At the moment, I was trying to support Coop in his campaign for sheriff, complete the manuscript I owed my new publisher, and keep GO News from gaining on us. I wasn’t doing super-great at any of those things.
2
“I love the Eldorado, but why did you use your gift card on me instead of Gabe?” Miguel asked. The waiter at one of the best restaurants in Madison had just delivered our drinks—a Honey Ginger Margarita for me, a Pineapple Basil Mojito for Miguel—and taken our entree orders.
The Eldorado manages to be spacious and cozy at the same time, with lots of wood and leather, exposed brick, polished wood floors, and whimsical cowboy and bucking bronco silhouettes.
“Hey, nothing but the best for you, my friend. Did you notice that I sprang for the extra $2.99 for chips and salsa? When you’re with me, it’s class all the way,” I said, dipping a chip into the perfectly seasoned salsa. “Also, my gift card runs out tomorrow and Gabe texted last night that he won’t be back until Saturday.”
Gabe Hoffman is an attorney in town who is my partner in romance and occasionally crime. For me, the crime part is easier to handle than the romance.
“What’s he doing?”
“He went to see a friend who needs help. Someone back in New York. It must be some kind of legal tangle, because he couldn’t tell me much. And then he plans to see some people he used to work with when he was with the district attorney’s office. I’ve got Barnacle at my place for a few days, by the way, so if you want to get in some quality time with him, feel free to come upstairs and get him for a walk.”
My loft apartment is on the top floor of a renovated downtown Himmel building. The Himmel Times office is on the ground floor, which makes it pretty convenient—at times, too convenient.
“Who’s covering the League of Women Voters candidate night tomorrow?” I asked.
“Me. Troy has the school board meeting.”
“Is anyone doing a follow-up on that fatality on Roosevelt Road last night?”
“Troy is.”
“Do you have anyone on the zoning meeting in Omico? The fight over a variance to build condos in a single-family neighborhood is really heating up.”
“No stringers available, so I’ll do a follow-up phone call with the committee chair.”
I shook my head.
“Someone really should be there if we want to stay on top of things. I can pick it up for you.”
He looked at me, surprised.
“But don’t you want to be at the candidate night, chica? It’s going to be a big one. Coop and Sheriff Lamey on stage together, the first time. I could do the zoning and you could cover the candidates.”
“Acting Sheriff Lamey, you mean. Sure, I’d like to watch Coop decimate Lamey, but I couldn’t report on it. It’s one thing for the editorial board of the Times to endorse Coop’s run for county sheriff. It’s another for me to do the write-up of candidate night.”
David Cooper, Coop to everyone but his mother, has been my best friend for more than twenty years. He was also the smartest cop in the Himmel Police Department, until he quit in disgust a few months ago. I was a thousand percent behind his run to defeat the incompetent and quite possibly corrupt acting sheriff, Art Lamey.
“Oh. GO News,” Miguel said, picking up on my point immediately.
“Right. Spencer would have a field day with that.” Spencer Karr is the publisher of GO News. He, Coop, and I went to high school together. We weren’t friends.
“I feel bad—”
“Don’t. You’re doing a great job balancing things with Maggie out. We just don’t have a very deep bench for you to pull from. Not enough stringers, for one thing. And then there’s Troy.”
“He picked up the fatality last night and he did fine. Yes, he did mix up the name of the Hailwell Homecoming King, but that’s not so very bad.”
“It’s not the only thing he didn’t get right, Miguel. What about the cutline that identified Gloria Busboom as chair of the county Democratic Party, only, oh-oh, she’s the Republican chair. I had to spend twenty minutes convincing her not to cancel her half-page ad for Busboom Heating and Plumbing.”
“Okay, yes, that wasn’t good. But Troy is trying hard. You can make mistakes when you try too hard,” Miguel said.
“I guess you could be right.”
“I am right. Also, you scare him a little.”
“I scare him? How do I do that?”
Miguel laughed.
“Chica, you scare me, sometimes. You are so sure, and you say it so strong. Sometimes it can be …” He paused for a moment, cocking his head and holding his thumb and forefinger a quarter inch apart. “Just a little intimidating.”
It always surprises me a bit when someone thinks I’m sure of things, although I try hard to project that image. The truth is, most of the time I feel like I’m working over my head. I just don’t let very many people know it. I feel safer that way.
“You’re making me sound kind of obnoxious, Miguel. If I’m so bad, why do you hang with me?”
“You’re not obnoxious. Obstinate, yes. But not obnoxious. I hang with you because you’re funny, and smart, and I love you, chica.”
“Thanks, I love you, too. And maybe you’re just a tiny bit right. I’ll try to lighten up around Troy. I guess he can’t help it if he’s not you. But I need him to kick it into gear. We can’t afford to lose regular advertisers like Gloria Busboom. Ask Miguel is picking up steam—and subscribers—but we still need those ads.”
Miguel’s Ask Miguel column in the Himmel Times started a few months ago. It’s his take on an old-school advice column. He happily dispenses fashion tips, dating advice, and general life coaching—all areas in which he feels extremely at ease. We started the column as counterprogramming to Tea to GO, a collection of mostly blind, often vicious items featured in GO News. Unfortunately that kind of “news” appeals to the schadenfreude in all of us, and it’s still very popular.
The waiter brought our entrees then, and we settled down to more general conversation. Miguel told a long and very funny story about one of his million cousins, most of whom live in Milwaukee. Laughing as he finished, I looked up and locked eyes with someone at the table across the room. I stopped laughing.
“What?” Miguel asked, and then turned, his gaze following mine. There, sipping on a cocktail, was Andrea Novak, one-time Himmel Times employee, currently the lead viper at GO News. As I gave a slight nod, she smiled and quickly withdrew the hand that had been resting on the arm of the current acting sheriff of Grantland County, Art Lamey.
Miguel reached out to restrain me, but I had already jumped up. I strode across the crowded restaurant, a wide and fake smile on my face. This was going to be good.
“Acting Sheriff Lamey, hello!”
He hates it when I call him that, so I make it a point to do it whenever I can.
“And Andrea! So nice to run into you.”
I turned back to Lamey.
“Is your wife here, too? I want to thank her for that wonderful letter to the editor last week. We may not agree, but I always appreciate subscriber engagement.” My voice was honeyed and my eyes bright as I looked around the table, which was quite obviously set up for two, not three.