He gently took hold of her chin with his thumb and his forefinger. “I’ll call you later, k?”
Smiling as she nodded, her eyes didn’t leave him as he walked down the hall and out the door.
Chapter 14
Brandon arrived at the Tribune early Thursday morning. He was dressed for work in a light blue and white-checkered shirt and khakis. Reaching Jim’s office, he rapped on the door and smiled. Jim, however, did not appear to be happy to see him.
“What are you doing here, Brandon? You’re supposed to be on bereavement until next week.”
Shutting the door behind him, he took a seat across from Jim. “I know, I know, but I can’t just sit around, Jim. It’s driving me nuts.” He tossed a flash drive on the desk. “I finished the article series I told you about.”
Sighing and shaking his head, he looked Brandon in the eyes. “There isn’t going to be any series. I’m sorry, Brandon.”
Looking confused and shocked, Brandon questioned his authority. “What the hell are you talking about? Jim, I’ve been working on this for weeks, man! The public has a right to this information. SPD and the prosecutor’s office over step their bounds daily. Don’t you think enough is enough?”
“Now is not the time for this, my friend. You are under investigation, for killing your wife!”
Standing up, Brandon continued his defense. “Really, Jim? After all these years you don’t trust me? I’ve done the research. I now have personal experience and you’re not gonna let me run with this? For God’s sake, you haven’t even come to my defense by conducting any kind of write up on the investigation at all. Frankly, I’m a little surprised.”
Jim stood in response to Brandon’s aggressiveness and placed his hands in front of him on his desk. “You’re right, I haven’t come to your defense at all. Detective Martinez has already contacted me fishing for information. And in my opinion, as Senior Editor, it is not in your best interest or the interest of the Tribune to even touch pen to paper on your wife’s death. I trust you, Brandon, but you have to trust me as well. There is no comment from SPD on their investigation, only questions. Questions I am not willing to answer short of being legally obligated to do so. So at this point, you need to let this personal vendetta of yours go. End of discussion.”
Brandon wasn’t defeated just yet. “This is hardly a personal vendetta, Jim. I’ve been working on this for a while. You gave me the clearance when I presented you my proposal months ago. You can’t yank this from me now. I need this. I need to work; it’s all I have left. Jim, please...” he asked beggingly.
Sitting back down in his chair, Jim sighed and grabbed his chin, rubbing it while he thought. He placed his hands together and rubbed them slowly. “Alright, this is what we’re going to do. Come back to work. Who am I to say what’s best for you or how you should handle all of this. However, I’m still not running the series -”
“But Ji-”
Placing his hand up in a stop motion, Jim continued. “Once the smoke clears, and Detective Martinez is off your ass, I’ll reconsider. That’s final, Brandon.” He looked in his eyes making sure his instructions resonated.
Although not happy, Brandon nodded his head and retreated to his office. Jim sat back and rubbed the stress from the back of his head. Not a minute later he heard a rap on his door. Martinez stood there with a smug grin on his face. The girl from the front desk popped up from behind him.
“Jim, I’m so sorry. I tried to stop him...”
“It’s alright, Miranda. I’ll handle this.”
As she turned to head down the hall Jim looked at Martinez as he sat down. “What do you want, Detective? This is beginning to border harassment.”
Martinez made himself comfortable in a chair on the other side of Jim’s large executive desk and tossed the warrant on top so it slid across the smooth wood finish. Lifting his chin he said, “There’s your warrant, Mr. West. It’s pretty limited and self-explanatory. If you don’t mind, I’ll just sit here and wait while you gather the info I need.” He winked.
Opening up the warrant Jim began to read it. Shaking his head he sighed. “I don’t understand this.”
Martinez rolled his eyes to himself. “I need confirmation that the listed phone number belongs to this newspaper and a list of all individuals who have access to it.”
Brandon came walking into the office with his head down, proofing an article. “Hey, Jim, I got a question for y-” As he looked up he was shocked and then confused. “What’s going on, Jim?”
Standing to greet him, Martinez smiled. “Mr. DeFranco, just the man I wanted to see.”
“Brandon, I think maybe you should go home for the day and let me handle this.”
Before he could respond, Martinez said, “Oh no, I think Mr. DeFranco would have plenty to add to the conversation. Matter of fact, we could just go down to the station and straighten all this out right now.”
“Jim, what is he talking about?” His eyes moved from Jim to Martinez and back to Jim.
“He has a warrant, Brandon.”
“A warrant? For what exactly?”
Jim didn’t take his eyes off of him. They screamed at him to take his advice. “Brandon, please go home and let me handle this.”
Martinez chimed in again. “You know, I also received the autopsy report from Dr. Wexler on the cause of your wife’s death.” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Unfortunately, I left it at my office. How ‘bout you follow me down there and I can go over that with you as well? Figure all this out.”
Confidence filled Brandon’s chest as he inhaled deeply. “You know what, Detective? Let’s go.”
“Brandon, you don’t know what you’re doing-”
“No, Jim. I know exactly what I am doing.
