"This is bullshit", Erin thought to herself. She began to massage the sides of her temples, closing her eyes, trying to hold back the rage building up inside her.
"Neely, I'm stuck here. Porter is out with a broken arm, and all my other reporters are on lock down with their own stories. You're my only other option", Bracks replied.
"It's not my damn job, sir! With all do respect, I'm simply a secretary, not a damn reporter", Erin snarled.
Erin had quit her beloved makeup artist job because she simply couldn't make it only doing her dream. Not in Laurel, Maryland at least. She took on the job as a secretary for a shady company that made weekly gory papers. They called themselves "The Inside View". Though they were wildly known, they were just a bunch of dicks, who felt no shame in getting into others personal business, all so they could have a good story and over the top pictures for their weekly readers. She only took the job, knowing that work with such a high pay would not come as an oppertunity to take again. That was the thing though, she took the job as a secretary. She had no interest in becoming one of the scum bag reporters. And here he was, , trying to convince her to take on not only a job, but a job that had gotten a man killed a few years back.
"The story is probably shit, Neely. Honestly, me sending you out on this is probably a waste of time. I just need you to go out and make it look believable." Bracks said. "And you're getting paid way more than you do as a secretary, plus, if you make front pages with this story, i'll double that extra pay. You're basically getting paid to bullshit around.
Erin thought about the last comment Bracks made. She could really use the money, and as long as he honestly felt it was a dead end and her life wasn't on the line, perhaps she could muster through this. "Can I just stick around here and investigate online?" she asked. "What? You think I'm paying you to literally sit around and do nothing? We have to make this investigation look legit. I want you to follow the leads, and play it cool. That's all I need is for our readers to find out that one of my reporters is doing all their research on line and not out on the streets", Bracks retorted. Erin rolled her eyes, she was honestly far from in the mood to travel around state to state for some dead end story. "Whatever you say, sir. So do you have anything for me to look at now?", she asked. "Yes, I actually have your first stop ready, c'mon into my office. I have a lot to fill you in on", Bracks replied.
It didn't take much digging to find out about the old case. The old case had belonged to a well known reporter named Richard Dees. He was notorious for his asshole-like behavior and was well known for screwing anyone and anything over for a good story. Some people who knew him personally would say "That guy would gladly have sold his mothers soul to the devil just to get a chance at a perfect picture". Apparently, Dees took on the assignment he liked to call "The Night Flier", and chased after the guy for a while. In the end, he ended up dead. Despite that it had been made to seem like he was the killer, the reporter for the story, Katherine Blair, had been said to have claimed in private that she knew for a fact that Dees wasn't the killer. People who were close to Katherine had mentioned that she swore she saw the dark, caped man walking to his infamous, black, cessna Skymaster, turn to look at her briefly, then got in to his plane, and take off. Everyone thought she had either lost her marbles, or was just trying to get reaction from the people she knew. Either way, she only stayed with the company for 1 year, before apparently moving across country to Utah. No one had heard from her since.
The story of the caped man itself was an interestng one. Not the typical cut throat killer. This dark killer was much more sinsiter. Dees had said that he suspected the guy to be a vampire, due to his obvious vampire like ways. The story goes that a pilot by the name of Dwight Renfield, who owned a black Cessna Skymaster 337, would fly down to small, secluded airports and take on his prey. The victims were usually found with two large holes on either side of the neck. Some weren't so lucky. Some were severely mauled and even in pieces when found. Anyone unfortunate to be at the airport, was always dead. Not a single survivor, not even Dees.
Closing the files on her desk, her mind wandered off. The story was definitely worth looking into, though even with promise of her safety, she couldn't help but wonder if he was right. No one had ever found the guy. If she took on this story, and actually investigated it, and tried to keep up with his kills, would she have the same fate as Dees? Was this monster even still killing? If he was, why wasn't it making the news? Why would they be covering it up? She had so many unanswered questions that she was determined to get answered. A sudden spark of ambition pumped through her. She was going to find this guy, and she was going to bring him down. Well, if not bring him down, make one hell of a story. She was going to get that double raise. She was going to come face to face Dwight Renfield. And she was determined to avoid the fate of Richard Dees.