mouth hanging open trying to figure out what to say next.
“Colin…how in the hell…”
Colin turned back to his food. “That’s just casual observation and a few phone calls, Seth. You know, basic reporting. Well, you wouldn’t know because you never really do any. Your notion of research doesn’t really extend beyond Google.”
“Look, Colin,” Seth said. “I know you’re pissed that Hal canned you and made me editor, but—”
“Actually, I fully expected him to do that,” Colin said. “I’m just surprised it took him as long as it did. What I’m trying to say here, Seth, is that I have so far completed only as much digging as I might do for a minor story. One, like yourself, that is of little significance. However, if you don’t remove yourself from that stool in the next 30 seconds and stop pestering me with questions that I have no intention of answering, I may decide to bump you up to the status of a full feature investigation. And I don’t think you would enjoy being the subject of one of those.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m always serious, Seth. By the way, I have no intention of writing about varsity sports, so you better find somebody else to cover that. Twenty-five seconds.”
“But what am I supposed to do for this murder story?”
“Good question, Seth. Perhaps you should try some research. Go interview a few primary sources. You know, reporting? That field of study you’ve been pursuing for the last three years? When you bother to show up to class, that is. Five seconds.”
“You said I had 25 seconds a second ago!”
“I arbitrarily decided to reduce your allotted time because you were annoying the piss out of me.”
Seth jumped down off his stool. “Fine! I’m going. I’ll leave you to work your way into another hangover.”
Seth stuffed his notebook awkwardly back into his pocket and stormed out. Colin looked back up at the TV, where the anchor was excitedly reporting a rumour that Kim Kardashian was pregnant.
“Oh good,” Colin muttered to himself. “News.”
-15-
C olin left the bar a few hours later. The fastest way back to his apartment was to cut around the back of the rec centre and use the forest path. He only made it about halfway before he realized that his need to pee had quickly shifted from vague inclination to critical status. He ducked into the shipping/receiving area, where he found a large skid of recalled newspapers set to be dumped in the giant recycling bins. Perfect.
Colin snuck in behind the newspapers and let fly. Why was it that once a seal was broken the capacity seemed to reduce? When he’d left the bar, he’d felt almost nothing, and now here he was, urinating all over yesterday’s news.
Colin was mulling the irony of his situation when he heard the noise and looked over to see that the receiving door was ajar. He zipped up and checked his watch. It was after 10 p.m. The receiving bay closed at 4. The noise had sounded like something metal being dropped on a concrete floor.
If he hadn’t just put away five large draughts, he probably wouldn’t have been quite as likely to stroll over to the open door, stick his head inside and say “Hellloooo?” But he had, so he did.
Inside was surprisingly bright. Colin noticed that the overhead maintenance lights had come on. Those lights were only activated when they detected movement. That meant somebody had passed one of the sensors in the last 15 minutes, because those lights automatically shut themselves off again after that much time.
Colin allowed his gaze to drift slowly down from the lights past the pipes, ducts and bundles of electrical cable to the floor.
Where he saw the trail of blood.
It led from the floor in front of him across the receiving area and down the hall into the main complex. It wasn’t a smooth, dribbling line. It looked slightly smeared in places, almost as if somebody had clumsily tried to clean it up as they went. Colin could see from the lights that it
“Colin…how in the hell…”
Colin turned back to his food. “That’s just casual observation and a few phone calls, Seth. You know, basic reporting. Well, you wouldn’t know because you never really do any. Your notion of research doesn’t really extend beyond Google.”
“Look, Colin,” Seth said. “I know you’re pissed that Hal canned you and made me editor, but—”
“Actually, I fully expected him to do that,” Colin said. “I’m just surprised it took him as long as it did. What I’m trying to say here, Seth, is that I have so far completed only as much digging as I might do for a minor story. One, like yourself, that is of little significance. However, if you don’t remove yourself from that stool in the next 30 seconds and stop pestering me with questions that I have no intention of answering, I may decide to bump you up to the status of a full feature investigation. And I don’t think you would enjoy being the subject of one of those.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m always serious, Seth. By the way, I have no intention of writing about varsity sports, so you better find somebody else to cover that. Twenty-five seconds.”
“But what am I supposed to do for this murder story?”
“Good question, Seth. Perhaps you should try some research. Go interview a few primary sources. You know, reporting? That field of study you’ve been pursuing for the last three years? When you bother to show up to class, that is. Five seconds.”
“You said I had 25 seconds a second ago!”
“I arbitrarily decided to reduce your allotted time because you were annoying the piss out of me.”
Seth jumped down off his stool. “Fine! I’m going. I’ll leave you to work your way into another hangover.”
Seth stuffed his notebook awkwardly back into his pocket and stormed out. Colin looked back up at the TV, where the anchor was excitedly reporting a rumour that Kim Kardashian was pregnant.
“Oh good,” Colin muttered to himself. “News.”
-15-
C olin left the bar a few hours later. The fastest way back to his apartment was to cut around the back of the rec centre and use the forest path. He only made it about halfway before he realized that his need to pee had quickly shifted from vague inclination to critical status. He ducked into the shipping/receiving area, where he found a large skid of recalled newspapers set to be dumped in the giant recycling bins. Perfect.
Colin snuck in behind the newspapers and let fly. Why was it that once a seal was broken the capacity seemed to reduce? When he’d left the bar, he’d felt almost nothing, and now here he was, urinating all over yesterday’s news.
Colin was mulling the irony of his situation when he heard the noise and looked over to see that the receiving door was ajar. He zipped up and checked his watch. It was after 10 p.m. The receiving bay closed at 4. The noise had sounded like something metal being dropped on a concrete floor.
If he hadn’t just put away five large draughts, he probably wouldn’t have been quite as likely to stroll over to the open door, stick his head inside and say “Hellloooo?” But he had, so he did.
Inside was surprisingly bright. Colin noticed that the overhead maintenance lights had come on. Those lights were only activated when they detected movement. That meant somebody had passed one of the sensors in the last 15 minutes, because those lights automatically shut themselves off again after that much time.
Colin allowed his gaze to drift slowly down from the lights past the pipes, ducts and bundles of electrical cable to the floor.
Where he saw the trail of blood.
It led from the floor in front of him across the receiving area and down the hall into the main complex. It wasn’t a smooth, dribbling line. It looked slightly smeared in places, almost as if somebody had clumsily tried to clean it up as they went. Colin could see from the lights that it
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