One Step Ahead

Tipped Off

      "What's going on, Lena?"

      "Ignacio Suarez just came in for our meeting, and guess who snuck in behind him. Mr. 'Freedom of the Press' himself."

      Sanger's groan came clearly through the phone. "Elton Keel. Just wonderful. No matter what you say, or don't say, some form of this is gonna show up on his site before the end of the day. Just make sure not to give him anything that we can use as holdback info to ID this nutjob. Who else have you brought in on this already?"

      "There were two uniforms with me when I spoke to Mr. Purdy, Harris and Weintraub know I've been looking through the file, and I had Eloise Han run the camera when Briar Malveaux came in yesterday."

      "I'll get ahold of them as soon as I hang up, and tell them not to discuss it with anyone else until I get back. Then we can all have a meeting, dig around to see if we find any more connections, and figure out if we'll be able to avoid bringing the Bureau into it."

      "Got it. I'd better go now, and get Mr. Suarez into a meeting room before Keel gets him to say something he can turn into another hack job."

      "I heard that, Detective!" grumbled the tall, lanky, red-haired man who trailed behind Mr. Suarez , both approaching her desk. 

      "Lena, have Eloise take care of Mr. Suarez, I'd rather have you deal with Blog-Boy than let someone else maybe let something slip that they shouldn't." Sanger said decisively.

      "Thanks... I think. I'm on it, see you Thursday."

      She ended the call, then called out "Hey, El, can you take Mr. Suarez to Room Five, and have him look over the items we talked about yesterday? I need to speak with Mr. Keel."

      Detective Han got up from her desk and led Mr. Suarez down the hall toward the meeting rooms, while Whitman turned toward the young man who was now looming over her.

      "That 'hack job' crack wasn't very nice, Detective. You make it sound like I go looking for excuses to make you guys look bad, but I just call 'em like I see 'em."

      "So do I, Mr. Keel. When you take any sliver of misunderstanding, misinformation, or innuendo you can worm out of people and try to turn it into some sort of expose to get yourself more viewers, I'm not sure what else you'd call it. As long as it's sensational enough to get people's attention, you don't seem to care whether what you tell people is factual or not, and that irks me, because one of these days you're going to put something out there that's going to get someone hurt."

      He merely grinned at her and dropped into the chair in front of her desk. "So does that mean you're not interested in confirming that you have a suspect in the disappearance, and presumed death, of Alma Suarez?"

      Whitman considered the question for a moment before responding, choosing her words carefully. "No, I'm not, because there is no suspect. We've merely asked Mr. Suarez to come in to help us with a potential new lead. That much I will confirm for you, since it could benefit both of us."

      Raking his fingers through his carrotty, unruly hair, Keel leaned forward avidly. "How do you figure, Detective?"

      "Because, Mr. Keel, even though your, ahh... , 'journalistic style' isn't exactly my cup of tea, you do seem to have a fairly sizable fanbase. So if you could pass on some information, without blowing it out of proportion, you might not only help us, you could put yourself at the front of the pack if this gets big."

      "You mean like an exclusive? Yeah, if I'm the first one out with the info, that could push me into the big time," he mused, almost to himself. "So, whaddya got?"