"No...she's not giving interviews right now. Goodbye"
*CLUNK*....*BRRRRRRRRRRINNNNNNNGGGGGGGG*
"Hello....no, this is her husband. Yes, her husband: Neil Humphries. Yes I know that's not the same name as Kent but Kent is my wife's maiden name and she writes under that. No, she's not taking any calls right now. OK, I'll say the Sim City Chronicle called."
*CLUNK*...*BRRRRRRRRRRRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG*
"Oh what the hell....Hello, what do you want? Late Night With Adrian Croft wants Suzy on the show? She's not doing interviews at the moment...yes, I know it's for television. Look, don't call us, we'll call you....I am well aware of the shortness of news cycles, thank you. Who am I? I'M HER MANAGER, THE NAME'S DUKE MITCHUM, OK? Now thank you and goodbye!" *CLUNK*
"Well, that's the 27th member of the press calling to ask for an interview with you" said Neil, who had just hung up the phone and now proceeded to take it off the hook.
"I'm sorry, hon, I didn't know I'd be getting all this attention after my article got published" replied Suzy, bashfully.
"It's because it got published a day before Landgraab died. There's a whole media frenzy since that happened." said Neil, thoughtfully. There were times when he thought his wife was naive in the matters of sensationalist news and that she wasn't prepared for any of this attention.
"Bad timing...I'm not sure about how I feel about Geoffrey's death. He was very aggressive towards me when he was alive; threatening to get me the sack, trying to put an injunction on my reporting but to go just like that when it was all going to overwhelm him...it's still a tragedy." she said.
"He never got to face justice for all that he had done. Now it's all the court of public opinion; the rest of the Landgraabs will get their expensive lawyers to mitigate the damage now: Put the blame entirely on a dead man."
"Neil...that's cynical!" exclaimed Suzy.
"Quite possibly; but I can't help but reach that conclusion the more I think about it" he replied.
Suzy went over to a coat stand and grabbed her handbag. "I've got to go to work now...thanks for being my manager, 'Duke'" she said.
"Jus' doin' mah job, ma'am" he said in his best John Wayne voice.
Neil then went into Willow Creek to do some more art research for a painting idea he had. His own work had taken a backseat of late as he had become enmeshed in Suzy's work with helping her uncover clues. The recent publicity of her work was also getting in the way and he had mixed feelings about that: Not that she was more famous than him, that didn't bother him, but that the fame got in the way of important things getting done.
After leaving the library he continued down the main street, maybe to check out the gallery, but instead he bumped into Barbara Dubois.
"Barbara, what a nice surprise" said Neil. He noticed she was wearing athletic gear. "Are you just going to the gym?"
"I've just been, I'm going home now" she replied. "So, all the newspapers I open up mention Suzy's name in them so how's it going? What's it like being married to Sim City's hottest new star?"
"Ah yes, that..." said Neil, his smile disappearing from his face. Barbara immediately picked up on that.
"Oh, not good then?" she asked.
"It's tough, Barbara, to be frank. I'm not criticising Suzy at all; she's worked hard and been extremely dedicated to getting that story out but it's the press intrusion on our lives that I'm struggling with."
"And how does Suzy feel about it all?" asked Barbara.
"Suzy's coping well. She wants to get out and do more stuff and not let the press get in her way but it's difficult for her...they keep phoning asking for interviews but she won't give any...not with Geoffrey Landgraab's death."
"Why's that?"
"Because the press ask if her investigation into the family's history and wrongdoings are in some way connected with his death...as if..."
"...as if he was driven to suicide by what Suzy wrote?" said Barbara, realising the significance of what Neil was telling her.
"They haven't had the inquest yet but the press are running with that angle, yes."
"I'm so sorry you two are having to deal with that. Look, we must all meet up and go for dinner; the four of us."
"That would be great, Barbara. When I get home I'll check our diaries and make that happen."
"Excellent. Listen, Neil, I have to scoot home but you take care. Don't let this get to you." she said, reaching out with her hand to touch his arm in reassurance.
Neil decided not to go to the gallery but instead head straight home. He saw a very familiar, and welcome, face at the other end of his street: His best friend, Andre.
"Andre! What brings you here?"
"I was literally in the area and I finished my work early so I decided to pop in on the off chance you were home. You usually are with all that painting you do." said Andre.
