Her e-mail pinged again. Ted. She grinned when she read the short message: "What the #%&#%^$ is going on?"

Maggie took a few seconds to respond to Ted. "Read tomorrow's paper, and you'll see." She sent off the reply and went back to Espinosa's interview, one eye on the clock, the other on her computer screen. She chewed on her lower lip, wondering how Espinosa was going to meet with Jack and get his interview in on time. If it came down to crunch time, she could write the interview herself. If she gave Espinosa the byline, no one would know but the two of them. Three, if you counted Jack, who wouldn't care one way or the other.

When Espinosa's last e-mail on his interview with Harry came through, Maggie printed it out and scanned it thoroughly before buzzing Tillie, her secretary, to take it down to editorial. She quickly scribbled a note on a sticky pad that read, "This is bare bones, add enough filler to fill the four inches I allocated for this interview." She added a scrawled MS at the bottom of the Post-it. One down and one to go.

Maggie leaned back and closed her eyes. She hated stress, all forms of stress, and at that moment she was stressed to the max. She sat upright and took deep, gulping breaths, then exhaled slowly. She did it ten times and didn't feel one bit better. What I should do is change my clothes and go for a long run. For some reason, running always worked out the kinks and calmed her. Sometimes a banana split with gobs and gobs of warm marshmallows on top had the same effect. Like that's going to happen today of all days.

Thirty minutes later her e-mail pinged, and Jack Emery's interview flooded the screen. For some reason, Espinosa was sending the full interview in one e-mail. Maggie calculated the words—two inches. Jack was being testy in the interview, and that was a good thing. She burst out laughing when she read the last sentences in the interview. "Yes, I'm considering a lawsuit. I'm an officer of the court and do not take kindly to having my character impugned. My lawyer? Lizzie Fox."

Maggie ripped the e-mail from the printer and slapped a sticky note on it, yelled for her secretary, and said, "Tillie, get that to editorial and don't bother waiting for the elevator. Run!"