Chapter 3-1
956 Words
3
Moira schooled her face and practiced what she wanted to say. Treat it like an interview. Be professional. And don’t think about Jimmy O’Malley.
She tugged on her T-shirt to straighten it, knowing it was a silly habit, especially since no one would see her over the phone. One more deep breath. Game time. She dialed quickly before she lost her nerve.
“Hello.”
“Hi, is this Detective Ruiz?”
“Speaking.”
“Hi, Detective. This is Moira O’Leary. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure.”
“I have a proposition. I know this afternoon I was…less than professional. I apologize. I definitely would never do something to intentionally cause problems for the police.” She inhaled slowly and reminded herself that Jimmy was the police, and although she liked to cause as many problems for him as possible, she couldn’t this time. “Anyway, I’m sure Jim—I mean Detective O’Malley explained that we grew up together. You know how it is when you’ve known someone your whole life. You get on each other’s nerves.”
“Okay.”
“Let me get to the point.”
“Please do.”
“I take it from last night’s fund-raiser that Detective O’Malley needs to be accepted in this social circle for whatever case you’re working on. My guess is, that needs to happen fast. I’m offering my help.”
A slight pause and then, “Go on.”
Ha! I knew this would work. “I know this crowd. I’ve been writing about these people for a year now. We might not be friends—they’re never going to invite me out for coffee or anything—but they trust me. I make them look good. When they want press, when they have a cause they feel strongly about, they call me.” Moira shifted the phone to her other ear and clicked to open her e-mail. Her invite to the Lincoln Park Zoo benefit had arrived. This was one party she really liked.
The zoo was one of her favorite places. She had excellent memories of going to the zoo as a kid with her whole family.
“How do you suppose you could help, Ms. O’Leary?”
“Uh…” s**t. She’d gotten distracted again. She hadn’t come up with a plan for Jimmy. She just knew she could use his situation to help herself. “I can talk to him in front of the others. Make it seem like I know all about him so he doesn’t appear to be such an outsider.”
“And you think that’ll be enough?”
“If you can have your tech guys, who I’m assuming created Jimmy’s phony online life, create a few news articles dropping his name. They have to be out of town events for it to be realistic. These people read the newspapers and blogs that celebrate themselves. While they might excuse not noticing Jimmy at one or two events, they’ll know if he keeps saying he was somewhere, but no one remembers him.”
“In truth, we were hoping no one would notice.”
“They will. If I act like he belongs, offer to interview him as a new Chicagoan, the others will take notice. I’m not saying they care about what I think, but they’ll notice. Between that and being the mayor’s friend, he should be able to blend.” Moira sounded good even to her own ears. She was getting good at the bullshit.
“And what are you looking for?”
“Excuse me?”
“Cut the crap, Ms. O’Leary. You’re not calling me and offering help out of the goodness of your heart. You’re after the story.”
“Well, I am a reporter. This is how I make my living.”
“I can’t make you any promises.”
“I didn’t think you would. I can promise not to write anything without permission, but I want the exclusive.”
Detective Ruiz sighed heavily. “I’ll run it by the commander, but it’s probably doable. It might not pan out to be much of anything. There might not even be a story.”
Moira doubted that. Jimmy wasn’t the kind of guy who spun his wheels on a pointless job. “What’s the next event he has to go to?”
“There’s something going on tomorrow night. A fund-raiser for I don’t know what.”
“You need to narrow it down more. I have at least two to three things on most nights I could go to.”
“Animals!” Detective Ruiz yelled.
“The animal shelter?”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
Moira scanned her schedule. She hadn’t planned on attending. It broke her heart to see all those dogs waiting for adoption. She always wanted to bring them all home, and her building wouldn’t let her have a pet at all. She sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there.” She added it to her schedule. “You know Jimmy’s not going to like this, right?”
“Of course. That’s why you called me instead of him, even though you grew up together.”
“He would shut the whole idea down. He wouldn’t want to accept any help from me.”
She heard what sounded like a snort of laughter. There was nothing funny about pissing off Jimmy O’Malley. Maybe his partner hadn’t learned that lesson.
“Call me after you break the news to him. Will you be at the fund-raiser?”
“Not where you can see me. I’m purely backup.”
Backup, huh? Was Jimmy into something dangerous? He hadn’t made it sound dangerous. He’d just sounded like he didn’t want her anywhere near him. “Okay, then. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Oh, and this event is business casual. Tell him to leave the tux at home.”
Moira disconnected and danced through her living room. She popped the top on a beer and took a swig. Things were looking up. Having his partner deliver the bad news to Jimmy could only be sweeter if she could watch. It would almost make up for him scaring the s**t out of her in her apartment.
She smiled as she took another drink. She’d definitely learned her lesson, though. She’d never forget to throw that lock again. After all these years, Jimmy O’Malley was still looking out for her.
- Writer
