Hard News

We’re not in the business of social services.”
    “No, it’ll be a really good story. And it’ll be sort of like …” Rune heard her clumsy words and froze. She must think I’m a total idiot. Sutton raised her eyebrows and Rune continued carefully, “If we get him released then all the other stations and newspapers’ll cover
us.”
    “Us?”
    “Well, you and
Current Events
. For getting the guy out of jail.”
    Sutton waved her hand. “It’s a small story. It’s a local story.” Sutton began writing on the sheet of paper in front of her. Her handwriting was elegant. “That’s all.”
    “Well, if you could maybe just keep this.” Rune opened her bag and handed Sutton a sheet of paper with a synopsis of the story. The anchorwoman slipped it underneath her china coffee cup on the far side of her desk and returned to the document she’d been reading.
    Outside the woman’s office the secretary looked up at Rune in horror. “Who are you?” Her voice was high in panic. “How did you get in here?”
    “Sorry, got lost,” Rune said gloomily and continued toward the dark-paneled elevator bank.
    The elevator doors had just opened when Rune heard a voice like steel on stone. “You,” Piper Sutton shouted, pointing at Rune. “Back in here. Now.”
    Rune hurried back to the office. Sutton, close to six feet, towered over her. She hadn’t realized the anchor-woman was so tall. She hated tall women.
    Sutton slammed the door shut behind them. “Sit.”
    Rune did.
    When she too was seated Sutton said, “You didn’t tell me it was Randy Boggs.”
    Rune said, “He’s not famous. You said you weren’t interested in somebody who wasn’t—”
    “You should’ve given me all the facts.”
    Rune looked contrite. “Sorry. I didn’t think.”
    “All right. Boggs
could
be news. Tell me what you’ve found out.”
    “I read the letter. And I watched those tapes—of the trial and one of him in prison a year ago. He says he’s innocent.”
    Sutton snapped. “And?”
    “And, that’s it.”
    “What do you mean, ‘that’s it’? That’s why you think he’s innocent? Because he
said
so?”
    “He said the police didn’t really investigate the crime. They didn’t try to find many witnesses and they didn’t really spend any time talking to the ones they did find.”
    “Didn’t he tell that to his lawyer?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “And that’s
all?”
Sutton asked.
    “It’s just that I … I don’t know. I looked at his face on the tape and I believe him.”
    “You
believe
him?” Sutton laughed again. She opened her desk and took out a pack of cigarettes. She lit one with a silver lighter. Inhaled for a long moment.
    Rune looked around the room, trying to think up an answer to defend herself. Being studied by Piper Sutton knocked most of the thoughts out of her head. All she said was “Read the letter.” Rune nodded toward the file she’d given the woman. Sutton found it and read. She asked, “This is a copy. You have the original?”
    “I thought the police might need it for evidence if he ever got a new trial. The original’s locked in my desk.”
    Sutton closed the file. Said, “I guess I’m looking at quite a judge of human character. You’re, what, some justice psychic? You get the vibes that this man’s innocent and that’s that? Listen, dear, at the risk of sounding like a journalism professor let me tell you something. There’s only one thing that matters in news: the truth. That’s all. You’ve got a goddamn feeling this man is innocent, well, good for you. But you go asking questions based on rumors, just because you get some kind of psychic fax that Boggs is innocent, well, that bullshit’ll sink a news department real fast. Not to mention your career. Unsupported claims’re cyanide in this business.”
    Rune said, “I was going to do the story right. I know how to research. I know how to interview. I wasn’t going to go with anything that wasn’t …” Oh, hell:
corroborated
or
collaborated’?
Which was it? Rune wasn’t good with sound-alike words. “… backed up.”
    Sutton calmed. “All right, what you’re saying is you have a hunch and you want to check it out.”
    “I guess I am.”
    “You guess you are.” Sutton nodded then pointed her cigarette at Rune. “Let me ask you a question.”
    “Shoot.”
    “I’m not suggesting that you not pursue this story.”
    Rune tried to sort out the
not
s.
    Sutton continued, “I’d never suggest that a