Seeking Answers

Joey wasn't sure why he felt so nervous when Dawn pulled up outside the office building of the Danbury Gazette. It should have been a real power trip coming back to his old workplace partnered with an elite journalist and working for one of the world's most esteemed newspapers. Instead, this felt like an uncomfortable reminder of where he actually belonged. He knew it and, now his special magical lying skills had been exposed to her, Dawn knew it as well. Joey just hoped this visit didn't bring his partner to her senses regarding her out of work relationship with him.

"Oh, it's cute" she announced in a kind rather than patronising way as she entered "Much nicer than where I used to work. That was basically an attic"

Heads were soon turning as the pair walked through the open plan, not out of any interest in the triumphant return of their former employee, but because of who his guest was. Anyone who worked in American journalism knew Dawn Fraser was a major deal, and she was gracious and patient with Joey's former colleagues as they swarmed around her and, one by one, let her know how much they admired her or liked some article or other she had written.

To his credit, Jeff chose not to bother the star reporter and instead hung back at his desk, so Joey decided to go and say hello while Dawn dealt with her fan club.

"Hey Sport, how's life at the Post?"

"Pretty good" Joey shrugged "It takes some getting used to with the pace everything moves at, but there's never a dull moment"

"I bet! And how about Kayleigh?"

"She's moving on already. She got head hunted for an advisory role in the Vice Presidents' office, so I guess she couldn't say no to that"

"No way? That's awesome!" Jeff lit up "I always said she should go into politics!"

Maybe it was because he was fucking four separate hot women these days, but Joey didn't find Jeff at all annoying anymore. In fact, he was struggling to remember what his problem with him had ever been. The pair enjoyed catching up until Dawn was able to extract herself from the throng she had attracted and walked over to join them.

"Hey Dawn, this is Jeff King, one of my former colleagues" Joey explained "It was Jeff, Kayleigh and I who were the three senior reporters here around the time I left, so I guess he's the top guy now. Well, apart from Ted, but you won't get much sense out of him"

"Hey Jeff, great to meet you" Dawn smiled as she shook his hand "Actually, this is going to sound like a completely random question, but if I throw a time and date at you, do you think you might be able to tell me what you were doing then? We're only talking a few weeks back"

"Sure thing! You'll find I'm tediously meticulous with my record keeping"

Dawn recited the time and date she had in mind without needing to refer to any notes like Joey would have done, despite it having been a life changing day for him.

"Oh, yeah, that was when Joey and Kayleigh went to investigate the mysterious toxic sludge, right?" Jeff deduced correctly after a few clicks of his calendar "I was barely in the office. It was a pretty frustrating day for me, actually. I spent most of my time running around following up a bunch of hoax leads. Still, we've all been there, right?"

"More times than I can stand to remember" Dawn chuckled sympathetically "Where did these leads come from?"

"They were texts sent direct to me" Jeff recalled "They sounded credible. Knowledgeable. And it's not like people would usually waste their time messing with local Danbury journalists, so I followed up"

"I'd have done exactly the same" Dawn nodded.

"Sorry, that probably wasn't much help was it?"

"Everything helps" Dawn smiled back "Thank you, Jeff. I guess now we go and speak to Ted"

"That conversation might seriously test your 'everything helps' theory" Joey quipped, earning himself a chuckle from Jeff.

Seriously, why did he used to hate the guy so much?

---

If there was one thing Joey had to give Ted some credit for, it was that he didn't try and put on an act in the presence of an actual top tier journalist like Dawn. He was just as much of a bumbling oaf as usual, and seemingly proud of it.

"What? You think I remember every fucking phone conversation I've ever had?" he responded after Dawn had asked him about the tip off regarding the supposed Russian propaganda serum.

"None of us do, I appreciate that, but this was only a few weeks back and the claim was quite unusual" Dawn replied with impeccable professionalism "A lot of editors would have dismissed the call as a hoax, but you chose to send not one but two of your lead journalists to cover it, with the third otherwise engaged. You must remember what it was that caused you to make that decision?"

"Okay, for starters I only sent Jones, the worst of my three lead journalists" Ted, it seemed, had lost none of his usual charm "He took Preston with him because those two were practically joined at the hip. I expect they still are after fucking off to DC together. I used to tell them to get a room"

"Can you just answer the question, Ted?" Joey cut in, finding all this talk of his fondness for Kayleigh extremely uncomfortable during his overnight trip with Dawn "In fact..."

Joey recalled Charlie advising him to use his bullshitting powers on this trip if he needed to. He had vowed never to manipulate anyone he cared about, which left Ted as completely fair game. He was also an irascible asshole who was likely to frustrate their investigation just because he could if Joey attempted to play this straight.

