Yesterday's News

, and a bunch of stops in between.”
    “And the affair?”
    Liz twisted her fingers in the tails of the blouse. “We’ve been discreet. Nobody’s trying to hurt anyone.”
    “Not even Jane Rust?”
    “I admit that was partly my fault.”
    “You do?”
    “Yes. When Janey applied for the job, she came through the city room and, well, she recognized me. After all, it’d only been five years since we’d worked together in Gainesville . I thought she was kind of shaky down there, but I also thought that Cabbiness hadn’t been fair to her. So, I basically maneuvered her into a spot on the Beacon. That’s what I mean, you see? If it weren’t for me, Janey never would have been here, or gotten involved with Coyne, or become so depressed she killed herself.”
    I lifted my wineglass as though to toast, and Rendall began to smile. Then I said, “To a marvelous performance, Cassy.”
    Her smile froze.
    “You played me like a fish. I give you credit there. Volunteering to get information on the old Meller articles, aiming me at Dykestra and the redevelopment stuff.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I heard you out. Now you let me tell my version, okay?”
    “John, I—”
    “First, I don’t see Dwight Meller pulling a B & E the way Hagan, Schonsy, and you all claim. I see poor Dwight, kind of a social outcast, getting his thrills in the alleys around The Strip, watching the ladies of the night service their customers. But the early seventies are times of change, right? Times of experimentation. Maybe a real kick for a journalism major to get it off with two cops in a cruiser.”
    Her features stretched, the eyes protruding.
    I said, “Poor Dwight happens on the scene, and probably Hagan starts after him, to threaten him into silence, because the times they weren’t quite so a changin’ for the cops. But something goes wrong, I believe Hagan there, and Dwight’s neck snaps. Now what to do? Concoct a story about burglary and resisting arrest, and flatten Schonsy’s oft-broken nose for effect. It was a nice touch to turn you from a liability into a witness for the heroes.”
    “You don’t know a thing.”
    “It gets better. Except for Dwight, everybody survives the mess. Cassy Griffin leaves Nasharbor for the fast lane, and Hagan advances, and Schonsy sort of stays the same. When you come back, Hagan sees all the old virtues in the new Liz Rendall. Schonsy recognizes you, though it’s no big problem, because everybody’s friends and conspirators from the old days. But then, enter Jane Rust. Jane needs a job. Jane thinks you owe her one, or maybe she just appeals to you to recommend her. The problem, however, is that you never told the Beacon about your sojourn in Florida . Easy enough to delete from the resume. You were coming off a bad marriage, out of journalism for a while, no one’s likely to ask embarrassing chronological questions that would show the Gainesville gap. But Jane, intentionally or accidentally, could do just that, especially with the name you were known by down there that somebody might remember up here with the right amount of prodding.”
    “Bull—”
    “So my guess is you decide that getting Jane the job is the easier course, since you figure she’ll foul up and get fired reasonably soon. Tell me, Cassy, did you ask Jane not to mention the Messenger at all? Why bring up bad times better forgotten?”
    “My name is Liz. Liz Ren—”
    “Still, everything’s going according to plan. Hagan is looking sharp for chief, Jane according to Arbuckle is shooting herself in both feet, and you just have to wait for Neil to be anointed to get him to divorce his wife and make you two an honest couple. Not something that fits well with a candidate for chief, but not something that would get him demoted once in the top seat, right?”
    She didn’t reply.
    “Only Schonsy’s son steps in the shit. On the take from Gotbaum, and Charlie Coyne can nail him for it. Ordinarily, just a little pressure in the right places, and Schonsy Senior could fix things, get Coyne to lay off. But Coyne and Jane are into it. According to Duckie Teevens and Gail Fearey, maybe even the real thing. Real enough anyway so Coyne doesn’t scare off, and now Schonsy Senior has to play his hole card. We know what that is, don’t we, Cassy?”
    “Don’t call me that!”
    “Schonsy the elder tells Hagan that either Coyne and Jane disappear, or Schonsy blows the whistle on Hagan and you, both for the Meller incident