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"Winslow is a hotbed of gang activity, increasing the difficulties of any investigation," the officer informed Erin, my interviewer for this part of the investigation. "It's an unfortunate reality that being seen speaking to police could invite violence against them. This understandably makes witnesses unwilling to come forward."​

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"What would you normally do in a situation such as that?" Erin asked. Miss Vaught was one of my preferred interviewers for relaxed situations, where everyone wants to cooperate fully and there's no need for maneuvering. She was too 'nice' to handle the more cutthroat aspects of field investigation or hard journalism, but she might one day make for an excellent talkshow host for minor celebrities and the like. Which was fine, I'd treat her as well as I could and wish her luck in her future career when she made that step away from human interest stories to morning shows.​

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"Typically, we might make calls to parents to see if they could convince their children to provide statements privately," he answered. "However, the principal of the school refused to give names of students that had lockers near the scene of the attack. We were unable to conduct a full investigation due to this and other interference. For example, the teachers neglected to informed us that this was the latest and most egregious example of a pattern of bullying that had extended for over a year even at that point."​

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"I see," Erin nodded, accepting his claim without hesitation.​

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As I said, too nice. A real reporter would have torn him to shreds on sheer failure to do the job right. On another day, for another case, I might have been in that interview box, making a suitably meaty story of this and costing a cop or two his badge.

No doubt, others would come along later and teach the police proper chagrin for their incompetence shown here. However, the police could always be counted upon to screw something up eventually. A low hanging fruit that was easy to pluck, lacking in any real value.

....

"It's okay, Mrs. Knotts," I offered her my best comforting smile, and I had very good smiles. "We promise your complete confidentiality. No one will be able to identify you. We just want to know how such a complete abuse of power could occur, and to see to it that those who covered up this crime are exposed. We already know who Sophia Hess is, how she tormented Taylor. We already know that Blackwell was willing to interfere with a police investigation to protect her. We know she threatened your jobs." Actually, we really knew less than half of that. I was giving her outs, plausible excuses for her failures.

She looked at me, then away. The woman probably wasn't used to talking to attractive men in general, especially ones as understanding as I was being. Still, it wasn't quite enough to convince her on its own. Time to play to her guilt. "We're trying to help Taylor," I insisted. "The system already let her down once. Now's your chance to make things right for her. Surely it's time for her to have justice and closure?"

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll help." Jackpot.

....

Speaking with parents of a victim is always a crapshoot. So many possible things could go wrong, so many personalities just didn't belong on television. The usual costs of all interviews, with only those rare exceptions that make all the others worth the effort.

Daniel Hebert was one of those exceptions. It helped that I asked Minerva to get him on board ahead of time. Whether she handled it herself, or had his daughter do so, I didn't ask.

He described with a clear confidence the combination of negligences that allowed his daughter's abuse to continue as long as it had. The school's offer to pay for Taylor's medical expenses was a mistake. Granted, the Heberts accepting the offer was a greater mistake, but I glossed that over easily enough. What the public would see is that the school was admitting a failure on their part. It wasn't that valuable alone, but coupled with the rest of the material I had, it looked like bribery.

Then I moved on to the more personal questions. He wasn't as businesslike during that portion of the interview. He came across as a supportive and caring father who was quite proud of Taylor's accomplishments, but not afraid to admit that he was out of his depth dealing with her power and fame. The audience would love every minute of it.

....

Speaking with the parents of an attacker, on the other hand, is incredibly predictable: you don't. They almost never cooperate, and it's better that way. Someone willing to admit to their crimes in a candid and apologetic manner is what I assign Erin to handle. A swift and clean resolution better left to feel good talkshows. It kills a news story. There's no drama, there's no excitement, there's no hooks or speculation to allow you to take fifteen minutes of facts and use it to fill a week of air time.

Fortunately, that didn't happen here. Barnes was filmed threatening to file a lawsuit if we so much as looked at his daughter. An empty threat, but a great clip. We had no interest in harassing a teenage girl. Whatever she might be guilty of, it would just make us look bad. Putting her father in the public eye was more than enough. A face to go with the name, a pressure on her and her family that might yield something more later. Or it might not, but we were hardly suffering for a lack of sound bites.

Hess was more interesting. Screaming and profanity and a flying beer bottle that managed to break the news van's window. I've seen better on air ranting breakdowns over the years, but the cameraman handled himself admirably and it was all clear enough for all the viewers to see. I made a note for my secretary to get his name for me, and give him a small bonus. Most of them didn't get paid nearly enough, and he (or she, for that matter) was one of the ones with talent.

A bit of inquiry revealed Mrs. Hess had a long, long history of less than successful relationships with men. None of her three children had the same father. No less than five of her former live in boyfriends were serving time in prison for crimes ranging from robbery to assault to drug trafficking. A real piece of work that left plenty of possible pop psych bullshit excuses for why the girl turned out psychotic.

I didn't really care. That was yet another hook for smaller fish to nibble upon. At most, I'd use the obviously unstable home life as further evidence of the PRT's failures.

Political corruption and coverups of criminal abuse by Protectorate members? That was, as I had told Minerva some days prior, the kind of thing that could make careers. And it was the only thing I cared about. This story was going to be huge and it was going to be my team that broke it to the nation. That was no exaggeration. With the proper work, this story could easily go nation wide.

I noticed a message in my private email that I didn't recognize. It slipped past the spam filters and identified itself as an 'anonymous whistle blower'. I started the video. And then I started laughing.