He stared into her eyes, as if he were probing deep into her very being. “I was worried you’d gotten a little too close with DeHardt and you wouldn’t be able to do the job I needed you to do.”
She shirked the accusation off with a laugh. “That’s crazy, Thayer. We spent a few hours together. That’s it.”
“I’m aware.” He reached for a remote and clicked on one of the monitors. He pressed a button, and the video jumped to a flagged point in the footage. Austen needed to see only a few brief seconds of the footage of her bickering with DeHardt outside the restaurant. She covered her eyes and cringed.
“I don’t need to watch it, Thayer. I know what I did, and it was beyond embarrassing. I had a martini during dinner and acted completely out of line. That whole episode with the waitress brought back bad memories from high school. But there’s no excuse for the way I acted.”
Thayer stopped the footage. “I’m glad you agree. I won’t force you to watch the whole exchange, then. Just remember, that’s why you’re prohibited from drinking alcohol during these interviews.”
“I know. I’m sorry. He just had me all worked up with his brash personality. I thought the drink would help me relax, but it obviously didn’t.”
“Sounds like you’ve learned your lesson, so I won’t beat you over the head with it.” He peered into her soul again. “Truth is, Johnny and Frederick told me they were a little worried about you with DeHardt.”
“T-they were?” she stammered.
“They said something about how you went back into DeHardt’s house after the shoot was over, and emphasized that you were gone for an awfully long time. They wondered if you and DeHardt were up to no good, butItold them you’d never do something so thoughtless. Besides the fact that you aren’t the type of girl to fall for one of these jock idiots, you’re obviously aware that fooling around with DeHardt would be grounds for termination, as it would fall under our employee fraternization policy.”
The flesh on her cheeks and neck began to swelter. “Oh,that? Ha! Yeah, I left my scarf in his house, that’s all. Took a while to find it … it was buried under the couch cushions, if you’re curious …”
“Understandable. There was just one more thing I wanted to show you.”
He pressed a button and the video jumped again. This time, it was Austen and DeHardt, in the back of the SUV at the very beginning of the interview. Austen witnessed herself sitting closer to DeHardt than she would’ve cared to admit. She then heard herself whisper to DeHardt,
“There’s no point asking them questions.They won’t answer, because they’re not supposed to speak.”
“Damn,”DeHardt replied, “they’ve got you fellas under a gag order, too? How deep does this thing go?”
Thayer hit pause.
“From this, it’s obvious that you told himsomething about the gag order.”
Austen tried to laugh again, but this time, no sound came out. “That … that was after I told him not to bring up Campbell or Hathaway. I only told him whatIknow; that I had orders not to talk about it.”
“So youdidn’ttell him about the gag order?”
“No. I only told him exactly what you told me.” She paused. “Wait, what gag order are we talking about, exactly?”
He sighed. “I told you before that this organization has gone to great lengths to manage this story. When GM Baumbach promoted me to director of communications, he made it clear that I had one specific priority over all else: making sure that no salacious stories were printed regarding Campbell’s death or Hathaway’s disappearance. Well, rather than trying to control every little thing that gets printed—that would be crazy—I chose to nip the problem in the bud.”
“How?”
“Well, with the gag order. The way it works is simple; if any member of the media goes to press with any story regarding those two, the team will instantly revoke their press pass, and they’ll lose access to the club. Essentially, that’s a death sentence for any beat reporter who makes a living covering the team.”
“I … I didn’t know anything about that,” Austen said, her throat turning bone dry. “And I’m a member of the media. So why didn’t I know?”
“It’s on a need-to-know basis, and until now, you didn’tneed to know. Obviously, I don’t want word of the gag order spreading, because that could cause a controversy on its own.”
“But what if someone tried to report on the situation independently?” she asked.
“As I’m sure you know, the owner of the Dallas Devils, Mr. Sullivan, has made many billions on investments throughout his career, and has many influential friends in powerful places. Trust me when I say that Mr. Sullivan has ways of making sure that scenario never happens.” He punctuated this remark with a wink.
Well, that explains DeHardt’s problems with trying to get someone to report on it,she thought.
Thayer folded his hands together. “Hopefully, you now have a better picture of the animosity between DeHardt and I.”
“Because he wants answers?”
“No.” Thayer looked at her sideways. “Because he keeps pestering the media to say something about Campbell or Hathaway. Their hands are tied and it’s awkward for everyone involved. Mr. Baumbach is frankly just as fed up with his antics as I am, like I told you earlier. He’s been on the trading block for some time now. But since DeHardt is the only decent hockey player on this club, we can’t ship him out just yet—we need to convince Sullivan he needs to go. And that means the fans need to be on board with hating him, too. Or else they’ll riot, and call for management’s head, cancel their season tickets, so on and so forth. It’s a complicated and delicate process, but we’re making headway.”
