“Bette”

“Bette”

Shane was beginning to get a little nervous by Bette’s lack of response.  Any hope that Shane had of Bette not taking what she acquired from Louy were dashed by Bette’s distant stare.  Not giving up Shane shouts again.

“Bette” 

Finally Bette looks in Shane’s direction.  Shane can tell immediately that Bette’s not all together.  Her perfect posture that gives the illusion of perfect body control is a sham.  Immediately Shane can see Bette struggle to maintain her posture.  The simple act of turning her head to Shane’s direction had the effect of almost toppling her over.  Catching herself, before her face hit the sand, Bette returns to the pose but adds a broad bright smile.

“Bette what’s going on?” Shane asks trying to get Bette into a conversation as she gets close to Bette.

“Tina” Bette says Shane.

“No Bette it’s me Shane.  I saw you here and thought I’d come by and see what you’re up to.”

******

Alice quickly scans the news room the moment her and Candace hit the door.  She secretly hopes Rollo is hanging around but knows in her heart he’s probably hanging out at his other office, a little bar down the street. Alice had picked up a message he left while her and Candace were up to their little adventure.  He said he had a line on something Alice might be interested in.  Once she heard that she redirected their destination to the news room.

“Alice” Came barking through the clutter of noise that makes up the newsroom.

Alice whips her head around at the sound of her name.  “Crap” she says under her breath.   It’s her editor.  It’s never a good thing when he calls her out this way.

Plastering a smile on her face Alice turns in his direction.  “Hey there.  Whats ya need?”

“Rollo asked me to give you this if you came into the newsroom.” Her editor says waving a plain manila colored folder.  “He said you’d be pleased.  What’s this all about and when did you start talking to Rollo?”

Alice couldn’t get to the folder fast enough.  She left Candace standing alone in the middle of the sea of desks making up the news room. 

When she gets to her editor he holds the folder over his head, “Not so fast.  Rollo?  Really what’s this all about?”

“Really boss I don’t have enough to spell it all out yet but the moment I do you will be the first I tell.  Give me a few days and I think I may surprise you.  And I’m not talking about the next top ten either.”

Her editor eyes her for a moment but he can see the excitement that is running just below the surface with her.   Willing to give her the benefit of the doubt he lowers his hand to turn over the folder.  Alice greedily reaches for the folder but her editor hangs on.  Feeling the resistance she takes her eyes off the folder and looks back up to her editor. 

What she sees is that he’s not even looking at her but beyond her.  With a nod of his head,  “Who’s that?”

Turning Alice realizes she’s left Candace all alone.  “Oh yeah … Aww … she one of my contacts.  We’re going to use the conference room if that’s OK with you?”

Alice’s boss just grunts and turns around his task done.

Alice waits until he’s almost all the way back to his office before she turns around and waves to Candace.  “Come on it’s over here.  Let’s get in there before we run into anyone else.  Let me fire up my laptop so we can download those pictures.”

Alice is still feeling uneasy, knowing they had just left Helena’s house and could easily have been caught breaking and entering, knowing she had a USB drive in her pocket that she’s dying to see what it contained and holding a folder from Rollo that could only have more stuff on Helena.  She was almost on overload.  This is easily the most excitement she’s had in a long time.