Max shrugged. “She might think so.”
“I haven’t done this before,” Nick said. He gestured at her. “Worked with a reporter.”
“I’ll be gentle with you,” she said lightly.
But his tone wasn’t light when he said, “I’m not really comfortable with this.”
“Then why?”
“I’d considered getting the arrest warrant,” he said and it was only a beat later that Max realized he was joking. Possibly. “But after getting an earful from Beck about you, I watched a couple of your shows. Honestly, you have an underlying disdain for law enforcement that grates on me.”
“I like cops who do their job well.” She didn’t want to argue with Nick, not when they’d be working together. She’d done it before, had a cop who didn’t want to work with her but was forced to by his boss or the PR department, and the tension of the situation made her irritable and ill. She didn’t want to work like that again.
“Do you know any?”
“A few. I don’t want to argue—”
He cut her off. “But there was something else about your style that surprised me. You have a way of protecting the victims and their families even while exploiting the crime.”
“That’s a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one.”
“It’s like you have this big bubble around you that says, ‘Fuck with me, fuck with these people, and I’ll destroy you.’”
“I’ll run that by Ben for our new tagline.”
“I want to put Jason Hoffman’s killer in prison.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to her. “I don’t know how much research you did on the kid, but he was a good kid, twenty-three, the whole world open to him. He shouldn’t be dead.”
She opened the paper. It was a copy of Jason’s bio, of sorts. Honor student, high school football star, volunteer. She’d already found all that, and more.
Nick nodded, took the paper, without her having to say anything.
“And that’s why I’m going to work with you.”
“Maybe I’m slow on the uptake here.”
“Because you already knew everything about Jason that’s important to his friends and family, but not important in the investigation. You care.”
“I want justice the same as you. The victims need a voice. The families deserve peace. You can’t have peace if you don’t know what happened.”
“Some people do.”
“Not me.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to hear about all my baggage.”
“Then I’ll ask this: why don’t you like cops?”
“I have no problem with law enforcement. What you see on my show or read in my books are the failures of the system—that they couldn’t solve a crime, for whatever reason. I have access where you don’t. People talk to me and I’m pretty good at weeding out the bullshit. I have the time and energy and resources to do things you can’t do. I portray cops as I see them—some are good, some are bad, most are overworked and I don’t blame them for filing a case cold when they get dumped a dozen more before the end of the first week of investigation. But I’m not going to sugarcoat garbage when I see it. And as far as exploiting crime—maybe I do. But sensationalism is not my goal. I don’t need the attention, and I certainly don’t need the money.”
“I’m going to be talking to Dru Parker as soon as she’s conscious,” Nick said after a moment. “Gorman is handling the initial interviews with Parker’s employers at Evergreen, and her roommates. If the killer thinks that we’ve made the connection between the attack on Parker and Jason’s murder, they’ll be on guard. I’m hoping Gorman can get statements, and then I can go in and raise the temperature. I’m pretty certain whoever attacked Dru saw or called her yesterday. We just have to figure out who.”
Max was only partly listening to Nick. She had an idea and wanted to run with it—and she wasn’t sure he would agree.
“You don’t like the idea,” he said.
“No, it’s fine. I’m going to talk to Jasper Pierce.”
“You’re not a cop.”
“What did you think I was going to do in this partnership? Give you all my information and then sit back while you follow the rules and hope to find a suspect? Maybe this was a mistake. Roger Lawrence knew I wanted to talk to Dru; I should have gone to confront him this morning, put him on the defensive immediately. You’d be surprised how fast stories change when people think they’re cornered.”
“That’s also a very dangerous approach.”
“Reporters are generally safe from crossfire—unless we’re covering conflicts overseas.” She thought a moment. “I think, in hindsight, that it’s best we each approach this case from our own angle, and if I learn anything important, I’ll let you know.”
Nick wasn’t sold on that idea. Whether he doubted she’d tell him what she learned or just didn’t want her in the mix, she wasn’t sure.
Nick said, “Think you can do a better job than me?”
“That depends. Is this a competition?”
“That wouldn’t be very professional of me.” He gave her a half grin. “It might take you time to get in to see Pierce.”
“Don’t count on it.”
He gave her a quizzical look, then groaned. “Your uncle.”
“Bingo.” She smiled and signed the check to her room. She put her hand on Nick’s arm. “I have to go.” She slid out of the booth as Nick’s cell phone vibrated on the table. “I’ll call you.”
As she was about to walk away, Nick took her wrist. She was startled and looked at him. “If you need help, just ask.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
He dropped her arm. “And watch yourself around Beck.”
Where had that come from? But Nick was already on his phone, so Max didn’t ask.
Chapter Thirteen