Picking it up, Cassidy regarded it critically. "This is a bit out-of-date. He's had a little work done in the last couple of years. Botox, some resurfacing. Most of these old acne scars are gone. Although I don't know why Jim bothered. They just give a man character."
"So you knew him pretty well," Nicole observed. She rested her glass of wine against her cheek, partly obscuring her mouth. In high school, Nic had had a prominent overbite. A few of the crueler kids had dubbed her Mrs. Ed. Somewhere in the intervening years, she'd had her teeth straightened. With her dark, smooth skin and slightly slanted eyes, she had always been pretty. Now she was beautiful. Still, old habits died hard.
Cassidy shrugged and set the photo down. "You know. Portland's a big town on a small scale, so we cross"--she corrected herself--"crossed paths a lot."
"Where did all this path crossing take place?" Allison asked. "Press conferences, fund-raising dinners, that kind of thing." The waitress set down a basket of bread and carafes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Cassidy busied herself pouring the oil and vinegar into a small, white dish.
"We both worked in the media, albeit in opposite ends." Cassidy dabbed a slice of bread into the mixture. "Is it true that he refused to leave the studio when he knew he had been exposed to the gas?"
Allison said, "That's what we're hearing. He stayed inside so that the others wouldn't be exposed."
"He died a hero. He would have liked that." Cassidy's eyes sparkled with tears, but she managed a smile. "Except for the dying part. Would he have lived if he'd opened the door?"
Nicole shook her head. "No. At the autopsy this morning, they said he would have needed an immediate dose of an opioid antagonist. And maybe even that wouldn't have saved him."
Cassidy's perfectly groomed brows drew together. Her eyes were an arresting teal blue--the result, Allison knew, of colored contacts. "That's what I don't understand. I was at the press conference John Drood held this afternoon. So it wasn't sarin gas?"
Nicole said, "No. The results of the autopsy point to some kind of opiate. We won't know which for a while."
"What do you know?" Cassidy asked. Sometimes Allison and Nicole would give her tips that she wouldn't have heard anyplace else, allowing her to scoop the competition. In return, Cassidy occasionally brought her own findings to them.
"Something interesting did turn up today," Nicole said, "but you can't air this. Not yet. A neighbor told us she saw a blonde woman leaving Jim's condo yesterday--and it was probably after Jim was already dead."
"Really?" Cassidy's eyes widened. "Do you have any idea who it was?"
Allison wondered if she was jealous.
"That's the thing. There were no signs that he was living with anyone," Nicole said. "Do you know if he was dating anyone?"
Cassidy shrugged one shoulder. "Remember, you're talking about a guy who started his own Internet dating service for conservatives: Let Fate Find You a Date. Jim dated any beautiful single woman in Portland he could get his hands on."
Matter-of-factly, Nicole said, "So that would include you." Allison winced at her bluntness, but she had had the same thought. "I didn't say that." Cassidy flushed and looked away. "Besides, it wasn't anything serious. Jim plays--played--the field."
"How about his cohost, Victoria Hanawa?" Allison asked. "Do you think she was having a relationship with Jim?"
"You mean, had they dated?" Cassidy asked. "Of course. A couple of times. But was Victoria his girlfriend? No. Jim always said he liked to keep his work life separate from his private life. Of course, this is the same guy who always used his name to get a good table at a restaurant."
"What was Jim like, anyway?" Allison asked. "Especially off the air."
Cassidy looked up, remembering. "Shrewd. Intelligent. Street-smart as well as book smart. Some of his fans called him The Great One. He pretended not to like it. Jim's charming when he wants to be, cranky when he doesn't. Like pretty much anyone who works in the media, he can be a gossip. He likes--liked--power. Liked getting people to do things for him." Cassidy's description bounced back and forth between past and present tense as Jim became alive for her again. "Fastidious. He liked everything tidy. At the same time, Jim's macho. That is one man who would never back down. Never."
Allison looked at Nicole as Cassidy finished. They were sharing the same thought--Cassidy knew Jim a lot better than she had admitted.
"But why would someone kill him?" Allison asked. "We need to figure out if it was personal or some kind of domestic terrorism. The anthrax attacks targeted the media and the government, so there's a precedent."
"I don't even really think of people like Jim Fate as members of the press," Nicole said. "It's not like they report the news. They report their opinions."