All Dressed in White

6

Laurie and Sandra were still talking two hours later, when Laurie’s cell phone let out a little chirp. It was her alarm, alerting her that her meeting with Brett was in ten minutes.

“Sandra, I’m afraid I have an appointment with my boss.” Brett was not the type of person who could tolerate being kept waiting. “But I’m very glad you flew all the way across the country to tell me about Amanda.”

As she walked her out of the office, Sandra had one last question. “Is there anything else I can tell you to help you decide to feature her case on the show?”

“I don’t make these decisions on my own, but I promise I’ll get back to you one way or the other soon.”

“I guess that’s all I can ask for,” Sandra said. She turned to Grace, who was sitting at her desk. “Thank you again for your kindness, Grace. I hope I’ll be seeing both of you again.”

“It was my pleasure,” Grace said, her voice sympathetic.

Once Sandra was gone, Jerry immediately joined them. “Why does that woman look so familiar? Is she an actress by chance?”

Laurie shook her head. “No, I’ll explain later.”

“Well, she was in there forever,” Jerry said. “Grace and I kept wondering whether we should interrupt. Our meeting with Brett is in just a few minutes, and we haven’t had a chance to run through our list of story ideas.”

They had been planning to discuss their three top contenders one last time before Laurie had to pitch the concepts to Brett. She had started including Jerry in some of her planning meetings with Brett as he continued to take on increasing production responsibilities. She tended to focus on the news aspects of the program-the suspects, the witnesses, how to nail down their stories. Jerry’s talent was in envisioning scenes for the actual production-scouting locations, re-creating images from the crime, making the show as cinematographic as possible.

“I didn’t expect to spend so much time with her either, but I think I’ve got a plan. Just follow my lead.”

They started to walk quickly down the corridor to Brett Young’s corner office.