story as far as I was concerned. Jerry had it on âgood informationâ that Dreyer, a staunch proponent of morality and traditional family values, was having an affair with his secretary, and was holed up with her somewhere in Manhattan. But when I looked into it, I couldnât find anything to substantiate the story. Despite the fact that I despised Dreyerâs politics and would have loved to have proven him a hypocrite, I learned nothing except good things. He spent a lot of time with his family, he worked hard, and colleagues past and present said his word was his bond. All we had to go on was that his wife, an antiques collector, had gone to Belgium on a buying trip, the kids were with her parents, and the congressman had gone off on some hush-hush fact-finding trip with his secretary and personal assistant, Lizbeth Greyfarm.
Personally, I think Jerry wanted to fry Dreyer because Dreyer was rigidly anti-porn and anti-strip club, and Jerry was rigidly pro-porn and pro-strip club.
âI still think thereâs a story there,â Jerry said. âBut youâre unable to find it for some reason. And we need a story for next Monday nightâs slot, thanks to your death series bombing out, which threw the whole Special Reports sked out of whack for the year.â
âThereâs that blind tap-dancing troupe,â I began.
âItâs for our adult viewing slot. We need something sexy. Did you hear about the murder on the twenty-seventh floor? A gynecologist?â
âYes,â I said, feeling a clammy dread flush down my body.
âI was talking to Pete Huculak in security about it and ⦠I think we have a special report here.â
âItâs kind of ⦠local, isnât it?â I said politely.
âAs a single murder, yes. But wait, thereâs more. This guyâs a gynecologist, right? Heâs good-looking. Someone handcuffs him to a chair and shootsââ
âHandcuffs him to a chair?â
âHe was handcuffed to a chair, then shot in the heart.â
âHow do you know this?â
âThe cleaning guy who found the body, he called our security before he called the cops. Security shot a videotape of the murder scene. Exclusive tape of the murder scene, in other words, and weâre going to get a dub.â
That was the clincher for him, because we hate to waste good videotape in Special Reports, especially exclusive videotape.
âThereâs more. Know what they found on the floor, among other things? A matchbook from Anyaâs.â
Anyaâs was an S&M club on the West Side.
âThis is a perfect angle,â Jerry said, and his porous, flaccid face could barely contain his glee. Iâd worked with him long enough to see the neon signs flashing before his eyes. GYNECOLOGIST . HANDCUFFS . MURDER . EXCLUSIVE VIDEOTAPE !
âS&M is big in the nineties. Remember that cover story New York magazine did? And itâs not just kooks, itâs your doctor, your dentist, the guy who does your tax return, the sweet-faced girl who teaches your kids to read, a guy like Dr. Kanengiser. Is the murder linked to this dark world? It doesnât even matter. The victim is linked to it.â
You know, itâs not that Iâm against exploring the totality of human experience, the human condition, as a reporter. After all, in the past year Iâd done âCo-ed Call Girls,â âTransvestite Daddies,â and âOver-Thirty Virgins.â But, having learned the dark lessons of the ill-fated âDeath in Modern Americaâ series, I was trying to look on the bright side, become a better person, and do a nice series for a change, one that didnât involve kinky sex, dead people, deranged people, and/or criminals. I wanted to do a series that might endear me to the viewers, help redeem my past sins, and hoist me firmly onto the New Niceness bandwagon. Good news is also part of the totality of human