Looking For You All My Life Part 155

with something she might later regret. To think she used to

consider Buckie as one of her better friends! Finally she

spoke in a quiet, controlled voice. "So, are you asking me to

close my eyes, put my head in a hole, and simply pretend that

everything Greg and Rick are doing is just peachy keen?"

242Melody Carlson

"All we're asking is for your newspaper to give a little

more positive support to this development," said Kate. "Is

that too much too expect? Just think how something like this

could change the economy in our town. But if you keep this

up, Maggie, you'll be driving a great big wedge between the

local businesses-and you know what they say about a

house divided, don't you?"

Buckie's expression softened. "All we want is for you to

lay low just long enough for this thing to get solidly off the

ground. Give Greg and Rick a chance to show you that

they're going to do this thing right. Can't you just cut them

a little slack?"

Maggie studied the names on the list before her. Many of

them were local contractors. Even now she was working on

a story about how Cohn Byers' past developments rarely

used local contractors and labor but instead relied heavily

upon out-of-state, nonlicensed, and almost always nonunion

workers, not to mention illegal aliens (although so far no

charges had been pressed in this area). But to bury a story of

this significance went against all that she stood for as a jour-

nalist. She sat up straight in her chair and folded her hands

together on her desk as she looked at the two of them, and

then she calmly spoke. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time.

I'm sorry that TS Development is resorting to what I con-

sider questionable ethics. And I'm also sorry that coverage

of their activities is likely to stir up more controversy and, as

you said, quite possibly divide our town even further." She

paused and took a deep breath. "But I will not compromise

this paper's standards and my morals to play Pollyanna just

so Greg and Rick can continue to take advantage of others

for their own personal gain. I've done my research in hopes

that I'd uncover something more positive. Unfortunately, I

did not. And I have only printed the honest results of my

findings. Quite honestly, I don't know what more I can do,

but you and everyone else should know that I refuse to shirk

from the truth just because a few businesspeople threaten to

boycott this paper. That is the oldest and cheapest trick in Looking for You All My Life243

the book, and it doesn't worry me in the least." She picked

up the letter and held it in the air. "In fact, I'm quite happy

to publish this pet.i.tion in this week's paper. To tell you the

truth, I don't care if these people purchase their ad s.p.a.ce

from Randy Ebbert. I'm sure he'd be very happy to get their

business!"

Buckie and Kate just stared at her without speaking.