Sleep Don't Come Easy by Victor McGlothin Page B

Todd, not Jesus!”
    â€œDo you want to keep your job?” he blurted out.
    Fatema was taken aback. “What?”
    â€œBecause if you don’t, I’ve got a dozen other reporters out there foaming at the mouth for your job!”
    â€œYou firing me?”
    â€œYou fucking act like you want to be fired!”
    â€œI don’t want to be fired! My best friend was murdered, Todd. I need to know what happened to her. All I’m doing is trying to put this thing together to find out who did this!”
    â€œYeah, well, last time I heard, the police department does that very thing. They’re pretty good at it, too, from what I understand.”
    â€œHe had an affair with Toni,” she said, gravely. “Todd—if anybody benefited from her death, he certainly did.”
    â€œAnd you know this—how?”
    â€œI read her e-mails.”
    â€œE-mails signed by Lucas Shaw, Mayor of Denver?”
    â€œNo! But it’s him. Nelson told me—”
    â€œWho the hell is Nelson?”
    â€œThe guy who runs the homeless shelter. He and Toni were seeing each other after she broke things off with Shaw, and Shaw was pissed.”
    Todd sat for a moment, taking it all in. “This isn’t the National Enquirer , Morris.”
    â€œI know that. And I’m not trying to turn this into a Jerry Springer episode. But I needed to meet this guy and get a feel for him, and honestly, he’s shady, Todd.”
    â€œWell . . . duh! He’s a politician. Of course he’s shady.”
    â€œBut I mean when it comes to Toni.”
    â€œDid he tell you outright that he and your friend had an affair?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œThen you have nothing, Fatema.”
    â€œI have his e-mails. And the police questioned him too, and they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t feel he wasn’t somehow involved in all this.”
    â€œI don’t print speculation,” he explained, sounding more serious than she’d ever heard him sound before. “Shaw is a pisshead, and I don’t need flack from his office.”
    â€œI’m not afraid of him.”
    â€œThis isn’t about you, dammit!” He slammed his hand down on his desk. “This paper is my baby, Morris. And it’s been in circulation a very long time, mainly because—my father and his father believed in the sanctity of alliances and goodwill and not making unnecessary waves in this city. The Lucas Shaws of the world will come and go, but my integrity, the integrity of this newspaper has to be solid or else you might as well wipe your ass with it.”
    â€œSo we should kiss his ass?”
    â€œNo. But we shouldn’t lie to get fake meetings with the man and then turn around and print shit we don’t know is one thousand percent true or not.”
    â€œI know this is true. I know he had an affair with Toni while he’s been married and that he’s a snake who probably killed her and may just get away with it because everybody in this damn town is afraid of him!”
    He stared at her before asking her again. “There was a time when I believed you were as passionate about this business as I am, Morris,” he said solemnly. “You lived for the next great headline, got high on being the first to break that big story, but lately—”
    â€œLately, a lot’s been happening in my personal life,” she finished quietly. “My divorce, questioning the real reason I ever wanted to be a reporter in the first place, and now this.”
    â€œYou’ve had a lot of distractions this past year.”
    â€œNo, Todd. I think this past year I’ve had the misfortune of running into my life and actually having to face it once and for all, instead of ignoring it by pouring my heart and soul into this job.”
    â€œIt didn’t used to be just a job to you.”
    â€œYou’re right. But maybe that was the problem. I was so into