“So I’m supposed to just sit here and let that damn article ruin us both while you keep somebody else’s secret.” Allie started to shake with rage and frustration. “What the hell is going on here?”

Charlie rubbed his hand over the back of his head. “Don’t worry about it. This will be over soon. “You’ll be fine, I swear.”

“Right,” she snapped. “I’ll be fine because I’ll be breaking in a new guy in a week, and you’ll be fine because you’re leaving this mess behind you, right? We’ll all be fine. Great.”

“Allie,” Charlie began, and she cut him off.

“Go away. Just go away. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Just leave.”

“Allie, this is important.” She ignored him, but he went on, anyway. “I want us to do the show about legalizing drugs tonight. I want you to be against it so I can argue for it.”

She gaped at him. “Have you lost your mind? After this article…” Her voice trailed off. “You want people to think this is true.” She sat back in her chair. “Why?”

“Just for a little while,” he told her. “I’m almost there. This article could do it for me.”

“Almost where?” Allie’s annoyance blanked everything out. “You can’t possibly think I’m going to help you ruin this show and my own reputation without some explanation here. Either tell me what’s going on, or you’re on your own tonight.”

Charlie started to say something, and then he sighed, and said, “All right, that’s fair, I’ll do it myself,” and left the office.

Allie put her head down on the desk. The show was ruined, Charlie didn’t trust her, and he was still leaving in November.

And she couldn’t think of a damn thing to do about any of it except go home and cry in Joe’s arms.


* * *

THE NEXT MONDAY-after three polite work nights and one miserably lonely weekend, after the calls to the show had dropped off to hecklers who wanted to score off Charlie’s arrest record and outraged citizens who wanted him off the air, after Charlie had disappeared for long stretches of time and the police had dropped by to see him-things hit bottom.

Charlie’s wife showed up.

She was a little thing, dark and sort of wet with tears, and she was about seven or eight months’ pregnant. Karen called Allie to the desk and pointed to her and said, “You’re not going to like this. She’s looking for Ten Tenniel. She says she’s married to him.”

Not possible, Allie told herself, but the list of possibilities for Charlie had been growing since he’d refused to defend himself on the drug charge. She still believed in him, but it was harder.

She went toward the girl. “Hello, I’m Alice McGuffey, Mr. Tenniel’s producer and-”

“Where is he? The girl stood up and looked at her defiantly. “He’s my husband, and I want to see him.”

“He’s not here right now, but he should be in any time,” Allie said. “Would you like to wait in my office?” She looked around to see Stewart and Lisa listening in from the hallway. “It’s more private there?”

“Where is he?” the girl demanded again, and then with his usual impeccable timing, Charlie came through the doors and stopped when he saw her. “Miranda?”

“Charlie?” She seemed as amazed as he was.

“Don’t say anything,” Charlie told her, taking her arm. “We can talk out here.”

“Charlie?” Allie said, outraged.

Charlie shoved Miranda out into the hall and pointed at Allie. “You stay here and stop thinking dumb thoughts. You know me better than this. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Wait a minute!” Allie said, incensed, but he was shoving Miranda into an elevator by then and she was left with her own murderous thoughts and Karen and Stewart and Lisa staring at her with sympathy and avid curiosity.

This time she was going to kill him.

But first she was going to find out what the hell was going on.


* * *

He came into her office half an hour before the show and caught her dialing the phone.

“I know.” He held up his hand to stop her from talking. “I’m a creep for leaving you like that. I had to call my dad and put Miranda on a bus home before I could explain. I know you’re mad at me and I deserve it, but just let me explain.”

“Oh, now you’re going to explain.” Allie slapped the phone down. “Well, that’s just great.”

“Allie, I’m not-”

“Ten Tenniel. I know. She’s your brother’s wife, right?”

Charlie sat down. “Well, sort of. They’re not actually married. How did you figure it out?”

Allie shook her head, disgusted with him. “It wasn’t hard once I woke up. You wouldn’t let us call you Ten and that’s what the Lawrenceville station was famous for. And you may be a natural on radio, but Harry was right. You didn’t have any idea what you were doing that first night. So you came here pretending to be your brother, and since Bill knows your family, he knows that, too. So whatever secret you’re keeping is Bill’s, and this whole program thing was just a blind, and I’ve been killing myself to make you a success for nothing.”

