DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (22 page)

Daniel
looked at Phillip.
 
Phillip leaned
forward in his seat.
 
“Thank-you,
Whitney,” Daniel said, and picked up the phone.

Phillip listened
too carefully, waiting to hear something that would once and for all change
that stoic expression on Daniel Crane’s face.
 
But nothing changed.
 
Daniel spoke
and listened, and spoke again, and then hung up the phone.

“Well?”
Phillip asked as soon as he did.
 
“What
did he say?”

“He said
there’s going to be a reorganization.”

“But what
did he say about Murdock?
 
Murdock’s
out?”

“Murdock’s
out.”

Phillip fell
back in his chair.
 
“Yes!”
 
Then he leaned forward again.
 
“And?” he asked.

“And he’s
called an emergency board meeting.”

“Ah,
man.
 
That’s beautiful.
 
That’s perfect.
 
For when?”

“This
afternoon.”

“Yes!”
Phillip said again, and then he braced himself.
 
“Did he say what specifically this emergency meeting would be about?”

Daniel’s
expression went unchanged, although his heart was inwardly soaring.
 
“Me,” he said.
 

Just as
Nikki was about to take her lunch break, Luke called her into his office.
 
He had an assignment for her.

“Springfield
Avenue?” she asked when he told her where.

“That’s the
place.”

“What’s
going on over there?”

“Apparently
there’s a friendly, neighborhood riot going on.”

Nikki was
surprised.
 
“A riot?”

“That’s the
info we’re getting.
 
You remember that
story you reported on last week about the store owner who beat that kid with a
pipe?

“Just for
stealing a bag of chips?
 
Of course I
remember it.
 
The Gazette was the only
paper to even mention it.”

“Right.
 
Well that’s the reason for the season,
babe.
 
So go check it out.
 
And take a click man with you.”

Click
man.
 
Luke’s term for a
photographer.
 
Which meant it was a major
story and Nikki, ready for a little action herself, began to get excited.
 

They could
hear the noise a mile away.
 
Even the
police had constructed a barricade, although the barricade was on Rutherford
and nearly half a city block away.
 
Avery, the photographer, was driving the car and Nikki was on the
passenger seat.
 
When she saw the
barricade, she shook her head.

“They have
got to be kidding,” she said as she watched cops stand around and drink coffee,
and appearing to laugh at each other’s jokes.

But Avery
understood.
 
“It must be serious, Nikki.”

“Serious my
eye.
 
They just don’t care.
 
What’s the purpose of a barricade this far
away?”

“What do you
think?
 
They want to prevent spillover into
our more respectable Westside communities,” Avery said with a grin on his fat,
cherubim face.
 

“Exactly,”
Nikki agreed.
 
“Forget all of those poor
folks here on the east end.
 
They could
kill themselves for all they care.
 
Containment is what this is about.
 
Let me out.”

Avery looked
at Nikki.
 
“Let you out?
 
For what?
 
They aren’t gonna let you through that barricade.”

“We can cut
through that alleyway by the pool hall near that metal shop.
 
That’ll get us close to the action.
 
But we’ve got to walk.”

“Now you’re
the one who’s kidding, right?”

“Pull over,
Avery.”

“You think
I’m going up in there when the police scared to go?
 
And they got guns?”

Nikki shook
her head.
 
“Just let me out.”

“No,
Nikki!
 
Luke will take my head off.
 
Everybody knows how he feels about you.”

Nikki looked
at him with a frown on her face.
 
“How he
feels
about me?”

“Yeah.
 
I’m sorry, but hell yeah.
 
You’re his favorite.
 
You’re his little princess.
 
And he’s my boss.
 
I’m not getting on that man’s bad side for
nobody.
 
So let’s just back off, all
right?
 
Maybe get some comments from the
cops, and we can let the police copter get some aerial photographs.
 
This shit could get out of hand.”

Nikki was
upset.
 
“Just stop the car.”

“Ah, come
on, Nikki!
 
There’s nothing we can do
here.”

“Stop the
car, Avery, I mean it.”

“Nikki!”

“Stop the
car, dammit!
 
You don’t wanna go,
don’t.
 
But let me out.”

Avery shook
his head.
 
He knew there would be hell to
pay with Luke, but he wasn’t about to mix it up with her either.
 
He stopped the car.
 

The outer
sanctum of the senior vice president’s suite of offices was abuzz.
 
Whitney and a group of her fellow office
workers were standing in front of a flat screen TV, watching the action unfold.
 
The east end of Springfield Avenue was in
chaos, as people were running and flailing fists in the air and trashing the
entire street.
 
The office workers, some
of whom had grown up in that very area, were shocked and saddened.
 
A riot in Wakefield?
  
They couldn’t recall anything like that ever
happening before.

Daniel had
been in meetings all morning and arrived back inside his suite of offices and
was, at first, surprised that a crowd had gathered. Whitney, upon seeing him,
quickly and nervously reached for the remote.

