Drive Time

Chapter Thirteen

“Thanks for joining us on Drive Time all you car lovers out there. It’s Tyler and Taylor on Wixie, here to…” The booming radio voice pauses. “Drive. You.” Two voices talking now. “Car-razy!”

A souped-up version of the Beatles’ “Drive My Car” fills my Jeep as I head back to my Beacon Hill apartment. I’m verging on late. I’ve got just enough time to get home, grab some food, change clothes and then go meet J.T. and Franklin for our valet-parking stakeout. I wonder if Franko is still upset about the Kevin meeting. I shake my head, tuning out the radio chatter. I wasn’t trying to cut him out of the process. He’ll have to get over it.

As for Kevin, I have about two weeks now to make my New York decision. My current vote is yes. This morning at home it was no. How can something that once seemed so irresistibly compelling fade into “maybe”? Every television journalist dreams of going to the network. Do we outgrow our dreams? Am I afraid? Afraid of New York? Or of making the wrong decision? Over the past week or so, I’ve changed my mind about fifty thousand times.

“And here’s Morris from Milton,” Taylor’s or Tyler’s voice grates through the speakers. Maysie’s next show is tomorrow, but she’s insisting now that she’s home, she can do it herself, over the phone. So much for my short-lived and low-paying radio career. But at least I don’t have to listen to these guys hawking used cars.

“…my wife and I are leaving Beantown,” the caller is saying. “Yup, got a job down south, so we’re getting out of Dodge.”

“Good one,” Taylor or Tyler retorts. “Dodge, huh? But it’s not a Dodge you’re selling today, right?”

This is appallingly stupid. I reach to change the station, but have to hit the horn instead. I glare at some teenager who’s paying more attention to his cell phone than his driving.

“…it’s hot, it’s cool, it’s the Mustang you’ve always wanted,” the voice says. “Metallic blue, perfect condition, and we’re so pumped to sell, we’re ready to deal.”

“Sounds like a deal! And whoo hoo, listeners, you heard it here first. So let’s give your phone number…”

A blue Mustang. They’re selling a blue Mustang. Is someone moving stolen cars over the radio? Pretty smart. And pretty safe. The person on the phone is just a voice. An anonymous voice. Could be calling from anywhere.

Is the blue Mustang a clone of Michael Borum’s car? I have Borum’s VIN. All I have to do is see it, check the VIN, and I could prove it’s stolen. And that means I could prove the seller is part of the-whatever it is. Bet Franklin can’t stay angry through that.

Keeping my eye on the road and driving one-handed, I scramble in my Jeep’s center console for some paper. Nothing. A pen. I could write the phone number on my hand or somewhere. I finally grab one.

The phone number is Boston’s area code, 617-I try to ink the numbers onto my palm. Nothing. The pen is dry. All I’m getting is red indentations.

I’ve got to remember the number. I flip off the radio and being singing it out loud, to the tune of an old Marvelettes song from the sixties. Still singing, I use one finger to write the number on the car window. The temperature outside is plummeting. The weather guy predicted it’ll go below freezing. Maybe when I get home and puff my warm breath on the window, the number will appear. Just like in The Lady Vanishes.

Almost home. Five-five-five, zero-one-nine-three. I sing it, over and over. Pull into my parking place.

I yank open the building’s front door. Race up the steps, still singing under my breath. Five-five-five. Up two flights of stairs, whirling myself around the newel post of the second landing. Zero-one-nine-three. Dig out my keys. Open the door. Run for the kitchen phone. And the pad and pencil I always keep there.

Five-five-five…

And there’s the pencil and paper. Zero-one-nine-three. And the number goes safely onto the pad. I raise a triumphant fist. I win.

Grabbing the kitchen phone receiver, I punch in the numbers, my plan forming as I dial. I’ll be the dumb-blonde car buyer, I’ll take a hidden camera and go see the car, okay, in some kind of disguise, and nail the bad guys.

I hold the phone way from my ear, incensed, hearing the most irritating sounds ever created. Is there anything more ear-harassing than the rising scale doo-doo-DOO of “the number you have reached is not in service”?

Did I dial wrong? I punch in the numbers again. Doo-doo-DOO. I slam down the phone. Stupid short-term memory.

