Despite his lauded career, that most coveted award had eluded him. She knew the disappointment he suffered for being forced into retirement without having received it.
“Emmy-winning story,” he scoffed. “Based on this crazy notion of yours? Ha! What I think is that you’ll make a fool of yourself and be drummed out of the business.”
“Very possibly. But it’s a chance worth taking.”
“Then go,” he’d shouted, waving her toward his office door. “But if you’re sunk in a swamp down there, expect an ‘I told you so.’”
His rejection had cut deeply, but she’d left without his sanction. She hadn’t consulted Winston Brady at all, a move that very well could get her butt fired, especially if Detective John Bowie complained to him about being ambushed and harassed by one of his producers.
Now, as though Max been following her thoughts, he said, “Just how much of a prick was Bowie?”
“As reputed.”
“Wasn’t happy to see you, huh?”
“Hostile, actually. He wasn’t at all interested or open to discussing Crissy Mellin’s case. He was completely unmoved by my attempts to persuade him otherwise. Why don’t you just say ‘I told you so’ and get it over with?”
“Hell, no. I’m not letting you off that lightly. I want details.”
She gave him a bullet-point account of her unorthodox meeting with the detective. Max listened without interruption except for his wheezing inhales and exhales of forbidden tobacco smoke.
When she finished, he said, “Did he take it like a kick in the nuts?”
“Take what?”
“Mention of the blood moon. How’d he react?”
“He didn’t. He gave me a blank stare.”
“Meant nothing to him, then?”
“No. I’m almost positive.”
Finally he said, “I told you so.”
“I concede, but not happily.” After a moment, she made one final pitch. “You know, it’s not like I dreamed up this mysticism surrounding blood moons. For millennia, mankind has regarded them as omens, both good and bad.”
“Silly superstitions. You’re reading too much into it.”
“Possibly.” She rubbed her forehead, no longer feeling defensive but defeated. “Maybe I should leave it alone. You were certainly right about the detective. It was a contentious meeting from the start. We got off on the wrong foot, and it never got better.”
“What kind of wrong foot? Why a wrong foot?”
She wasn’t going to tell him about the sexual undercurrents of those first few minutes. “Doesn’t matter. As soon as I said the girl’s name, he shut down. How did you know he would?”
“Fifty years of reporting news and current affairs. The code of honor among law officers is sacrosanct. Band of brothers. Blue wall of silence. You know.”
“But during the investigation, he mouthed off,” she argued. “He was quoted as saying that it had been sloppily conducted. Rushed. You read what he’d said.”
“Yeah, yeah. People bitch and moan off the cuff. But it’s different when backed against a wall and asked to go on record.”
“I don’t think he was speaking off the cuff then. I think he wanted people to hear, to know, that the investigation was being streamlined. I also think he was right.”
“Take off your rose-colored glasses, Beth. Nobody gives a damn about what’s right or wrong anymore. Or accurate. Even if Bowie was right back then, it no longer matters now. Obviously not even to him. Especially not to him. He was your golden key. If he blew you off and wouldn’t listen to you—”
“Then no one will,” she said.
“Which I told you before you went down there. So, when are you coming back?”
“Tomorrow. I’m booked on a four o’clock flight.”
“That late in the day?”
“There’s a morning flight. I could stand by for it, I suppose.”
“Do that. The sooner you drop this, the better. Start thinking about how you’re going to impress your new executive producer, not alienate him.”
“I can’t stomach Brady.”
“Then he should excel.” He gave a phlegmy laugh. “Nobody could stand me either. Nobody even liked me a little.”
She would have told him that she liked him a lot, but he would have rebuffed it, even knowing that it was true. More than a mentor, he was a father figure and plain-speaking friend she depended on for sound advice, even if she didn’t welcome it.
“Sorry to have disturbed you. Try to get some sleep. I’ll call you when I land.” Before he could disconnect, she said, “One more thing, Max.”
“I know, I know, don’t smoke.”
“You mispronounced his name.”