Rob Blackwell - A Soul To Steal

“About the only thing worth seeing here is the printing press,” said Janus.

“It’s cool you actually see it,” Kate said. “At the Gazette, we never did. It was all sent off-site.”

“It’s cool,” Quinn said, and he opened the double doors that led downstairs.

They walked down there and saw the paper run just beginning. The rumble of the press would soon be so loud they would have to start yelling to make themselves heard. They watched it for a moment.

In the corner a sign said, “Safety is our number one priority. We have not had an accident in…” and in magic marker it finished, “54 days.”

“Not a very encouraging record,” Quinn said when he saw Kate looking at it. “Come on, you can see back here where it all comes out.”

They walked around the gigantic machine to get to the back.

“The Loudoun Chronicle is a broad sheet,” Quinn said, pointing up. “If you look up there, you can see where the screens come in. Everything is sent electronically from upstairs, then photographed and placed on the screens. It gets sent through in sections, then comes out over there.”

He pointed to a few places.

It took Quinn a minute more before he realized Kate wasn’t watching him. He looked to see her staring at the far corner of the room. There was nothing there that he could see.

“Kate?” he asked. Janus and Bill followed her gaze, looked back at Quinn, and shrugged.

“Kate?” Quinn asked again. She didn’t respond for a minute.

“What happened there?” she said finally.

“Happened where?” Quinn asked, and looked back at the spot.

“There,” she said, and pointed to a spot on the floor. Quinn saw nothing but a very dusty piece of cement.

The three men exchanged quizzical looks.

“There’s nothing there,” Quinn said, feeling a little concerned.

Kate walked up and looked down.

“It’s right…” she trailed off.

Quinn followed her. He looked down and saw nothing.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

She turned and looked at him, then back at the floor.

“Trick of the light,” she said. “I just thought I saw something-that’s all.”

She did not sound convincing, but Quinn let it go.

“Sure,” he said.

“Hey, guys,” Bill said. “Are we done with the tour yet? Anyone up for lunch?”

Kate nodded, said she was hungry, and they headed out the back door. On his way out, Quinn noticed her look back at the corner of the room.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

She met his gaze.

“Yeah,” she said. “What could be wrong?”

Outside, he noticed her hands shaking, but he knew enough not to say anything.

They went to a small Italian deli for lunch and Kate tried to forget about what she had seen, though the thought of it kept coming back. She was surprised at how easy it was to hang out with these people. She had this idea that reporters were supposed to be constantly moving, as they had back in Ohio. No one had time for lunch there.

But she supposed a weekly paper was bound to be different and if there was a more relaxed atmosphere, she wondered why she felt herself missing the all-consuming pressure of a daily deadline.

“It’s different, isn’t it?” Quinn asked.

“What?” Kate said, startled out of reverie.

“Working here,” he replied, and smiled at her.

“You read my mind,” she said, and really looked at Quinn.

In jeans and a red button-down shirt, he appeared casual and comfortable, but she felt some vibe coming off him. He seemed…nervous. Like a guy on his first date or something. It never occurred to her that she might have had something to do with that.

“No, I just know how it goes,” he said. “When I came back here after working on the Hill…”

“You worked on Capitol Hill?” she asked.

“Yeah, for Congressional Quarterly,” he said.

“Nice,” Kate replied.

“I suppose,” Quinn said. “But when I got back here, it was kind of crazy. I had gone from a constant deadline to a paper that just seemed to take its time.”

“Hey, some of us enjoy our relaxation time,” Bill chimed in.

“Too much from the look of it,” Janus said, and patted Bill’s belly. Bill brushed Janus’ hand away with a look of bemused irritation.

Quinn barely acknowledged them.

“Anyway, it was a switch,” he said.

“I’ll bet,” Kate said, and tried again to size Quinn up. She had this nagging feeling that she knew him from somewhere and the more he talked, the more difficult it was to shake it. But she couldn’t place him to save her life.

“So Laurence said something about you coming from a daily paper and I thought I could relate,” Quinn said.

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I’ll get used to it.”

“If you worked for a daily, why did you come down here?” Quinn asked.

That, my friend, is the million-dollar question, Kate thought. She was damned if she knew. Instead of saying that, however, she just smiled.

“I needed a change of scenery,” she said.

“So you came to Loudoun?” Janus asked. “Boy, did you take the wrong train to Clarksville.”

“You don’t like it here?” she asked him.

“Well, I do, yeah,” Janus said. “But I’m a loon, so I don’t think that tells you much. I guess I got my mates here and they pay me to take lovely photos. But I don’t know what anyone else sees in it.”

“You should be in tourism, Janus,” Bill said.

“I just mean it’s a pretty boring place,” he said.

“That wasn’t the impression I had,” Kate said.

“Oh, you just wait,” Janus said, picking up his turkey sandwich and biting into it. “Wait till you have lived here for six years. Then tell me how exciting it is.”

“It isn’t that bad,” Quinn said quickly.

“Then why did you move away, bucko?” Janus asked through a full mouth.

“I moved back, didn’t I?” Quinn replied.

“Why was that, anyway, Quinn?” Bill asked. “I always meant to ask.”

Quinn shot a dark look in Janus’ direction, who held up his hands in a ‘What did I do?’ gesture.

“Just didn’t like it there, I guess,” Quinn replied.

“I would have thought it would be exciting,” Kate said.

For a moment, she saw an odd look cross his face and then it was gone.

“Maybe it was too exciting,” he said, and appeared to want to leave it at that.

“Speaking of excitement,” Janus said, finishing off his sandwich even as Bill got up to get another. “I think you and I need to get going, right?”

Quinn looked at him blankly.

“Where?” he asked.

“I thought Buzz told you-we have to go see that coin-sorting place for the profile, right? Remember? I take the pretty photos and you write your boring article?”

“Oh damn,” Quinn said. “I forgot.”

He looked at his watch.

“We are supposed to be there in 10 minutes,” he said. “We’ll never make it.”

“You know, if you had just set your watch 3 minutes ahead, Quinn,” Janus started.

“Get stuffed,” Quinn said. “Let’s go.”

He looked apologetically at Kate.

“I’m sorry to run out on you, but duty calls,” he said. “We’ll see you back at base, right?”

“Sure,” she said.

“And sorry to leave you alone with Bill,” Janus said, watching as the portly photographer wandered back to the table with another sandwich. “Don’t let him get too fresh.”

“I won’t,” she smiled, and watched Quinn wave before they walked out the door.

As Bill sat down and began to munch on his sub, Kate let out a small sigh.

She wondered again just what she had she gotten herself into.

LH File: Letter #2

Dated: Oct. 5, 1994