Page 42 of Remember Her Name

“But she still thought Remy Tate could help her.”

Vicky nodded. “Yes. The story was going to air soon and she asked me if we could delay it a bit longer while she continued talking with Remy. Digitizing records isn’t the story of the century, so I agreed.”

“We’re talking about a technicality here, is that right?” Josie asked. “Stella uses Remy to access the sealed records and give her the information she needs which she uses to develop her own sources so technically, it wouldn’t be illegal for you to run with the story.”

Vicky offered a sheepish smile.

Josie didn’t know why she was surprised. She’d seen how ruthless reporters could be in pursuit of a story they believed would change the course of their careers. “But what was Stella working on?”

They hadn’t found anything on Stella’s laptop although they hadn’t been looking for some big, scandalous story. There had been dozens of files filled with hundreds of Word documents on it. No one on the team had taken the time to read through all of them. They had been looking for any recent activity via email or social media that would indicate whether Stella was being stalked or if she’d been in contact with someone who might have wanted to harm her.

“I really don’t know, Detective,” said Vicky. “Like I said, I indulged Stella because I adored her and hey, if someone says they can deliver a huge story, I’m not going to turn my noseup. She wasn’t doing it on WYEP time. She wasn’t using WYEP resources. It didn’t hurt anyone for me to keep Remy out of the public eye for a couple of weeks by not running the story.”

“Did Stella ever indicate that her relationship with Remy Tate was anything more than professional?”

Vicky’s spine straightened. Her eyes went wide. She reminded Josie of a predator on high alert. “No. Why? Did something happen between them?”

“I’m asking you,” Josie said.

Vicky’s posture softened slightly. “Oh. No. She never gave any indication that anything was going on between them other than her trying to get information from him.”

“We spoke with Dallas Jones the other day and he indicated that both you and him felt there was something ‘off’ about Remy Tate and that’s why you didn’t run the story.”

Vicky laughed. “Dallas thought something was ‘off’ about him. I didn’t disagree. Whatever he made of my silence and then the story not running is on him.”

“Did he know Stella was working on some mystery story that involved Remy Tate’s access to sealed court records?” asked Josie.

“No. You’ve met Dallas. Do you think he would have allowed a PA to upstage him? Even if I told him that I was simply indulging her?”

“No. I can’t see him stepping aside to let Stella grab a big story.”

“Now he doesn’t have to worry about that.” Vicky sighed. “Because Stellaisthe story.”

TWENTY-NINE

Back in the CCTV room, Gretchen sat with her feet up on the table, watching the monitor with a bored expression. “They’re still going round and round,” she told Josie.

Josie glanced at the clock. “It’s been twenty minutes.”

“Yep, and for twenty minutes, Remy has insisted that his affair with Stella isn’t relevant to Cleo’s murder. At all.”

Josie plopped into the chair next to Gretchen. “‘My affair has nothing to do with my wife’s murder’ sounds like the catchphrase of cheating men whose wives are found murdered everywhere.”

Gretchen snorted.

“Noah didn’t tell him that Stella was murdered yet?” Josie asked.

“Nope.”

He’d save it for when it would have the most impact, and try to get as much information about the affair from Remy as possible before dropping that bomb. Once Remy knew, it wouldn’t take long for him to realize how much worse he came off in the situation and that he was a suspect, at which point he might ask for an attorney.

“What’d the producer say?”

Josie filled her in.

“Hmmm,” Gretchen said. “You believe her? That she didn’t know what story Stella was after?”

Josie leaned forward, eyes on the CCTV monitor. From Remy’s defeated posture, it appeared that Noah was wearing him down. “I don’t know, but I can’t see how she benefits by lying about it. I mean, she admitted to having discussed illegally obtaining sealed court records with Stella. Why put that out there but lie about the story?”

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