Free Dirty Fracking Business by Peter Ralph

I’ll hold you responsible.’
    ‘Moira, there’s three of us to cover the whole valley and we’ve got more to do than worry about your wells. If you’re worried about sabotage, you better bring in your own security guards.’
    ‘I might do that,’ she said, walking to the door. ‘But you won’t like it Joshy, because, unlike you, they have their own ways of getting results.’
    He watched the Porsche’s tyres burn rubber as she reversed out of the driveway and he hoped he wouldn’t see her again any time soon.
    Five minutes later Moira entered the premises of the Paisley Chronicle. Neither Steve nor Buffy had met her but they both knew who she was - everyone in the valley knew who Moira Raymond was. She looked past Buffy and said, ‘Steve Forrest?’
    Before Steve could respond, Buffy smiled cheekily. ‘Who will I say is calling?’
    ‘That’d be me,’ Steve said, glaring at Buffy.
    ‘Your article was pretty weak, but I don’t suppose you could call your father a liar when he owns the paper.’
    Steve was about to protest, but Moira held her hand up. ‘I’m not here to complain. I think you’ve been even-handed in the way you’ve reported on our industry and I’m guessing you resisted a lot of pressure to bucket us. That’s right isn’t it?’
    ‘I’m sure you didn’t come here to compliment me on my writing.’
    ‘You’re right about that. I want to book the centre pages of this Friday’s paper for a community announcement about the benefits CEGL can bring to the town.’
    ‘We … we can’t,’ Buffy gasped.
    ‘I take it you’re not the editor of this fine publication,’ Moira said, eying Buffy disdainfully. ‘So I presume it’s not your decision.’
    ‘Buffy plays a vital part in running this newspaper and she organises and allocates advertising space,’ Steve said. This wasn’t a total lie and at that moment Buffy wanted to hug him. She liked to think that she was tough in a nice way but the woman on the other side of the counter was a bitch: caustic and just plain nasty.
    ‘I’ve got the copy with me,’ Moira said, opening her Hermes handbag. ‘There are twenty points, starting with the employment opportunities we’ll generate and finishing with our undertaking that we haven’t and won’t contaminate the town’s air and water.’
    ‘You’ve already poisoned the water,’ Buffy said. ‘Look what happened to poor Charlie Paxton.’
    Moira ignored Buffy and stared at Steve. ‘You know that’s not true. If it was, there’d be a lot more Charlie Paxtons in the valley. I feel sorry for the kid and his family, but his death had nothing to do with us. Are you going to run our advertisement this Friday, or not?’
    ‘You’ve been here for nearly three years but you’ve never approached us before. Why now?’
    ‘We looked at advertising a few years back, but your circulation barely exceeded three thousand then, so there was no point. You’ve done well in building up the readership and I’m going to reward you for your efforts by running weekly community advertisements for the next twelve months.’
    ‘And it’ll drop back to three thousand if we run your ads,’ Buffy butted in.
    Steve was pondering the pros and cons of this surprising offer and knew that he needed more time. The increase in advertising revenue would add significantly to cash flow and profits, which were still small, but, against this, it would be a real fight to hold on to subscribers and small advertisers.
    ‘Thank you, but I need to think about your proposition and talk to my professional advisers before I can make a decision. I’m sorry, but I can’t place your announcement in this Friday’s paper.’
    ‘That’s very disappointing. Talk to your advisers, Steve, but don’t think that my offer’s going to remain on the table forever. Phone me.’ She dropped her business card on the counter, turned on her heel and disappeared through the door.
    ‘You can’t do it, Steve. You’ll destroy