I stand there, fists clenched, seething. Staring at the phone number as if I can learn something. My stupid phone-number song is still going through my head. I’ll probably never forget it. And it will take the place of something I really need to remember.

My fists unclench. I’ll just call Wixie tomorrow. Get Saskia to tell me the number. Or I could call her now. I reach for the phone, then stop halfway. Why am I going to tell her I need the number? I suddenly want to buy a Mustang?

Plan B. I’ll use the whole situation to make Franklin happy. I’ll tell him about it tonight during the stakeout and he can call the radio station tomorrow. He can pose as the buyer, go undercover with the camera and get all the glory.

Another life disaster successfully averted.

“He’s not coming? Are you kidding me? Why didn’t he call me?” I lean out the window of my Jeep, motor running and headlights on. It’s getting ready to snow again, tiny flakes spitting onto the windshield. I have two huge coffees in the cup holders, one for me and one for Franklin. Now, to my surprise, it sounds like they’re both for me. “Is he sick?”

J.T.’s in the station’s fiery-red Explorer, his window open, his headlights facing the opposite direction in the alleyway outside Channel 3. He buzzes down his window so it’s open wider and leans out to reply. “Nope. He just said he’s feeling like a third wheel. Something like that. Said we didn’t need him.”

I don’t know whether to be angry. Or upset. Or hurt. Or guilty. I’m a little of each.

“Yeah, okay, fine. I guess.” I shrug, trying to evaluate. And to think I’d been eager to share the WWXI blue Mustang lead. Still, eyes on tonight’s prize, the stakeout will work. Even though part of the fun is doing the story together. “You drop off the Explorer in valet parking. I’ll be waiting across the street. Are the cameras operating like we planned?”

“Yup. I did a few test runs. All worked great. We rented both cameras for two weeks, so we’re set. There’s, like, three, four hours of tape time. After that, we’re done. No matter what happens. It’ll go to black.”

“We’ll get what we get.” I twist my head around, looking up at the sky. A big snowflake plops onto one eye. “You think this’ll be a problem? The snow?”

“It’s winter.” J.T. shifts his car into Drive. “Valet parking could be even more crowded, you know? People don’t want to walk? Drop off their cars instead?”

“We’ll at least be able to see if the taping system works.” I yank my gearshift into D. “Let’s do it.”

It’s snowing hard as we arrive at the Longmore. It’s 9:00 p.m. I stay back, sneaking the Jeep into a bus stop half a block down the street from the hotel. The city’s glowing streetlights let me watch J.T. pull into the Longmore’s curved driveway, and see the nylon jacket of the valet parker come out. They chat. J.T. should be telling him the “staying late, maybe overnight” story. And then, just as we planned, the valet slides into J.T.’s place in the driver’s seat. J.T. pushes through the revolving doors and into the hotel. Inside the Explorer, three cameras are rolling tape. Just as we planned. We hope.

The Explorer, valet at the wheel, eases out into the street. Pulls to the curb. Double-parks next to a hotel van. Terrific. He can’t leave it there for long. I’m transfixed. I can’t take my eyes off the car.

There’s a bang outside my passenger-side door. I leap so high my head almost hits the roof. I whirl, eyes wide, terrified. It’s J.T., trying to get in. I click open the lock, he slides into the passenger seat.

“I came out the side door,” he says. “Worked without a hitch. One of these coffees for me?”

We keep vigil in our parking spot just down the street from the Longmore.

“You know, you don’t really need to clamp the viewfinder to your eye the whole time,” I say to J.T. “As soon as someone gets into the car, you can roll tape. Nothing’s happening. You’ve been like that for almost an hour.”

J.T. doesn’t move the camera from its ready position. “Soon as I put the camera down, something will happen. Never fails,” he says.

I can’t see his face, since the camera is between us.

“No question,” I agree. “Can you believe the Explorer’s been double-parked this long? All we’ve got is video of snow. And a couple valet parkers who used the front seat to get warm or something.”

“Here comes someone.” J.T. sits up straighter. One hand is on the lens, ready to focus on whatever happens.

My heart begins to race. This could be it. I click the gearshift back into D. “Ready. Cross your fingers for the hidden cameras.”

A man in a valet jacket, head bent against the increasing snow, opens the door to the Explorer. I see the rear lights go on.