“You don’t
have to do that,” Daniel said, and Whitney and the other workers were
relieved.
 
He looked at Whitney.
 
“What’s going on?”

“They’re
rioting on Springfield.”

Daniel
frowned.
 
“A riot?”

“On
Springfield, yes, sir.
 
They’re
protesting what happened to that little boy.”

Daniel had
no idea what little boy she was talking about, but he knew he’d find out
eventually.
 
He looked at the television
instead.
 
The scene was filled with
aerial video of East Springfield and what appeared to be hundreds of young
people running and breaking store windows and even setting parked cars
ablaze.
 
The police were no-where to be
seen, which astounded Daniel, given the horrific scene.
 
He considered calling the police chief to
find out why law enforcement had not taken charge of the chaos as even he could
see that those people meant business.
 
Some of the workers even commented how the local television station had
interrupted
The Young and the Restless
for this.
 
Which meant, apparently, that this had to
therefore be a big damn deal.
 

But then, as
if he should have thought about her sooner, Daniel suddenly thought about
Nikki.

He turned to
his secretary.
 
“Whitney?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Get Miss
Graham on the phone.”

“I already
tried, sir.”

Daniel
looked at her.
 
“You already tried?”

“Yes,
sir.
 
I knew you would be wondering if
she was caught up in that mess.”

Daniel’s
heart knotted up.
 
“Is she?”

“I asked
where she was, but they wouldn’t say.
 
The only thing they would confirm was that she was out on assignment.”

Daniel
remained cool, but his heart was about to pound through his chest.
 
“Thank-you, Whitney,” he said, and went into
his office.

Everything
was crazy.
 
Nikki had taken out her
reporter’s notebook but she was too caught up in the amazement of the scene to
write a word.
 
Hundreds of people had
gone mad, she thought, as they tossed bricks through everything glass and
torched cars, while still others robbed and looted the store owners blind.
 
And then there were the sound of police
helicopters, buzzing like war zone spy planes all across the sky.
 
No cops on the ground, but plenty safely up
and away.
  

Most of the
rioters were young blacks and Latinos, all running so fast from one hot spot to
the next that Nikki could barely get a single one to answer her questions.
 
So she started running too, right along with
the crowd, in her stilettos and flare-legged pants, and she kept asking them
why, over and over.

“We’re
tired, that’s why,” one young Latino answered as if offended by the question.

“Tired of
what?”

“Everything,
though.
 
They treat us like we’re
animals.
 
Like we don’t matter.
 
That boy in a coma now.
 
Over some damn potato chips!”

“The boy who
stole the potato chips?”

“Right.
 
He’s in a coma.
 
And for what?
 
‘Cause he’s poor, that’s what.
 
‘Cause he’s one of us, that’s what.
 
We ain’t taking the shit no more, that’s why we’re here, though!”

And another
view, from an older participant, this one walking but moving fast, with his
long, thick black dreads pounding lightly against his neck as he moved.
 
“He had no business stealing, okay?
  
We understand the little brother was wrong,
we understand that.
 
But it was just some
chips.
 
That’s nothing to nearly kill
somebody over.”

“And that’s
why you’re here?”

“That’s
exactly why.
 
There comes a time when
you’ve got to run through the fire or start your own.
 
They’ll never hear anything we say until we
start our own.”

His walking
pace overtook Nikki’s slower stride and she had to let him go.
 
She was about to join another group of riot
runners but her cell phone started ringing.
 
She was amazed she even heard it.

“Yes,
hello?” she said loudly and pressed a finger to her ear.
 
It was Daniel.
 

“You better
not be anywhere near Springfield Avenue, Nikki.”

“Daniel, you
should see this.”

“
Got
dammit, Nikki!
 
Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

“No.
 
Of course not!
 
But you should see this.
 
It’s incredible.
 
These people are fed up.
 
That’s what this is about.
 
They’re tired of being treated like animals.”

“So they
behave as animals, is that how it goes?”

“It’s not
even like that.
 
You just don’t
understand.
 
A little boy was nearly
killed over a bag of potato chips.
 
Potato chips, Daniel.
 
That store
owner beat that poor boy down with an iron pipe over a bag of lousy potato
chips.
 
These people have had it.”

“Maybe that
store owner was fed up too, Nikki.
 
Maybe
that poor little boy you’re so in sympathy with was the last straw for him
too.”

“How can you
take his side?”

“I’m not
taking anybody’s side.
 
I want you out of
there.
 
Just get out of there and get out
of there now.”

“I’m doing
my job.
 
I’m not going anywhere.”

Daniel
sighed.
 
When Nikki was passionate like
this he knew his influence over her was nil.
 
“Where are the police?”

“Far away
from here, that’s for sure.
 
They’ve set
up parameters to keep it contained in this community - which is a pathetic
response.”

Daniel
agreed with that.

“They need
to put on some riot gear and get in here before somebody gets hurt,” Nikki went
on.
 
“I mean it’s crazy up in here,
Daniel.
 
It’s like...”