Again, the room exploded. There was celebration on the Metinnicut side, anguish and head shaking among the preservationists. Lucy only felt relief. She had the quotes; she had the votes—she could go home. She grabbed her bag and fled, never looking back.
CHAPTER 8
“You’re cutting it kind of close, aren’t you?” growled Ted when Lucy arrived for work on Wednesday.
It was ten o’clock, just two hours before deadline.
“Not to worry,” said Lucy, glancing at Phyllis, the receptionist, with a questioning raised eyebrow.
Phyllis responded with a nervous grimace. Lucy knew she was in some sort of trouble.
“I worked at home this morning,” she continued, “while my pies were baking. I’ve got the whole story on this disk.”
“I can’t wait to read it,” said Ted. “I heard there was quite a little dustup.”
“Just what you’d expect. Howard White almost had apoplexy a few times, but he managed to control himself.”
“What about Curt Nolan and the Mulligan guy? What’s his name?”
“O’Hara,” said Lucy, wondering what Ted was getting at. “Nolan had a few words with him.”
“From what I heard, it was more than words.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Lucy, feeling her stomach drop a few inches. “I stayed for the whole meeting.”
“This was after the meeting. Nolan took a swing at this O’Hara fellow and he’s pressing charges. Nolan’s going to be arraigned this morning—I was hoping to have you cover it.”
“Oh, shit,” said Lucy, sliding into her chair and pounding her fist on the desk. “This is big. I can’t believe I missed it.”
“Me, either,” said Ted, looking rather put out. “I thought I could count on you. What happened?”
“I stayed until they took the vote,” said Lucy, sounding defensive. “Toby was supposed to come home yesterday but he hadn’t arrived when I left for the meeting. I was in a hurry to get home and see him.”
Ted nodded.
“The stupid thing is, he wasn’t there when I got home either. He didn’t actually roll in until one-thirty, and then he showed up with three friends instead of the one we’d been expecting.” Lucy rubbed her eyes. “It was absolutely crazy. I mean, I was so worried l had Bill calling hospitals and the state police. When Toby finally did show up I didn’t know whether to hug him or smack him.” Lucy paused for breath. “And I didn’t have a clue where all those extra people were going to sleep.”
“Where’d you put them?” asked Phyllis, who had been keeping a low profile.
“ ‘No problem, Mom,’ ” said Lucy, imitating her son’s laidback attitude. “ ‘We’ll just crash in the family room.’ This, mind you, comes after weeks of delicate negotiations to convince Elizabeth to move out of his room and back in with her sisters. I mean, I could’ve used Madeleine Albright!”
Phyllis laughed, and even Ted gave a weak chuckle.
“How are you going to feed them all?” asked Phyllis.
“Don’t ask me. That was my next stop. After dropping this story off, I was going to get some groceries—with my Visa card.” She looked at Ted. “What am I going to do about the story?”
He shrugged. “Go the official route. We don’t have time for anything else. Get the police to give you the arrest report. Court’s still in session, so you can’t get the DA—I’ll call the clerk’s office and see if Mabel remembers those chocolates I gave her for her birthday.”
* * *
While Lucy waited for the computer to boot up, she tried to get control of her emotions. It was tempting to blame the whole mess on Toby. After all, if he’d come home when he was supposed to, she wouldn’t have been worried about him and wouldn’t have hurried out of the meeting and wouldn’t have missed the fight. Now, thanks to his inconsiderate behavior, she’d missed the biggest story that had come her way in a long time.
No, she thought. Shifting blame was the sort of thing kids like Toby did. She had every reason to be angry and disappointed with Toby, but she’d chosen to leave the meeting and she would have to live with her decision. Maybe she could still save the story. She reached for the phone and dialed Ellie Martin’s number.
“Ellie,” she began, “this is Lucy Stone. I guess I missed all the excitement last night. Can you tell me what happened?”
Ellie was cautious. “Is this for the paper?”
Lucy sighed. “You can talk off the record. I won’t quote you. I’m just trying to find out what happened after I left. I heard that Curt took a swing at O’Hara. Did you see it?”
“I wish I hadn’t,” said Ellie. “I mean, if he has to lose his temper, why does he have to do it in front of a roomful of witnesses? I think he really hurt O’Hara—they called the ambulance. Curt’s in big trouble.”
“Do you know why he was so mad?” asked Lucy, making a note to check with the hospital on O’Hara’s condition.
“He felt O’Hara had tricked the tribe. They’d been promised a museum and the casino was supposed to have a traditional design.” She paused. “I think Curt really thought the casino was a way to recapture the Metinnicut legacy.”
“Does he have a lawyer?”
“I don’t know.” Ellie sighed. “This morning I was all set to go down to the courthouse to bail him out. Then I thought, if he’s so good at getting himself in these messes, maybe it’s time he figured how to get himself out.”
Lucy understood completely.
* * *
An hour later, Lucy had finished the story. Thanks to Mabel, Ted had learned that Nolan had remained in police custody overnight and had been arraigned on assault-and-battery charges. He’d been assigned a court-appointed lawyer and released on his own recognizance. The hospital hadn’t been willing to release any information about O’Hara but Phyllis checked with her sister, who was a nurse in the emergency room, and learned he had been treated and released.
Lucy didn’t linger in the office after finishing the story. She told Ted to call
