his corner office and the woman who’d occupied it before him. She’d had a semi-successful show. It ran four years, got cancelled and within three months of it getting pulled, she was out of a job. And as he knew through the grapevine, she was borderline unemployable.
    He replayed his last meeting with Lenore. The way she’d toyed with his fears. It was cat-and-mouse stuff, her claws raking over his insecurity. Her message was clear − produce or get out. He meant nothing to her. It hadn’t always been like that. Not when he’d had a hit with the Home and Style Network and been recruited by LPP and one of the major networks. It had been ‘the sky’s the limit’, a corner office in midtown. ‘We want you to bring your whole team – hell, they’ll all get a twenty percent bump.’ The offer was too good to resist, and for a while he let himself believe he was home free. He’d uprooted his pregnant wife from the San Bernardino Valley – no more LA traffic – to the excitement of Manhattan. It had started well, a spot producing episodes of Lenore Says , and then on to a weekly model competition that attempted to recapture his success with Model Behavior . It didn’t, and tanked in its first season. He knew that everyone has shows go under, that wasn’t the issue. It came down to what he currently had on the air, which was zip. One day he’d been the golden-haired boy, the next … He looked up at the detective, who was fielding questions. Good luck, lady , he thought.
    Anyone in this room, and quite a few outside, had motive to want Lenore dead. In the end her murder didn’t help him, it just made things worse. He wished this detective would get off the stage. He knew there was more bad news coming from the trio on the podium. Just get this over with.
    He studied Richard Parks’ somber face. He’s just a kid, and now he’s my boss. They’d been introduced, but he had no sense of the intense young man. Objectively, he had the most to gain from Lenore’s death. Although supposedly he was one of the few people who genuinely cared for her, unlike his sister, who’d also inherit untold millions and who delighted in publicly humiliating Lenore. He looked at Patty Corcoran and Garston Green; they’d been with Lenore from the first episode of Lenore Says . Would they profit from her death? Or were they like everyone else in this room, wondering if there’d still be an LPP if the L no longer existed?
    And then it came, as he knew it would. The detective left with her partner and Patty Corcoran stood. He pictured the ax in her hand. ‘In light of today’s tragic events all scheduled tapings of Lenore Says will be cancelled. All employees may take the rest of the week off with pay. We’ll have made decisions about how to move forward by Monday.’
    Barry, as if reading a teleprompter or subtitles for a foreign movie, translated Patty’s caring tone and vague words into something closer to the truth: everyone connected to Lenore Says is getting canned . You can’t really do a show