complete jackass on television didn’t do a damn thing to further his career, either.
Price cleared his throat and gathered himself before nodding to his cameramen to start taping again. ‘Do you have a minute to give us a quick interview, Agent Whitestone?’ he asked, slipping back into his smooth newsman’s persona now that the all-seeing electronic eyes were capturing his slick performance once more. ‘Maybe we could go inside where it’s warm and have a little sit-down, if that’s agreeable with you. We’ll make it nice. No pressure. Everyone’s dying to know what went on in your recent cases and you’re a very hard target to catch up with.’
Dana shook her head but continued smiling at Price. At twenty-five or twenty-six, the guy couldn’t have been more than three or four years removed from J-school, and local Cleveland news obviously hadn’t been his first choice. Then again, whose first choice had Cleveland been? Sure, Dana had chosen to return to her native city after graduating from Cleveland State University in 1994 with a degree in criminal psychology and beginning her career in Washington, DC three years later, but she marked the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. Cleveland had always been considered to be the place where promising careers went to die. Probably always would be. Still, in this economy, you took jobs wherever you could find them.
‘Sorry, Brett,’ Dana said, getting the erstwhile reporter’s name right this time and trying her best to look disappointed about the refusal. No use rubbing salt in his open wounds. He looked plenty wounded enough as it was already. ‘I can’t do it right now because I’ve got a very important appointment I need to keep. But I’ll tell you what: how about I give you an exclusive in a couple of days or so? I could call you at the station to set it up, if that’s all right with you.’
Price brightened at the suggestion. At least the trip out to Lakewood hadn’t been a complete waste of his time. ‘Hell, yeah,’ he said, perking up at the notion that he might be the one to finally nail down the elusive first interview with Dana Whitestone following the most bizarre serial-killer stories the country had ever seen – an interview that not even Barbara Walters and the rest of those clucking hens over on The View had managed to get up to this point. ‘How about next Monday or Tuesday? We’ll be in winter sweeps week then and it would really help me out. Make me look like a big shot to the boys upstairs if I could get the scoop on the rest of the vultures.’
Dana pulled back the left sleeve on her jacket and checked her watch to remind Price of the fact that he was making her late. ‘No problem. I’ll call you at the news station in a day or two. What’s your extension?’
‘Four-five-four-three.’
‘Fine. I’ll give you a call at that number.’
‘Awesome,’ Price said. ‘Thanks a million.’
Price jerked his head toward the far end of the parking lot to let his camera and soundmen know they could follow him toward their news van. To Dana, he said, ‘Well, I guess we’ll just wrap things up here for now then. Talk to you soon, Agent Whitestone.’
Dana watched the crew walk away, then called out to Price before he could climb up into the passenger compartment of the van. ‘Hey, Brett?’
Price turned around to face her. ‘Yeah?’
‘I’ll give you that exclusive on one condition.’
‘What’s that?’
Dana held his stare. ‘I’ll give you the exclusive if you promise to never pull this crap again. Don’t ambush me at home like this again, OK? I don’t like it and it isn’t fair. Is that a deal?’
Price lowered his head. Even he knew that the press could and often did overstep its boundaries. God knew that he wouldn’t have wanted anyone bothering him at home like this. If they did, he’d probably wind up chasing them off his property with a twelve-gauge shotgun in his hands, locked, cocked and loaded for bear. ‘Yeah, it’s a deal, Agent Whitestone,’ Price said, finally dropping his affected tone and sounding like a real human being for the first time all night. ‘Sorry about that.’
Dana waved away the apology. ‘It’s all right. Just make sure it never happens again, OK? I’d really hate to have to give that exclusive to Brett Grodin. I’ve never liked that prick.’
A brief smile flashed across Price’s full lips, followed almost