Shunning Sarah Read Online Free PDF Page B

me.”
    Ozzie explained that Bryce had seen a state map showing Harmony, Minnesota, built by the graphics department for my story, and concluded the murder was outside Channel 3’s primary viewing area. “He seemed upset that you had not been clearer about the location when you pitched the idea, and that you might have been taking advantage of him being new to the area.”
    “But we’re a major-market station,” I said. “We report news around the state, not just in our viewing area. Otherwise we’d never cover medical breakthroughs at the Mayo Clinic, or the record forest fire up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.”
    “I’ll let you explain that to him when you return,” Ozzie said.
    I told him we’d head back, and hung up just as my parents arrived with beef sandwiches and snickerdoodle cookies, hoping to turn the crime scene into a picnic zone. They were disappointed when they heard we were leaving and their plan for an impromptu reunion was a bust.
    “We don’t get to see you often enough,” my mother said.
    She had a point, and I could tell she put some effort into this impulsive get-together, even packing a plastic checkered tablecloth to drape over the tailgate of their pickup.
    My mother complimented me on my hair. “I like that you’re letting it grow out.”
    My locks hung just past my shoulders. “I just haven’t had time to have it cut.”
    All day my parents had been phoning with rumors. Luckily the sporadic cell service kept them from being in constant touch with me. Their neighbors had already locked into a theory that the killer must be an outsider because no one in these pleasant parts would ever commit such a horrific crime.
    “Probably one of those truckers,” my mother said. She dislikedtheir large rigs passing her on the road because they made the car shake. She also blamed them for potholes. And now apparently homicide.
    “That makes the most sense,” my father said, agreeing because that was easier than disagreeing.
    I didn’t question her theory, but I was betting that the murderer would turn out to be local.
    While the sinkhole was actually not that far from the road, I couldn’t see a stranger stumbling on the pit just when he needed a place to stash a body. And my guess was, the criminal investigation would take that direction and the killer would turn out to be a registered voter in Fillmore County.
    In the meantime, Malik and I took our sandwiches to the van and headed back to Channel 3 with video of a body being recovered, a picture of a boy, his dog, and a look down the hole.
    In a relief reversal, Sheriff Eide had let Malik come close enough to get a decent shot of the hollow. So Channel 3 had distinctive elements for the story.
    Later, I would realize that the sinkhole was like Alice’s venture down her rabbit hole into a world of symbolism and danger.

CHAPTER 13
    M alik climbed behind the wheel so I could concentrate on writing my story. The downside was that driving always put him in a grumpy mood. But brilliant writing might help Bryce see the merit in covering this particular story even if the crime fell outside the Channel 3 viewing area.
    “Do you have a pen?” I usually kept a couple in my purse, but couldn’t find any just then.
    “You’re asking me for a pen?” Malik said. “A pen? Out in the field, I’m responsible for camera, tripod, microphone, lights, and video discs. All you have to remember to bring is a pen and notebook. You have it so easy. Do your job and don’t ever ask me for a pen again.”
    So much for our contemporary working-spouse relationship. Now we were bickering like an old married couple. I tuned him out and dug around in the glove compartment until I found a chewed-up pencil.
    TV news is always scripted in a narrow column for easy reading. The lines time out to a second apiece. The format allows anchor eyes to stare straight ahead with authority rather than dart back and forth like a felon.
    ((ANCHOR MAP BOX))
    THINGS ARE NOT