“Here we go,” I say. I realize I’m holding my breath. Stakeouts. Hours of boring surveillance. Followed by instant and heart-churning adrenaline.

The minutes tick by. One. Two. Five. And then the lights go off. The valet gets out. And he trots back into the hotel.

“Are you kidding me?” I say. My mouth drops open.

“Are you friggin’ kidding me?” J.T. says.

“It’s eleven o’clock. Do you know where your car is?” J.T.’s got his elbow braced on the passenger-side window ledge. He hasn’t budged in the last two hours. And neither has our car. It’s still double-parked in front of the hotel.

I throw him a look, creeped out a bit by the “do you know where your car is” line. But of course, he can’t know about the Bexter phone calls. And it’s a such TV cliché, everyone uses it. I quickly go back to watching the Explorer. I can’t afford to miss anything that might happen.

“You’re truly a good sport,” I say, still facing forward. Despite what Maysie feared, this guy is the genuine article. Clearly not an ax murderer. And I may have judged him too harshly about the network stuff. He’s sitting in the car, not complaining. “I really appreciate it, J.T. No matter what happens tonight.”

“Not a prob,” he says. His eye is still locked to the viewfinder. A few cars hiss by in the increasing snow, headlights briefly glaring through our front seat, then leaving us in the semidarkness. We’ve chatted off and on, passing the time, about nothing. Our coffees are long gone.

“You were with the network, huh? You like it?” Might as well let him talk about it, if he loves it so much. Television is relentlessly nomadic. Everyone always on the prowl for the next big job. Everyone with a where-I-came-from and a where-I-want-to-go-next story. And everyone loves to tell theirs. Which reminds me, again, of New York. I push the thought away. “Where’d you start in TV?”

“I left college right after graduation,” he says. “Went overseas, you know, big adventure. See the world. Did some work as a stringer for Reuters, got some lucky breaks, got hired by CNN International. Israel. Syria, for a few weeks. Afghanistan. Then got nailed by the economy. Boom. Laid off. Everyone’s closing their overseas bureaus. Jerks. But Boston isn’t a bad gig. You?”

“Boring. Predictable. Lucky. J-school after college. Interned back home in Chicago, got a good résumé tape. They needed to hire a woman in Boston-equal-opportunity laws, thank you so much. So I got there at the right time and I got the job. That’s the lucky part. Then it was weekends and nights. You know the drill. For a couple years.”

I shrug, still facing forward. Still watching the car. “Seemed to work. Eventually I was assigned the investigative unit.”

“‘Seemed’to work? How many Emmys you got now?”

“Not enough,” I say. The car is silent for a moment.

“Your family must be happy you’re back in the States.” I try another probably safe conversational topic.

“Who knows.”

Even though it’s muffled by the camera, I can tell J.T.’s voice has changed. I wish I could look at him to gauge what’s wrong, or different, but I can’t risk it. More headlights flash by, both directions.

“Who knows?” I repeat, wondering what he means. This could be precarious territory. But he seems to be asking for another question. “Are they-?”

“Who knows,” J.T. says again. “I was raised in foster families. Never found my birth parents. When I was eighteen, I decided to ask. They told me the adoption was sealed. I stopped looking. Now it doesn’t matter. They must have had their reasons for giving me up.”

“The Shaws?”

“Who knows. Shaw is the name of the hospital where I was born. My birth certificate just says-Tommy. Last name unknown. And that’s where J.T. came from. Just Tommy.”

We sit in silence for a moment. I know it’s late, and I’ve had too much coffee. But it’s so profoundly revealing. Maybe about both of us. I’ve been impatient with him, dismissed him as an egotistical know-it-all. He doesn’t even know his own real name.

“J.T.,” I whisper. Adrenaline time. “Roll.”

I see the dashboard clock in my peripheral vision: 11:28. If we’re lucky, and we often are, we’ll have plenty of tape to record whatever is about to happen. I cross my fingers. And I watch.

The valet gets into the front seat. The rear lights, red then white, flicker on.

I look at J.T. “Are you-?”

“Don’t worry,” he says. His eye is pressed to the viewfinder. The red light is on. He’s rolling.

A puff of exhaust plumes from the back of the Explorer.

I click the gearshift into D.

The Explorer pulls out, slowly, onto Water Street.

