After All (27 page)

Michelle glowed from the praise of her
colleagues. Her next segment had taken up a good portion of the
story meeting. For the next two days, her reports would be the
centerpiece of the evening newscast.

“
Fabulous work, Michelle,”
Gracie winked at her.

“
Great reporting,
Toussaint.” Earl slapped her on the back.

“
Okay, we've got our
assignments. Let's move it,” Jason said with a sour expression. He
gathered up loose papers rattling them loudly.

“
My goodness, she hasn't won
the Pulitzer prize yet,” Jennifer snorted.

“
Green is a lovely color on
you, Jennifer, dear.” Gracie flashed a grin at her.

“
I'm not wearing gr--, very
funny.”Jennifer shot her a venomous look before leaving.

Weston Lockport startled them all when
he walked in. Seldom did he attend these meeting.”Michelle, stay
awhile. You too, Nathan.”

Jason moved back into the room
quickly.”Yes, Mr. Lockport.” He wore a puzzled frown.

“
The public housing series.”
Lockport looked from her to Nathan.”With allegations of drug
dealing, possible fraud, it seems doing three short reports isn't
enough.”

“
I agree.” Michelle held her
breath.

“
What about two additional
reports with more air time?”

“
Have mercy!” Michelle
yelled jumping up. She sat back down immediately. “I mean, the
magnitude of what I've uncovered so far certainly warrants
it.”

“
Good. Do the last three
next week. Jason will give you any extra help you need.” Lockport
left the room not bothering to glance at his assistant.

“
Way to go, Toussaint.”
Nathan winked before leaving.

Jason seemed unable to make his mouth
work. He liked being in charge and letting everyone know he was in
charge. Michelle in particular did not respond well to his
posturing. Now he was made to seem her assistant. Noticing Michelle
beaming at him and that Lockport was gone, he scurried after
him.

Back at her desk, Michelle began
outlining the continents of the two additional segments. She
whistled a cheery tune as she organized her notes.

“
So what's next?” Gracie
chewed on a jelly donut.

“
Follow up on the drug
dealing. I've got an interview with a confidential source. Then
I'll interview Charlotte Kinchen to get her side in the last
segment.”

“
And Uncle Ike?” Gracie's
eyebrows arched.

“
I, uh, haven't
decided.”

“
I understand.”

“
What's that mean?” Michelle
glanced up sharply.

“
Well, not wanting to upset
Anthony. You two are getting along good, and if you don't have to
mention Uncle Ike specifically, why should you?”

“
I haven't decided if it
will add anything to the feature, Gracie. It has nothing to do with
being afraid of how Anthony will react.”

“
If you say so.” Gracie
lifted a shoulder and started tapping out a story on her
computer.

“
I say so.”

Michelle labored for another thirty
minutes. Her sunny mood had evaporated as she sat confronted with
the obvious. Not only did Ike have lucrative contracts, but so did
most of his friends. And several of them subcontracted portions of
the work to Ike. Michelle cursed softly at the paper trail leading
to Anthony's uncle. There was no way around it. The connection
between Ike, Bridges, and Charlotte Kinchen was pivotal to the
story. With a sigh, she began putting the pieces
together.

***

“
How is everything?” Anthony
gave her a tight smile.

“
Fine.” Michelle answered
his smile with one of her own.

They sat across from each other in a
booth at the China Gardens restaurant. The dim lighting and small
candle on the table combined to give the booth an air of private
intimacy even though they were surrounded by diners in the small
room.

“
How are your folks
doing?”

“
They're fine. Your mother
okay?”

“
Fine.”

The waitress took their orders and
left. Michelle carefully unwrapped her silverware from the cloth
napkin. She sipped the hot tea. Anthony glanced around the
room.

“
How is the new project
coming?”Michelle broke the awkward silence.

“
Pretty good actually. We're
ahead of schedule. We could earn a substantial bonus for every day
we finish before the deadline,” Anthony said.

“
Wow, that's some
incentive.”Michelle poured another cup of tea for
herself.

“
Sure is.”Anthony stared
down into his cup. He had not touched his tea.

“
I wish the station gave me
a bonus for beating a deadline. All we ever get is another
assignment.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah.” Michelle clamped her
lips together. She cursed silently realizing her mistake in
bringing up work at all, especially hers. The waitress setting out
the platters of food brought a welcome interruption. But before she
made an attempt at changing the subject, he spoke up.

“
Your present assignment
seems pretty deep. I don't expect you'll be working on anything
else for a while.” Anthony busied himself pouring soy sauce on his
food.

“
Oh, we work several stories
at a time. I've got two others I'm working on right now.
Mustard?”

“
No thanks. Seems like
you've spent a great deal of time tracking down facts about the
Housing Authority. Don't see how you found time for much
else.”

“
Yeah, well. Say these egg
rolls are great. Try one.” Michelle held up the saucer.

“
Not right now. So are you
about finished with it?” Anthony wiped his mouth with the large red
napkin.

“
The egg roll?” Michelle
mugged at him wiggling an eggroll.

“
The story, Michelle. I'm
talking about the story.” Anthony stared at with an irritated
expression.

She stopped smiling and inhaled deeply.
“I've got two more segments to do.”

“
Is my uncle going to be
mentioned?” Anthony stabbed at the food on his plate without taking
one bite.

“
Look, let's
not--”

“
You're planning to imply
that he's done something illegal aren’t you?” Anthony put his fork
down.

“
I didn't go into this to
make your uncle look bad, Anthony. That's just the way it turned
out,” Michelle blurted. “Listen, I'm sorry.”