"It is extremely important you tell Dawn everything you remember about that call, Ted. If you don't she's not going to be able to save your job for you, or keep the cops out of here"

"What?!"

Ted looked at Dawn in a sudden state of shock and panic. She nodded at him, playing along with her partner.

"Just tell me what you remember, it will all be fine"

"There really isn't that much to tell" a suddenly far more cooperative Ted began "It was a female voice. American accent. I think the number was disguised, but that isn't that unusual with an anonymous tip off. The voice seemed a little off too, something about it just sounded faked. Whoever it was seemed extremely knowledgeable. Smart, articulate. Not at all like a crank. I figured it was worth a shot on an otherwise quiet day"

"Did you send Joey to investigate right away?"

"No! This isn't the fucking Post, it's a local newspaper. The call came right when I was about to go for lunch and I was meeting someone. It didn't sound urgent so I delegated it when I got back. You can't seriously tell me I'm in any trouble for that?"

"No, you're completely in the clear" Dawn assured him "Thanks for your time. I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you"

---

The final phase of a fact finding mission that didn't seem to be finding any facts was a visit to a warehouse - the one that had contained the vat of mysterious green gunk that had exploded all over Joey just a few weeks ago, even if so much had happened since that it felt like it had to have been longer than that.

The place was locked this time, but there was a note on the window with the phone number and address of the owner for anyone interested in buying or renting it. It was a less than ten minute walk to their home, so Joey and Dawn made their way there immediately.

They were eventually greeted by an elderly man after having rung the doorbell at least three times.

"Yeah?"

"We've come about the warehouse on Warwick Street" Dawn began "I believe you're the owner?"

"You wanna buy it? Rent it?"

The guy seemed like he was very eager for someone to take it off his hands. He was going to be disappointed.

"We were actually wondering if someone else had rented it from you recently?" Joey followed up.

"Yeah, a pretty lady did a few weeks back. But it's available now"

"A pretty lady? Can you elaborate on that?" Dawn asked.

"Not really, I only spoke to her a couple of times. Jane, I think it was. Very attractive, young too. Everyone looks young to me these days though. Pleasant to deal with, said she needed it for the company she worked for. Paid in cash there and then"

"Did she say which company she worked for or what they needed it for?"

"Nope. Don't ask, don't care" the man folded his arms "As long as they leave it the same way they found it, which she did, and they pay up front why would I even care?"

"Fair enough. Could we possibly borrow the keys to take a quick look around?" Dawn asked "We'd be back with them in less than an hour"

"Sure, if you want to pay the rent for the month it's all yours" the owner shrugged.

"It's just that, we're with the FBI" Joey, not seeing any ethical concerns with lying his way into borrowing some keys to an empty warehouse for a short while, chipped in "It's only a routine search, nothing to worry about, but we will need to ask you for your cooperation"

"Okay then, sir" the man looked vaguely spooked, wandering back into his home for a short while before returning with a the requested keys "Take as long as you need"

"You love being FBI don't you?" Dawn giggled as they made their way back to the warehouse "You could have just told him we'd paid already!"

As they reached the facility and let themselves in, it seemed there was nothing to see. Just a completely empty space.

"So this was the entrance you came in from?" Dawn checked.

"Yes"

"And the vat of that gunk was?"

"Right over on the other side of the room" Joey pointed to where it had been, though there was only one location he could have been referring to.

"And you are absolutely sure there were no cameras?"

"None" Joey shook his head "I mean, I'm ninety nine per cent sure of that at least. The room was so open and empty I can't think where they could have been hidden, and since we were trespassing on what we thought could have been some KGB operation we were an high alert for that kind of thing"

"Okay, well then I think we're pretty much done here"

---

"Sorry Dawn, I feel like this was a wasted trip" Joey told his colleague apologetically as they checked into their motel, which was disappointingly plain and functional rather than the sleazy looking fuckpad he had secretly been hoping for.

"Really?" she replied as she flopped herself down on the bed "Maybe I'm way off base, but I feel like I've got a pretty good idea of how everything went down now"

"You do?"

She smiled and nodded confidently.

How did she do that? Joey had been right there with Dawn for virtually the entirety of their investigation and felt he had learned nothing of value at all. If there was one thing that he disliked about spending so much time in her company, it was that it hammered home to him that he had never been cut out to be a real journalist, just a mediocre local news reporter.

However, that minor drawback was far outweighed by the many benefits of working so closely with Dawn.

"Whether I'm right or not, how can you call this trip a waste when you have me all to yourself and at the mercy of your magical hypnotic powers, with nobody to restrain you" Dawn gave Joey a slight, sultry smirk and pushed herself up onto her knees as she spoke

"So, how about you show me what you've got?"