"I've just got back from the library. It's good to see you, man. What have you been up to?" said Neil.
"Work, mainly. It's consuming most of my time at the moment."
"Do you have any time for the world of dating?" asked Neil, cheekily.
"As if! In some ways being busy is good; I spend less time agonising over my lack of a love life."
Neil ushered Andre over to the outdoor porch bench so they could continue their conversation.
"You know, Neil, Suzy's all over the newspapers right now" said Andre, stating the obvious.
"Yeah, tell me about it" Neil replied with a sigh.
"The fame's getting to you, eh?"
"It's not my fame and I just don't know how to handle second hand notoriety, especially when I'm all that stands between the gutter press and my wife! She's keeping her head down and not granting interviews...which is wise...but I'm like her personal assistant, bodyguard, social secretary and manager all rolled into one when what I really want to do is paint!"
"It's not what you signed up for?" said Andre.
"That's putting it mildly." Neil sighed. "I don't begrudge any of the success Suzy's had. She's wonderful and so tenacious. I think...well...heck, I'm not sure right now."
"Maybe you need someone to take some of those tasks off of you?" said Andre.
"Yes! That's it! We need a genuine, professional assistant!" said Neil, his face beaming.
"Well, maybe I can help out. I'll keep those bloodhounds of the press off your back" said Andre, clapping his hands as he warmed to the challenge.
"How are you going to do that?" asked Neil.
"Just watch...see that guy over there, behind that birch tree?" said Andre, pointing towards a very conspicuous looking man who was peeping at Rindle Rose from behind a tree. He was even wearing a tan trenchcoat in this 77 degree weather. When he saw Neil and Andre looking at him, he quickly and nervously looked away, towards his shoes and started pacing around.
Andre stood up and walked over to him. "Hey you, buddy...you're from the press, I've seen you around. Now I'm Mr and Mrs Humphries' personal assistant and I'm warning you neither are giving interviews and to move away from this area as you're causing distress to them both and their neighbours."
"Are you Duke Mitchum?" said the reporter.
"Who? What? No. My name is Mr Good and from now on all enquires for Mrs Humphries must come via me. You got that?"
The reporter shrugged his shoulders and sloped off away. Andre loosened the collar of his shirt and walked back to Neil, smiling broadly.
Later on Suzy returned home from work and noticed the strange calm that had fallen over not only her home, but the neighbourhood as well.
"Neil...there's something a little different to everything right now...I can't put my finger on it"
"You mean no weirdos hanging around the street corner, the phone's not ringing non-stop and you can enter and leave this house without people yelling 'Miss Kent! A word with you Miss Kent! What now for you and the Landgraabs!'?"
"Yes, that's it! Where did they go?"
"Andre's sorted it"
Suzy looked incredulous. "Andre?" she said, hardly imagining how he's got involved in all this and what he did to make the press go away.
"Yep, my ol' buddy Andre. He's acting as our press agent for now. He takes all the phone calls, all the requests and chases away any bothersome journalists hanging around our house." and with that Neil flicked a tomato slice into the air and caught it smack bang in the middle of his salad bowl.
"And there I was thinking you've been having a hard time with all the fuss that's being made around me" said Suzy, still wondering in the back of her mind what Andre had managed to pull off.
After dinner, Neil resumed his painting and now fired up with enthusiasm to finish it whilst Suzy went to work on a plain and simple fashion article for Hey, Wow!
"It's looking good, darling" she said, looking over to his canvass. "Is that a painting of Granite Falls?"
"It sure is" he replied. "It's part of a trio of paintings I want to do with that setting. This is the view of the falls from that clifftop we climbed."
"I'd love to go back there some time...we had a wonderful honeymoon there" she said with a wistful sigh.
"Why don't we then, and soon...whilst it's still Summer?"
"Ah to get away from it all for just a few days...let's do it!" she said, enthusiastically.
Later it was time for the two of them to go to bed and Neil fell fast asleep almost as his head hit the pillow but Suzy was still buzzing at the thought of getting away to Granite Falls. But there was something else gnawing away inside of her so she opted not to go to bed just yet.
She crept quietly into the living room and looked over at the pile of books and notepaper that was sitting atop of the entertainment unit. The work of Patrick Cornelius about the secrets of Sim City. She had completed the first part, Landgraab. Now she would learn all about part two: Victor and Lily Feng.