“
You expect me to believe
that?”

Michelle's temper flared. Maybe a
healthy dose of the truth was what he needed. “Ike is making big
money on these contracts but he's not delivering the
services.”

“
A few disgruntled tenants,
some dilapidated apartments and presto, you get lots of air time.
Revenge on my uncle and a career boost. A neat package.” Anthony
pushed the plate from him.

“
Are you suggesting that I
manufactured this story?” Michelle's mouth flew open.

“
I'm suggesting there
probably wouldn't be an investigative series if you hadn't found
out Uncle Ike was involved.”

“
Wrong, the district
attorney is investigating, too.” Michelle lowered her
voice.

“
At your instigation no
doubt.”

“
With Ike's track record,
they sure didn't need me to tell them anything.” Michelle threw her
napkin on the table.

“
Uncle Ike is a shrewd
business man. Has it ever occurred to you that the DA might be
targeting him because he's a successful African-American
man?”

“
Oh come on, Anthony.
Whenever Ike gets into the hot water, it's usually well deserved.”
Michelle forgot her best intentions not to insult Ike. It galled
that Anthony assumed she had twisted the facts. His loyalty to Ike
was automatic, unlike his trust in her.

“
Everything you've reported
so far is speculation and innuendo. There is no proof to any of the
accusations you've made.”Anthony pointed a finger at
her.

“
Wrong! I've got invoices
showing payment for work not done. There's drug dealing going on,
intimidation. Your Uncle is in it up to his neck, Anthony. It's
time you see him for who he really is.” Michelle fought to keep
from shouting.

“
Why can't you give up this
vendetta? Uncle Ike is no gangster. And I don't need you to tell me
what kind of man he is. Uncle Ike is a good man.” Anthony's voice
trembled with fury.

“
Ike doesn't care who he
steps on. My father was just one in a long line of his victims.
Eventually he's going to go down.”

“
And you plan to be the one
to see he does, is that it? Whether it's right or not. So much for
journalistic integrity.”

“
You have the nerve to
question my character with Ike Batiste for uncle? You find excuses
for every despicable stunt he pulls. Just like before.” Michelle
grabbed her purse and coat.

“
There are at least five
other contractors, but his name is the only one you've mentioned in
your reports. Why is that, Michelle?”Anthony stood to face
her.

“
Is that what you think?”
Michelle said through clenched teeth. “That I'm want revenge bad
enough to go to any lengths?”

Anthony lowered his voice and leaned
across the table.”Just what do you expect me to think, Michelle?
You're acting on rumors.”

Michelle scrambled to get out of the
booth. “This is pointless. You can't handle the truth about
him.”

“
Sit down and be
reasonable.” Anthony grabbed her arm and tried to pull her
back.

“
Oh, I'm being very
reasonable. Considering what you've accused me of, I should have
crammed my napkin up your nose. Let go of me.” Michelle jerked away
from him.

“
You don't have any more
proof now than you had six years ago when you claimed Uncle Ike
deliberately tried to ruin your father.”

Michelle raked him with a withering
gaze. “And like six years ago you find it easier to excuse his
behavior because you benefit from it.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
Back then Uncle Ike paid
for your car, put you through school. These days... Well, good old
Uncle Ike set you up in business and used his connections to get
you some pretty juicy contracts.” Michelle's mouth turned down at
the corners in an expression of disgust. “You always said you
wanted to be like him. Guess you've made it.”

“
Are you saying--” Anthony
spluttered, so angry he could not finish.

“
What I'm saying is
goodbye!” Michelle shot back before heading for the
door.

Anthony strode after her fuming.”If
that's what you believe then you only used me to get to my uncle.
You played your part very well.”

Michelle turned on him.”You and your
uncle can go straight to hell, Anthony Hilliard.”She got into her
car and slammed the door.

“
Mister, you forgot to pay.
Mister.” The waitress stood in the doorway waving their
bill.

“
Damn!” Anthony stood
watching the tail lights of Michelle's car disappear. Finally he
went back into the restaurant.

***

A chill of fear went down her spine as
Michelle read the profanity spray painted on the outside wall of
LaWanda's apartment. “Maybe you shouldn't do another interview. I
can use shots of the apartments to tie up. I've gotten plenty from
you already.”

Michelle did a quick review of the
material she had for this last segment. With the invoices and the
video, her final report could still pack quite a punch without
putting LaWanda in more jeopardy.

“
I told you let's do it.”
LaWanda wore a grim determined expression. “They ain't gonna push
us around.”

“
I don't know.” Michelle
chewed her lower lip.

“
Ready, Michelle,” Bob said
after talking into his headset.

“
I've gotta do this, okay?”
LaWanda took her hand.

Michelle gave her hand a quick squeeze
then nodded for Bob to begin taping. “For the past few weeks, we
have shown you some of the serious problems residents of public
housing face. Ms. Sibley you've heard Ms. Charlotte Kinchen's
response to our report. What are your thoughts?”

LaWanda stared at the camera. “We've
tried to keep our homes nice, but there's just so much we can do.
Charlotte Kinchen don't have to live here. If she did, we wouldn't
need to be on television.”

“
We understand that there
have been attempts to intimidate you and other members of the
tenants association,” Michelle said.

“
Yeah, but we won't stop.
That's what they want. New Orleans is sending us some help,
too.”

“
The regional Housing of
Urban Development, I take it.”

“
Yeah, that's right. We
called 'em and they gonna help us pilot tenant management in this
complex. We gone turn things around one project at a
time.”