Chapter Twenty-Eight

She shared herscreen so we could watch it together, with our faces thumbnailed down the side.

I wasn't sure how it helped us, but it was fascinating. In a slo-mo sort of way.

Wendy had a point with her Sloooow-leeeee.

Also, I saw what Penny meant about spaces between Keefer and other people. There was a detachment about him. Not cold. Not superior. Simply... disconnected.

I also remembered Sam McCracken's comment about Keefe letting woodland creatures come up to him.

Because Sam saw this video?

If he had, it wasn't by accident.

It took even Jennifer and her crew an effort to find it. As a non-whiz, Sam would have had to really dig.

But what stuck in my head, even after we wrapped up and I got back to work recasting a story for the Ten, was a litany.

Etta Place disappeared. Laura Bullion disappeared. Pearl disappeared.

Yes, women did die or disappear, especially in that era.

Yes, the Pinkertons did not follow up on the women once the man they were connected to died. So maybe that bit of short-sighted sexism was a benefit.

That allowed the women to disappear.

Did it allow them — any of them — to go on to full lives.

And possibly have children.

****

Having already exchangedgood-night messages with Tom, I was in bed, reading the dissertation by Mrs. P's friend/mentor — my homework assignment as Tamantha noted — when Mike called.

The dissertation was slow going, being academic and written in an earlier, more formal style. Yet a hint of wry humor came through to me now and then. Or was that my imagination or wishful thinking?

"I'm still wrestling with whether to hire Octavia Zabel," he said without preamble.

"Half an anchor in hand is worth one in the bush," I said.

"Worth even more than none in the bush." From that gloomy response, he bounced back immediately. "You're right. I'm hiring her. Gets us at least a little farther along."

"I was talking with Needham..."

I shared his idea about how we might benefit from the journalistic experience being jettisoned by newspapers.

He was quiet for a long moment, then said, "Our people already know how to put together a newscast. With an experienced anchor — or two — we'd cover more of the broadcast angles. A news director from a newspaper background could offer valuable journalistic experience... We'd still be sort of piecemeal, instead of the usual newsroom structure I'd hoped for."

"When has KWMT ever been usual? You're spoiled from being there in Chicago. Cast your mind back to working under the Haeburn-Fine regime," I said, invoking the dread names of our former news director and anchor.

"Yeah. I get that. I was hoping to offer really top-notch folks for the mentoring, what you dubbed post-grad training."

"So, we build more slowly. We take our piecemeal gains and we keep building on them. The reputation comes a bit more gradually. We'll still get there."

"It would mean a crash course in visual reporting for a newspaper hire."

"Maybe not as much as it would have before having an online presence required newspapers to offer multimedia, too."

"Good point."

"We already thought we'd be teaching the young hires more about good video, with Diana as our secret weapon. We just expand the lessons to the news director."

"I hate to take her off assignments."

"Then don't. Send new hires out with her. Have them shoot the B-roll. Let her talk through what she's doing as she's doing it. Most of them are multimedia types anyway. Let them do the reporting while also honing their visual skills with her."

"Hmm. Are you going to talk to her?"

"We both will. Together."

He seemed satisfied as we said good-night, but not chipper.

Me, either, as I returned to the dissertation.