āWhat do you mean, āthe Hubā? Whatās the Hub?ā
āAll right, sweet cheeks, Iāll clue you in, but you know that exposition is just going to slow down the narrative, right? First, though, who the hell are you? Whatās your name?ā
āAnna,ā she said, āAnna di Plossis.ā
āMs. Di Plossisāā
āCall me Anna,ā she said huskily.
āAnna it is. You got to think like an executive. You work for some shark outfit that snapped up some little company that publishes five or six newspapers. You see that each paper has a copy desk. You sack most of the copy editors and put a handful of survivors in one location, call it a hub, to edit all the papers. Doesnāt matter to the executive that the survivors donāt know subheads from Shinola about the places where they publish, because the dough this saves on wages and benefits goes into the bonus the CEO gets when the whole shebang goes tits up two years later. Got that?ā
āI donāt care about executives. Executives donāt mean anything to me. I just want my Herb back.ā
āHerb?ā
āHerbert Bayard Hearst. Heās the best thing that ever happened to me, and now heās gone.ā She began to sniffle, and then the sobs broke through.
Dames. They know how to work you.
āThere, there,ā I said, reaching for some patch of flesh to pat that wasnāt too inflammatory. Shoulders are good. Knees are tricky.
āI know you can find him,ā she said between sobs. āYou can find himāI know you can do it. They say night content production managers can do anything.ā
āHow am I supposed to do that, babe? I know thereās a hubāI hear thingsābut I donāt know where it is.ā
āI went to his apartment. His apartment was empty, cleaned out, but I spotted a scrap of paper under his desk.ā
āAnything on it?ā
āIt was a piece of his scratch paper, a piece of scratch paper that looked like he started to write something but couldnāt finish. I brought it with me.ā
āHand it over, sugar.ā
She fished out a torn scrap of paper from her purse. It had one word, or part of a word, on it.
āSpringfielā
Next: The belly of the beast
"Grammarnoir 4: Final Edition," Part 2: "The Mission"
This is the second installment of the fourth Grammarnoir serial. The third installment will be posted one week from today, and the thrilling conclusion will appear on National Grammar Day, March 4, a Sunday, because grammar never takes the day off.
You can read Part 1, "A Belle in the Night," here.
Part 2: "The Mission"