show producer so severely dressed down—Bad pun, she told herself. But she loved every moment of it. Go, Elfren.
“To the business at hand,” Elfren said, to Marv’s evident relief. “We’ve got two stories that I’m concerned about. Let’s start with the murder of that GreenSpirit woman. I want you to see what CBS had on just minutes before our show ended.”
“I know about it,” Marv said.
“I want to go through it with you anyway,” Elfren said.
His office had five large, wall-mounted flat-screen TVs. He used a remote to click on the one closest to them. It was cued to the story in question. Video of naked men and women—breasts, bottoms, and pubic areas digitized—opened a report on the killing. The reporter’s off-screen voice was filled with gravitas:
“This was the aftermath of an initiation of two witches Saturday night, presided over by GreenSpirit, the self-described witch and Pagan leader who was murdered just hours later. Pagans and witches from a wide region attended the gathering; followers included Suze Walker, a daughter of the Malloy County sheriff, Nate Walker. The young woman wouldn’t talk to CBS News,” the camera stayed on her as she turned away, “but her father has declared that this high school quarterback, Jason Robb, shown in a recent game, is a ‘person of interest’ to law enforcement authorities.”
“We want to talk to him,” Sheriff Walker said to the unseen reporter. “We think he might know something.”
“Did you know that your daughter was at the initiation?” the reporter asked.
“Yes, of course I did.”
“Are you a Pagan?”
“No, we’re Baptists, proud Pentecostals, and so is my daughter. My wife and I don’t encourage belief in Paganism but we understand the spiritual curiosity of young people.”
“The sheriff’s tolerance,” the reporter continued over video of the man as he walked away, “may not be shared by everyone in this rural region. People at the gathering say that Jason Robb,” the football video reappeared, “the young man the sheriff named a ‘person of interest,’ threatened some of them, including GreenSpirit, the night before she was murdered.”
The reporter then stood before the camera detailing Sheriff Walker’s request for help on the homicide investigation from the New York State Police and FBI. The reporter also noted that law enforcement authorities said that the crime scene “appeared to have been compromised,” which sounded consistent with the sheriff’s own statements the day before.
Elfren clicked off the report. “What did we have on your show, Marv? Biggest story in the New York region, and one of the biggest in the country, and what did you have?”
“There was a screwup on the assignment desk. We’ve got the Northeast Bureau on their way up there now.”
“We had video of downtown Bennel, and aerials from a trip that Jenna took up there last week. And what I’m hearing from you are excuses. First, it’s wardrobe’s fault that the women on your show look like hookers. Now it’s the assignment desk’s fault that we’re getting skunked. I don’t like getting skunked. Do something about it.”
“We did, like I said—”
Elfren cut him off by turning to Jenna, who’d noticed that his squeaky voice reached an even higher octave when he was angry. “I want you on the next plane to the Maldives. We’ve got to take the lead on this story. That’s our own guy they’ve got, and they’re probably going to kill him. If I could launch a team of Navy SEALs to grab him back, I would. What I can do is send you to do two things for us: I want you providing expert analysis of the iron oxide threat—you should own that story with your background—and I want you to help the rest of our team with your local knowledge. You game?”
“You bet I’m game.”
“I know Birk’s very … eccentric,” Elfren said, “and I’d be shocked if he hasn’t insulted you at least once because he’s done it to every other woman in the news division, but he’s our guy. He’s been with us forever, he has his fans, and the old creep’s smart.”
Jenna laughed. So did Marv. The eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room had been acknowledged: Birk could be a jerk of the first order.
“What about me being a member of the task force? I thought that would get in the way of any news division duties.”
“You’ll be going as an analyst, not as a reporter. Give us sound bites. Boil down the science so people know what’s at stake. But that does bring up something else that you