I check my rearview. Coast is clear behind me. I turn the wheel, just enough, ready to hit the accelerator and follow wherever the Explorer takes us.

The Explorer stops. It backs into a parking space. The headlights go dark. The valet gets out, slams the door and walks away.

I let out a puff of air. “Bummer,” I whisper.

So much for the stakeout. The car is clearly staying put. I leave my gearshift in Drive. We’re done. And we’re out of here.

“Tomorrow night?” I say. Like I’m asking for a date. Stakeouts don’t always work. You’ve got to expect that and embrace it. You have to hear no before you hear yes. And tomorrow we’ll be more experienced. I know all the rationalizations, chant them like some journalism mantra. “Same time, same place?”

“You’re on,” J.T. replies. He gets it. “Take two.”

“Are you already awake? How late did you get in? How’d it go? Did you get any sleep at all?” Josh, bleary-eyed and half-groggy, turns over to face me. “You’re reading?”

I’ve got my back against the headboard, one leg crossed over my knee, wearing Josh’s socks and a toobig Bexter sleep-shirt. I close the Bexter fundraising report, holding my place with one finger, and lean over to give Josh a good-morning kiss. It’s almost eight, but my brain is too buzzy to sleep any more. Too much to think about.

“Yeah, I’m looking at the-Tell you later. Too complicated,” I say. “Stakeout was a bust. We’re trying again tonight. I have to go in late, again, sweets. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm.” Josh plucks the pamphlet from my hand and tosses it onto the floor beside the bed. He slides one hand, slowly, slowly, underneath my Bexter shirt. “What can you do to make it up to me, I wonder?”

Finally. A question that’s not difficult to answer.

A tiny terracotta pot of white chrysanthemums, tied with a thin white ribbon, is in the middle of my desk. And next to the flowers, a steaming latte.

“My bad,” Franklin says. He’s standing by his desk. Looking sheepish. “I heard about the stakeout last night. I’m sorry it was a no-go. And, Charlotte…”

He blinks a few times, watching me hang my coat and staticky muffler on the hook. It’s late afternoon, and since we’re working overnight again, I’m just arriving. I had a very lovely morning.

I decide to let Franklin say what he wants to say.

“Charlotte, I’m truly sorry about standing y’all up last night. It was, well, it won’t happen again.” Franklin’s southern accent only slips out when he’s upset or nervous.

“These are from you?” I hold up the pot of flowers, sweetly pristine, a peace offering I instantly accept. “Is everything okay, Franko?”

Franklin nods.

We’ve worked together for almost three years and I really can’t remember another time when there’s been any animosity. Sure, we’ve disagreed over story ideas, and planning, and strategy. But that’s typical reporter-producer. If you didn’t disagree and discuss and debate, no good ideas would ever emerge. But what happened last night? He didn’t show up. That’s a new one. And I wonder what’s going on.

“Is it Stephen?” I venture a guess. “Your family? You know, you can tell me anything. Work isn’t the most important thing, Franko. If there’s something going on in your life, you can tell me. Or, you know, don’t, if you feel more comfortable that way. We managed last night.”

I take two steps and give Franklin a one-armed hug, still holding my flowers. “But it wasn’t the same without you. You’ll be there tonight, right?”

“I’ve already rewound the tapes so we can use them again,” he replies. “No need to keep three hours of nothing. At least we know the setup works. Sorry you had to be alone with Mr. Network.”

I swivel into my chair and make a spot for the flowers on top of my little TV monitor. Franklin’s avoiding my questions. So I’ll let him off the hook. Talk about our story. “You know. Franko, J.T.’s not half-bad, once you get to-What?”

Franklin’s leaning into his monitor. He’s clicking his mouse. He’s typing. And he’s completely not listening to me.

“What?” I repeat.

“Come with me downstairs,” he says. “To ENG Receive.”

ENG is television shorthand for electronic news gathering. “Receive” is the control room where satellite, microwave and KU-band transmissions from around the country and the world are fed into Channel 3. The walls in Receive are covered with monitors, each one showing nonstop pictures. It all has to come through ENG receive before it gets on the air.

ENG Joe, a lumbering old-timer in plaid flannel and jeans, has watched over ENG since before I can remember. He’s still got a cigarette tucked behind one ear, and it’s probably the same one he parked there years ago when the suits made the whole station nonsmoking.

