Page 64 of Fire and Bones
“Birdie?”
“Your neighbor is happy to keep him. Should that change, I’ll pick him up.”
“Oh my God. I owe you big-time.”
“And I will collect. Count on it.”
I debated. Decided, what the hell. Following my conversation with Ivy over Lan’s Thai dinner, I’d been curious about something. And an online check had yielded an odd discrepancy. Katy could probably explain it.
“While I have you on the phone, may I ask you something?” I said.
“Sure.”
“It’s about Ivy Doyle.”
“What about her?”
“You made a comment the night you asked me to talk to her about the Foggy Bottom fire. You said that Ivy really needed the interview.”
“So?”
“What did you mean by that?”
“Nothing.”
Careful, Brennan.
“Ivy has an extraordinarily charismatic on-air presence,” I said. “She’s ambitious. Her family must have serious grease in the telecommunication business. I’m curious why her career seems—”
“Seems what?” Familiar with my daughter’s every nuance, I detected an unexpected defensiveness in her tone.
“Why she hasn’t achieved the national prominence she desires.”
“What is it you’re not saying, Mom?”
Tread gently.
“Ivy told me she’d been lured from Sioux City by an offer from a station in Columbia. But her résumé shows a two-year gap between her departure from Iowa and her arrival in South Carolina.”
“You looked her up?” Not quite, but close to indignant.
“I wanted to find fodder for conversation. You know I’m lousy at small talk.” Partially true. What I’d really sought was info on the lifesaving incident in Afghanistan that Katy had referenced. No way I’d admit to that.
A pause as Katy worked around my explanation. Then,
“Fine. But this stays between us.”
“Of course,” I said.
“Ivy didn’t leave Sioux City under good terms. She was fired.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say she embellished a few details on a story. The station agreed to keep it quiet, but you know how those things go. It took her two years to land another job. But that was a long time ago. She’d never cheat the facts again.”
“Thanks for sharing. Ivy’s secret is safe with me.”
Despite the late hour and the bad news about my town house, I didn’t fire out of bed.