Hard News (Rune 3)

"Me? Nope."

"How come you know this kind of stuff?" He held up the book.

She shrugged. "I just like to read."

"I kind of regretted I never was smart enough to go."

"Naw, I wouldn't feel that way if I was you," she said. "You go to college, get a real job, get married, what happens is you don't ever get a chance to play chicken with life. That's the fun part."

He nodded. "Never could sit still long enough to go to school anyway." He looked at her for a moment, eyes roving up and down. "Tell me 'bout yourself."

"Me?" She was suddenly embarrassed.

"Sure. I told you 'bout me. Remind me what life's like on the Outside. Been a while."

"I don't know...." She thought: So this is what the people I interview feel like.

Boggs asked, "Where you live?"

Houseboats take a lot of explaining. "In Manhattan," she said.

"You can stand it there? It's a crazy place."

"I can't stand it anyplace else."

"Never spent much time there. Never could get a handle on it."

"Why would you want to live somewhere you can get a handle on?" she asked.

"Maybe you've got a point there. But you're talking to somebody who's a little prejudiced. I come to town and what happens? I get myself arrested for murder...." He smiled then looked at her closely. "So, you're a reporter. Is that what you want to do?"

"I have this thing about films. I think I want to make documentaries. Right now I'm working for this TV station. I'll do it for as long as it excites me. The day I wake up and say I'd rather go have a picnic on the top of the Chrysler Building than go to work that's the day I quit and do something else."

Boggs said, "You and me're kind of alike. I've done me a lot of different things too. I keep looking. Always been looking for that nest egg, just to get a leg up."

"Hey, before this job, I spent six months at a bagel restaurant. And before that I was a store-window dresser. Most of my close friends are people I met at the Unemployment office."

"Pretty girl like you I think'd be considering settling down. You have a boyfriend?"

"He's not exactly the marrying kind."

"You're young."

"I'm not in any hurry. I think my mother's got this bridal shop in Shaker Heights on call. In case I tell her I'm engaged she'll be like the Pentagon--you know, Red Alert. But I have trouble seeing me married. Like some things you can imagine and some you can't. That's one that doesn't compute."

"Where's Shaker Heights?"

"Outside Cleveland."

"You're from Ohio. I spent some time in Indiana." Then he laughed. "Maybe I shouldn't put it that way. Not like I was doing time. I lived about a year there, working. A real job. As real as day labor can be. Steel mills in Gary."

"Miss," the guard said, "I let you stay a little longer than you should."

She stood up and said to Boggs, "I'm working really, really hard on the story. I'm going to get you out of here."

Boggs was running his finger along the edge of his book. "I'll keep this." He said this as if it was the best thing he could think of to say to thank her.

As Rune and the guard walked back to the prison exit, the guard, without looking at her, said, "Miss, word been around about what you're trying to do."