ALI REYNOLDS
Ali worked her way through a long list of well-wishing e-mails, most of them begging her not to abandon her blog. Because many of the notes touched on Paul Grayson's death, she didn't post any of them but answered each one directly with the same kind of non-engagement strategy she had employed earlier. It was gratifying to know that her readers were as reluctant to give up on her as she was on them. Finally, she turned to write her response.
CUTLOOSEBLOG.COM
In my last post I said I was going to step away from cutloose for a time, but it turns out that was a lie. I don't want to step away. I've heard from many of you this morning. Most have wished me well and urged me not to abandon ship. So I'm not going to.
I've been doing this for more than six months nowyes, last week was my half-year blogiversary. In the past, there has always been a sense of immediacy to what I've written. My posts have offered me a way to examine things that were going on in my life. I've been amazed to learn that what I've written has resonated with so many people, some of whom have shared similar experiences.
This morning one of my fans wrote and offered to stand in for me for as long as necessary. While I appreciate Leda's kind offer, hearing from her brought me up short and made me realize I'm unwilling to give up my forum. So cutlooseblog is back. For right now, there are things I simply won't be able to discuss. I probably won't be able to post comments from you regarding those issues, either, and I beg your understanding in that regard.
But there is something I can say. My mother is sitting right here beside me as I write this. We're in a hotel room several hundred miles away from both our homes, away from her business and from her husband, my father, who is working two jobshis and hersto keep their restaurant afloat while she's here backstopping meher daughter. Their daughter.
So this post is for parentsfor my parents and for all those other parents out therethe ones who stick with their offspring through thick and thin; who don't turn their backs on their children no matter what; who realize that regardless of how old their kids may be, their children are still their children.
Thanks, Mom and Dad. You're the greatest.
By the time she finished writing her post, there were several new e-mails. The third one of those was from her old fan Velma.
VELMA T IN LAGUNA
Even as Ali searched for the Web site, she had an inkling of what she would find there, and she wasn't disappointed. The moment she saw the headline, her heart sank.
BLACK WIDOW OF ROBERT LANE RIDES AGAIN
Alison Reynolds, already a person of interest in the grisly homicide of her estranged network executive husband, Paul Grayson, is now the target of a new police investigation as police look into the mysterious death of the woman who, had she and he both lived, would have become Paul Grayson's new mother-in-law. Monique Ragsdale, now deceased, was the mother of April Anne Gaddis, Mr. Grayson's intended bride, whom he was scheduled to marry in a ceremony at his Robert Lane mansion early yesterday afternoon.
Sources close to the investigation state that the two women may have clashed during a meeting earlier in the day, prior to Ms. Ragsdale's fatal plunge down the stairway of the house formerly owned by Ms. Reynolds and her husband. Rather than the site of a joyous celebration, the house is now surrounded by crime scene tape as investigators attempt to get to the bottom of what happened.
Mr. Grayson disappeared from a pre-wedding bachelor party on Thursday night. His bound body was found later near the wreckage of a vehicle that had been left on the train tracks west of Palm Springs.
At least one anonymous source claimed that because divorce proceedings between Mr. Grayson and Ms. Reynolds were never finalized, she is allegedly her husband's sole heir, leaving his pregnant fiancee unprovided for. This was supposedly the basis for the alleged confrontation between Ms. Reynolds and Ms. Ragsdale.
Messy divorce proceedings between Ms. Reynolds and her estranged husband have played out in a very public fashion after she was fired from her position as an evening newscaster by the local affiliate of her husband's network. For the past six months she has vented her side of the story as an ongoing saga in posts to a feminist- leaning Web blog called cutlooseblog.com.
In that same six-month period, Ms. Reynolds has been questioned as part of four separate homicide investigations. In two of those she has been exonerated and the cases are considered closed. The other two are still under active investigation, one by the LAPD and the other by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
In view of Ms. Reynolds's mounting legal difficulties, her blog has reportedly gone on hiatus.
Ali scanned back through the post. There were enough journalistic weasel words' alleged,' 'supposed,' 'reportedly' along with the ever-so-useful anonymous sources routine, that the article probably wasn't actionable.
She looked back through her discarded mail. Sure enough, his address was still there. She started to send him a terse note about publishing unfounded speculation, then she changed her mind. Instead, Ali deleted her half-written e-mail and permanently deleted his e-mail address as well. If Lance-a-lot wanted attention, he sure as hell wasn't going to get it from her.
Ali was disheartened to know, however, that his cutesy pet name for her, Black Widow, was out. Even though the man's allegations were groundless, she understood that other media outlets would most likely pick up on Lance's lead and run with it.
Ali was about to turn off the computer to go shower and dress when another e-mail popped up. Ali recognized the addressAndrea Morales.
There were only two words in Andrea's message:
So she was right, this Andrea was that Andreathe one from the kitchen tamale-making project. But what was this about someone firing Jesus? It made no sense. It was his TLC that kept the grounds of the Robert Lane mansion in pristine order. Why would anyone fire him? Ali sent off yet another immediate reply.
REGARDS,
ALI REYNOLDS
Ali slammed shut her computer and started into the bathroom. 'What's going on?' Edie asked.
'I'm going to shower and get dressed,' Ali said. 'Somebody fired the gardener yesterday, and Jesus's niece thinks it's my fault.'
'I'm not surprised,' Edie replied. 'You're as bad as George Bush. It looks like everything is your fault.'