“Well, I told you not to do it,” Charlie pointed out mildly. “Which part are you the most mad about?”

“That you didn’t trust me,” Allie said, her anger evaporating from the hurt. “You didn’t trust me at all.”

“It wasn’t that.” Charlie put his head in his hands. “I don’t know how the hell this got so complicated. I trusted you. I knew it wasn’t you from the beginning. But you go charging in on everything you do, and that was the wrong way to do this.”

Allie leaned forward. “To do what? What do you mean it wasn’t me?”

Charlie met her eyes. “Somebody’s running drugs from the station. Bill got an anonymous letter and used it as an excuse to get me down here as a favor to my dad. He wanted to know about the letter because he thought it was a smear, and my dad wanted me to get a real job, so they cooked it up between them. And I bought it, and I’ve been trying to find a link between the mayor or Roger Preston or Mark and drugs. Nothing. So for the past week I’ve been letting the drug story slide, running around pretending to be a dealer, trying to figure things out. And last night, going over your drug legalization notes, I finally did.”

“Who is it?” Allie asked when she found her voice. “I can’t believe it. Who’s dealing?”

“Grady,” Charlie said. “It has to be Grady.”

9

“Are you out of your mind?” Allie looked at him in horror. “Grady is the last person to push drugs. He doesn’t care about money. He-”

“He cares about his mother,” Charlie said. “And Mrs. Winthrop and Mrs. Wexman and all the rest.”

Allie shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

“I didn’t get it either at first.” Charlie looked so miserable she wanted to go to him, but not until he stopped saying stupid things about Grady. “Grady grows it behind his home, but that wasn’t enough because I knew Grady wouldn’t deal drugs for money. That just wasn’t Grady’s style. But the fraternity kids said we were giving it away, and then I read your notes on drug legalization and the stuff you found on cancer patients. That’s when it all fell into place.”

Allie closed her eyes. “I remember. Pot helps people handle chemo.” Then she had a thought and her eyes flew open again. “Grady gave Beattie pot?”

Charlie nodded. “He’d do anything to help her. And if Beattie knew it helped her, she’d insist on sharing it with others. They’ve been providing pot for the town’s cancer patients. That’s why Mrs. Winthrop’s grandson got nasty with her. He wanted her stash.”

“Oh, God.” Allie put her head in her hands. “And that’s why people bring Grady cookies and things. They’re trying to say thank you.” She tilted her head back and thought for a moment. “Well, okay. Now we know. All we have to do is keep out mouths shut about it-”

“No,” Charlie said. “We can’t. This is illegal.”

Allie gaped at him. “You can’t possibly be thinking of turning Grady in?”

He sighed. “You’re not listening. I’m going to tell Grady I know, and he’s going to turn himself in. It’s illegal, Al. And he’s running out of time. That little Winthrop brat sent the letter to Bill. Everybody at the college knows somebody here is dealing. And I’ve been asking questions. There was that newspaper piece about me being a pusher that made the police start watching me. They know who I’ve been talking to, and they know something’s up. There’s going to be hell to pay, and if Grady turns himself in, he’s at least got that in his favor. It’s too late for anything else.”

“No.” Allie came around the desk and headed for the door. “No. We can stop this. We can stonewall this. Grady is not going to jail.”

Charlie caught her arm. “Don’t say anything to anybody. Let me handle this.”

“Like you’ve handled it so far?” Allie looked up at him, furious. “If you hadn’t poked around, we’d be fine. Who is he hurting? He’s helping people, and you’re going to turn him in.” Allie yanked her arm away from him. “This is the worst. You’re just going to stand there and watch him go to prison.”

“What do you want me to do?” Charlie said.

“You started this mess,” she said. “You should fix it.”

“I can’t fix it. All I can do is see it through to the end.”

Allie looked at him, uncomprehending. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. You’re not even going to try to work something else out. You’re just going to go ahead and do it your way.”

“Allie-”

“Just like Bill,” she said to him, knowing it would hurt him. “Just like your dad.”

His mouth tightened, and then he left the office.