Free 4 Shot Off The Presses by Amanda M. Lee

eyeing Shelly and me with moderate interest. “Let’s get started.”
    I moved away from Shelly, not entirely of my own volition. Derrick’s hand on my elbow was part of the moving away process.
    Jake started the press conference by tacking a photo up of a young and smiling brunette to the board at the front of the room. “This is Carrie Washington. She’s a mother-of-two from Chesterfield Township. She was driving a car along I-94 yesterday afternoon, with both of her children in the vehicle, when an unknown assailant fired a weapon from the Cass Street overpass into her vehicle.”
    Jake paused for dramatic effect before continuing.
    “In the overnight hours, Mrs. Washington succumbed to her injuries and died. We’ll have specifics of those injuries in a press release that you’ll all be leaving with at the conclusion of this briefing.”
    “Has her family been informed?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw that one of the weekly reporters had asked the question.
    “They have,” Jake nodded.
    “Have you identified the specific weapon?” I chimed in.
    Jake met my gaze evenly. “We’re still narrowing down a few things on that front. We do have a ballistics report, though, and it has brought up certain concerns regarding another shooting in Oakland County.”
    “I knew it!”
    All eyes in the room turned to me. I glanced back up at Jake, silently urging him to pick the press conference back up and save me from being the center of attention.
    Jake rolled his eyes in my direction and then turned back to the cameras, making sure he was presenting his best angles as he did. “The initial ballistics report seems to indicate that the same gun used in a freeway shooting in Oakland County was also used in our shooting yesterday.”
    Jake held up his hand to stave off the obvious next question. “We have no information about that victim at this time. We’ll be coordinating with the Oakland Count Sheriff’s Department this afternoon and we will make that information available when we get it. We’ll be having another press conference, a more expansive one, when we get that information.”
    “So what’s the next step?” I asked.
    “We’re creating a task force,” Jake said simply.
    “Do you think there will be more shootings?”
    “It’s a possibility,” Jake nodded solemnly.
    “Have you ascertained if Mrs. Washington was targeted?”
    “No,” Jake said. “Right now, it’s still a guessing game. We’ll be delving into the backgrounds of both victims and moving forward from there. That’s really all we have right now and I have to get going for a meeting with our new task force liaisons so I don’t have time for questions.”
    I watched as Jake exited the podium and left the room. So much for questioning him about his association with Turner. I could have asked him at the press conference, but I didn’t want to tip my hand to the other reporters. I’d have to pursue other avenues until I could get Jake alone – or I could verbally torture Eliot into giving up what he knew.
    Decisions, decisions.

Nine
    For many people, Friday nights are the apex of their week. For me they’re something akin to wading through a mud pit in ballet shoes.
    Once I left the press conference, I returned to The Monitor long enough to bang out my story. Duncan had tried to pull me into a conference room to come up with a plan on how to coordinate our coverage of the case. Since I would rather deafen myself with Q-tips than coordinate anything with Duncan, I opted to pretend I didn’t hear him instead. It drove him crazy, which was the point, and resulted in him stomping off amidst veiled threats of another complaint to Human Resources.
    Once I was done, I called Eliot to see if he was coming to family dinner tonight. When he didn’t pick up, I had a sneaking suspicion that he was screening my calls – which both infuriated me and filled me with a sense of empowerment at the same time. He could run but he couldn’t