Charlie All Night by Jennifer Cruise Read Free Book Online

bad for a woman. Tell me
about the other people
at the station. I already know about Mark and Lisa."

Allie sat silent with her tea, obviously regrouping, so Joe chimed in.
"Bill owns the station and theoretically runs it as general manager."

"Theoretically?"

Joe exchanged a glance with Allie. "His wife, Beattie, decided about
six months ago that she wanted
a career. Bill gives Beattie anything
she wants, so she's pretty much running the place now."

Charlie quirked an eyebrow at Joe. This was news Bill hadn't shared.
"Is that good?"

"I think so," Joe said. "She fired Weird Waldo."

"He thought Martians were invading the station through the consoles,"
Allie said. "He kept announcing during his show that they were getting
closer. It was actually kind of interesting if you suspended
logical
thought. Beattie wanted him gone, but Bill said he was just being
colorful."

"And then he shot the console," Charlie remembered from the dinner
conversation.

"Yep, just last week. Blew the whole thing away." Allie dghed. "At
least we gained a new console.
And lost Waldo, thanks to Beattie."

"Wouldn't even Bill have fired him at that point?" Charlie asked,
incredulous.

"Bill's ability to ignore anything unpleasant is legendary." Joe told
him.

"Great." Charlie drank more of his iced tea. If Bill could ignore
somebody shooting up a broadcasting booth, the one anonymous letter
that had made him call for help must have been a beauty. He brought
his
attention back to Joe. "What else should I know?"

They talked on into the night, Joe and Allie filling him in on the rest
of the station personnel, like
Albert the anal-retentive business
manager who recited ad prices in his sleep, and Marda the ambitious
afternoon DJ who was breathing down Mark's neck for the prime-time
slot, and Karen the receptionist who knew all the gossip not fit to
print, and Harry the Howler who was on right before Charlie.

"Harry howls from six to ten," Allie told Charlie. "He likes to think
he's wild and crazy, but he's really sweet with the volume turned up.
His real area of expertise is cars, so if you ever have problems with
yours, ask Harry."

"And then there's me."

Allie nodded. "Yep. Harry's audience usually starts to fade about nine,
nine-thirty, and then we had
Weird Waldo."

Charlie tried not to show his relief. "So, at the moment, my show has a
listening audience of about..."

Allie grinned at him. "Oh, six or seven, tops. And they're all
listening because they're concerned
about the Martians, and they're
waiting for the update."

Charlie started to laugh. "Oh, God. This is going to be awful."

"Then at two o'clock, there's Grady."

"Tell me Grades normal."

"Well..." Allie stopped, obviously searching for the words to describe
Grady. "Grady is sweet. He talks about things like the life force and
crystal power and personal auras, and then he plays
classical guitar music and Gregorian chants and other..." She stopped.
"I can't describe Grady. His show is very
soothing, and he has his own
small but fanatically loyal following." She shrugged. "I like him.
Grady's
a good person."

"If he has only a small following, why is he still on the air?"

"Because he's Grady Bonner. Someday, all this will be his."

"The son and heir? Then why is he on the graveyard shift?"

"Because his following is small. Bill gave Grady two to six to keep him
off the streets."

Charlie took a deep breath. "So I'm sandwiched in between Howling Harry
and Grady I Have lived
In Other Times' Bonner?"

"That's about it."

It couldn't be better. No one would ever hear him. He started to grin.
"I'm in big trouble."

"No, you're not." Allie leaned forward. "Erom ten to two, you have a
lot of freedom. All the really knee-jerk conservatives go to bed early
so they can get up with the chickens, so your audience, once
you build
one, will be open to new things. As long as you don't do anything that
upsets Bill, you can
say anything you want. We can do this, Charlie.
We—"

"No, we can't." Charlie