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in, she took off her reading glasses, shook her head slowly from side to side and said, “Perceptions are powerful.”
    I settled into one of Dad’s soft leather club chairs.
    “Raquel, it won’t help either of us if staff thinks you’re getting favors.”
    “Mom, you know that’s not the case. I happened to be where a story broke, called my editor and he assigned me. If a Bulldog called it in, you wouldn’t be talking to him.”
    She snorted and ran her hand through her short silver hair. “As if one of them would have bothered to call.”
    “Plus I called my editor. It’s not like I called you.”
    “Darling, it’s just that I worry about you. It’s a mother thing. You’ll understand when you have kids.”
    “I understand now.”
    “I never get to see you. You finally come home from school and you go rent a room.”
    “It’s an apartment.”
    “It’s a studio apartment. It’s one room. You’re renting a room.”
    “You could see me here.”
    “I do see you here and it breaks my heart we can’t spend more time together, but I’ve got things to do and so do you. We don’t have time to socialize. Besides, it would just fuel resentment with the staff. Why don’t you come home?”
    “Mom.”
    “It’s just me in that big empty house. Come back home and you won’t even know I’m there.”
    “Wouldn’t that negate the purpose of living with you?”
    “Raquel.”
    “Look, Mother. I’m my own woman now. How would it be if I’m living with my mommy? Oooh. If I come back home, can we get a cat? Maybe ten or twelve? And maybe if I ask permission, can I have a gentleman caller?”
    “There’s no talking to you. You’re as stubborn as your father was.”
    “Thank you.” I stood up.
    “Raquel, please think about coming home.”
    I didn’t tell her about Kara taking back her apartment and that moving in with Mommy might soon be my only option. Instead, this talk strengthened my resolve to find a new place. “Bye, Mom.”
    I took the stairs down to my desk in the “bullpen” where the paper located the reporters. Bulldogs in the bullpen, it seemed that everything in this business was male oriented. Some of the old timers even referred to this advantage as the “dangle factor” as if swaying genitalia improved one’s reporting.
    My phone rang and before she could say anything, I picked it up and asked, “What now, Mother?”
    “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never Mother. Most folks just call me Robby. Well, OK, a couple of folks I arrested called me ‘Mother’, but usually not.”
    “Robby, I’m so sorry. I thought my mother was calling again.”
    “No, it’s me. What can I do for you?”
    I wanted to tell him about the threats but I just couldn’t talk about them yet. “This is awkward. I don’t want to betray a confidence but I’m afraid that if the Police find out, it will look bad.”
    “What’ll look bad? What are you talking about?”
    “Farmer Finley is Brenda the Bearded Lady’s father.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “She told me.”
    “You’re right. That does look bad. Brenda should have told us.”
    “What are you going to do? What will happen? I don’t want to get her in trouble.”
    “Don’t know. I’ll have to tell Cavanaugh. See what he thinks.”
    “Robby, one more thing. Did you know that last year another man was killed at the carnival?”
    “Yeah, I remember, Breaker Burke. A good detective learns to keep track of those things. Cavanaugh has that case too. He’s good. I don’t want to be in uniform forever so I took the detective exam. He helped me study.”
    “Any connection between these two deaths?”
    “Not that I know, but I haven’t seen the files.”
    “Do you think I could talk to Cavanaugh?”
    “Sure, but not about that case. He’d never talk to you about an open investigation.”
    “I guess I should have expected that.”
    “Yeah, he plays it close to the vest, but um, I’m glad you called, wanted to ask you