“Listen to this. I’m just thinking out loud here, but … how would you two like to be America’s hot new reality team?”

Kim blinked, looked simultaneously excited and baffled.

Getz elaborated. “I see some natural dramatic chemistry here. A juicy personality conflict. The emotional kid who cares only about the victims, the heartache—locked in a love-hate partnership with the steely-eyed cop who only cares about making the collar, closing the case. It’s got life. It’s visceral!”

Chapter 9

A Reticent Orphan

“What are you thinking?” asked Kim, glancing nervously over at Gurney as she made another adjustment in the speed of her wipers.

They’d just crossed the Ashokan Reservoir causeway and were heading south toward Stone Ridge. It was a little after two. The afternoon had remained gray and sporadically misty.

When he didn’t answer, she added, “You look pretty grim.”

“Listening to your business associate brought back some memories of how RAM handled the Good Shepherd case. I’m sure you don’t remember. I doubt you were watching much TV news at the age of thirteen.”

She blinked, stared ahead at the wet road. “How did they cover it?”

“Overheated fear pieces, twenty-four/seven. Kept putting different names on the shooter—Mercedes Madman, Midnight Madman, Midnight Murderer—until he sent his manifesto out to the media, signed ‘The Good Shepherd.’ After that, that’s what they called him. RAM zeroed in on the anti-greed message in the manifesto and started whipping up a panic that the shootings were the start of some kind of revolution—a socialist guerrilla campaign against America, against capitalism. It was loony stuff. Twenty-four hours a day, they had their talking-head ‘experts’ ranting about the horrible possibilities, the things that might happen, the conspiracies that might be behind it all. They had ‘security consultants’ saying it was time for every American to be armed—a gun in your house, gun in your car, gun in your pocket. The time had come to stop coddling anti-American criminals. The time had come to put an end to ‘criminal rights.’ Even when the shootings stopped, RAM just kept going. Kept talking about class warfare—how it had gone underground, how it was sure to break out again in a more horrendous way. They beat that drum for another year and a half. The ultimate RAM mission was clear: generate maximum anger and maximum panic in the service of audience numbers and ad revenue. Sad thing is, it worked. RAM coverage of the Good Shepherd case created the ultimate trash model for cable news: mindless debates, amplification of conflict, ugly conspiracy theories, the glorification of outrage, blame-based explanations for everything. And Rudy Getz seems perfectly happy to take credit for it.”

Kim’s hands were tight on the steering wheel. “What you’re saying is, this is not someone I should be dealing with?”

“I’m not saying anything about Getz that wasn’t obvious in the meeting we just had.”