Willamette Villas Condominiums
Jim's twentieth-floor condo stretched the full length of the building, so it offered not just a view of the Willamette River, but also of the downtown core only a few blocks away. Cassidy stood close to the glass, careful not to touch it. Careful not to touch anything.
It hadn't even been fifteen minutes since Eric had relayed the news, but already chaos had engulfed the city. Every ambulance, police car, and fire truck within three counties must be on the scene. Cassidy could see there was no way she was going to be able to drive to meet her cameraman. There was no way she was going to be able to drive anywhere. The streets were clogged with cars, so many that some drivers were now driving the wrong way--anything to get away from the center of downtown, where KNWS had its studio.
Cassidy thought about Allison and Nicole. Were they in court today? She couldn't remember. She tried calling each of them, but the circuits were overwhelmed. She asked the universe to protect them, and then tried to let go of her worry. She didn't want to put out negative energy. , Being so far above the scene removed some of its impact. The lavishly decorated condo added to the feeling that she was in another time and place entirely. A quiet place, swaddled by wealth. Behind her, a massive chandelier hung over the mahogany dining room table that seated sixteen. Handwoven Oriental carpets were scattered over the gleaming red oak floors. The condo even had its own library, where leather-bound books lined floor-to-ceiling shelves.
In the stainless steel kitchen, Cassidy used a dish towel to punch the radio button. It was already tuned to KNWS. But there wasn't any local coverage, just a national feed. That made sense if they had had to evacuate the building. Someone could have flipped the switch on the way out. Still using the dish towel, she tried KXL and KEX, but they didn't seem to know much more than Eric had when he sent her out. Something had hit the studios of KNWS--some kind of gas or maybe a bomb--and there were reports that some of the station's personnel had been injured. Maybe Jim wasn't dead, then.
As she listened to the radio, Cassidy found and retrieved what she had come for. How would Jim react if he found out she had been here? Well, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. If she came to it.
The only new news was that police were now evacuating the downtown core. Cassidy didn't need the radio to tell her that. She could see it by looking out the window.
Of course Cassidy wouldn't leave. You didn't get an award-winning story by running away with the stampeding herd. You got it by going where no one else wanted to go. And that meant she had to make her way to downtown, not away. She looked down at her four-inch heels. They were not meant for walking blocks and blocks.
She tried calling Andy on her cell, but got another fast busy signal. This was why the station had invested in push-to-talks for its staff. She pressed the button on the side.
"Andy? Are you there? Andy?"
She could barely hear him over the noise in the background. Sirens, screams, shouts. "Where are you? I thought you would be here by now."
"I'm about five minutes away," she said, fudging a little. "What have we got?"
"Some kind of poisonous gas. It sounds like the release was deliberate." Andy made a practice of buying drinks or coffee for every cop in town, so he always knew the inside scoop. "I'm hearing there's one confirmed fatality. Jim Fate, like they were saying at the station."
Cassidy's heart contracted. It was hard to believe. Jim saw himself as the strong one, the one who spoke truth to power, who wasn't afraid to tweak those who deserved tweaking, and to press even harder when needed. Jim loved--had loved, Cassidy corrected herself--being macho. That was his personality on air and off. He felt it was his job to take care of anyone weaker--and to prove that no one was stronger. He could drink other men under the table, unfailingly called women "ladies," and always opened Cassidy's car door.
And now he was gone.
"I've got footage of the guys in bunny suits hosing off some woman outside KNWS. Meet me at the corner of Salmon and Broadway. We need to go live with this now."
Cassidy hurried around the apartment, using the dish towel to wipe off any areas she might have touched, not just today, but the other times she had been here. She grabbed a bottle of water, a pair of blue and white Nikes, and a thick pair of socks. For a man, Jim had small feet.
Then she thought of something else. In the bathroom, she opened the medicine cabinet above the floating granite shelf that held a vessel sink. The Somulex bottle was almost full. Jim wouldn't be needing these now.
Before she opened the door, Cassidy put on a pair of oversized sunglasses. In the elevator, she slipped into Jim's Nikes. And when the elevator doors opened, she broke into a run.
Chapter 6