These days, when TV is all breaking news, all the time, Joe juggles hundreds of feeds a day, each one flickering on a different monitor. Each monitor has a number taped above it. Each monitor is attached to a tape machine so Joe can record the ones the producer requests.

“We are receiving Sat 6 on L-4.” Joe pushes a button, and talks to a producer through a microphone snaking metallically out of the wall. Shaky pictures of what looks like a small plane crash sputter into view, then settle down. “We have audio. The window’s open till 4:00 p.m.”

“And I have Van Alpha on 2. I’m loading tape. Ready to record. Standby, Van 2.” ENG Joanna, whose real name no one knows, was assigned to Receive a couple of years ago, ostensibly to learn the ropes. Everyone predicted they were moving Joe out, replacing him, like they do everyone else, with someone younger and sexier.

But Joe stayed and so did Joanna. Now they’re a team. Yogi Bear and Betty Boop. As long as the feeds come in as planned and the video is solid, ENG Receive is their domain. The room has no windows. The only view of the outside world is through the dozens of 19-inch screens.

“Franklin?” I can’t figure out why he brought me down here.

“One second…” Franklin holds up a hand at me, and turns to Joanna. “Joanna. Hey. I read the ‘incoming’ bulletin on the producer e-mail. Where’s the video?”

“Bravo’s putting up their mast now. They should be radiating in two from Eastie. It’s a bounce from Chopper 3. Taking it in on monitor 14.”

In two minutes, Microwave van B will be transmitting video via our helicopter from someplace in East Boston. Got it. But video of what?

I stage-whisper, “Pssst. Franklin. What?”

Franklin, wordless, points to monitor 14.

It’s a high-and-wide aerial view, our helicopter banking over what looks like a parking lot. The aerial camera zooms down closer. Smoky flames. Flashing blue lights. Flashing red lights. The chopper hovers. The camera zooms to a close-up. Out of focus. The photographer is struggling to get the shot.

I step closer to the monitor, squinting as if I can get it into focus myself. Then the video snaps into perfect clarity.

A blue Mustang is melting down into a pile of twisted rubble.

I only get the frustrating beep from the voice-mail system. I’d called Michael Borum immediately. And immediately got nothing.

“Borum never answers the phone, we know that,” Franklin mutters, pacing. Three steps across our office, three steps back. “Charlotte, there are more than three hundred blue Mustangs in Massachusetts.”

“Remind me to tell you what I found out about another one,” I say, hitting Redial again. I still haven’t told Franklin about Taylor and Tyler, and my theories about their blue Mustang. I can’t focus until we get an answer from Michael Borum. One toe of my boot is tapping on the mottled gray carpet. I stop it. It starts again.

Voice mail again.

“I’m leaving a message this time.” I lean over to get closer to the speaker. Maybe Borum will pick up. He did before.

“Hey, team.” J.T. appears at our door. He has the hidden camera in one hand, the lens to the hidden camera in the other. He’s holding both pieces of equipment as if they were contagious. “I have good news and bad news,” he begins.

I wave both hands to stop him, then point to the speakerphone.

“She’s leaving a message,” Franklin explains, his voice muted as if he’s calling a golf match.

J.T. leans against the doorjamb, waiting. His eyes register increasing understanding as I speak.

“Mr. Borum? It’s Charlie McNally. Are you home? Just checking to see if you’re there. If you’re there, pick up, would you? It’s important.”

The sound of nothing fills the room. We wait.

“Mr. Borum?” I try again. I give my office number once more, my cell, my home. “Call me as soon as you can, okay?”

I turn off the speaker and send a silent prayer.

“Guess you can’t say, hey, we’re checking to see if you got incinerated in a flaming-”

“Shush.” I frown at J.T. “It’s not funny.”

Then I cock my head at him, quizzical. “Wait. How’d you know why we were calling?”

“ENG Joanna,” J.T. says. “Anyway. We’re screwed for tonight. The undercover cams are trashed. The health people. I don’t know how they broke them. The good news, they’re fixable. Engineering says it’ll be tomorrow, at least, before they’re up again. Maybe Sunday.”

“Fine with me if we do it tomorrow or Sunday,” Franklin says. “I’m in, anytime.”

“Me, too,” I say. “There are no-”

“Weekends in TV,” Franklin and I finish the sentence together.