Page 59 of Hot Mic

‘Robin?’ the caller asked. ‘You there?’

Robin swallowed hard, her tongue feeling like sandpaper. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’m here, man. Look,’ Robin said softly, her usual energetic vibe absent. ‘Finding the spark is easy. Anyone can throw a match into a pile of dry wood and watch it burn down the room. The real question is whether you’re brave enough to stand in the heat when the fire actually catches.’

She paused, the dead air stretching out over the low-frequency airwaves.

‘Because if you’re just going to run the second it gets real, then do the girl a favour and leave her alone. Don’t ruin her peace just to prove you can handle her.’

The man took a very long pause. ‘Oh,’ he eventually said. ‘You think?’

‘Yep,’ Robin said simply.

Another silence followed. In the control room behind the glass, a nineteen-year-old intern stared at her with wide, confused eyes, silently mouthing cut to commercial?

‘Let’s... let’s go to commercial,’ Robin said into the mic.

She slammed the master fader down and hit the play button on an ad for a scaffolding company.

She pushed her chair back, pulling her knees up to her chest and closing her eyes, wondering if there was any chance of electrocuting herself on the knackered mixing board. She sort of hoped so.

She knew she was depressed. And she had cause to be. She had met someone she strongly suspected could have been the love of her life and realised she wasn’t even close to good enough for her.

Fifty

The desk phone rang at four-fifteen.

Sienna snatched it up on the second ring, holding the receiver to her ear while her eyes stayed glued to a column of risk figures. ‘Sienna Vance.’

‘Ms Vance, Marcus Bell here from North Star Media,’ a fast-talking guy boomed into her ear. ‘Have you heard of us?’

Sienna’s hackles went up. ‘What do you want?’

Marcus’s stride was unbroken by Sienna’s tone. ‘We wanted to offer you an opportunity. We’re putting together a live streaming special about Head vs Heart. We want you as our main guest.’

‘No,’ Sienna said flatly.

‘Ms Vance, hear me out, this is a massive global broadcast—’

‘I know exactly what North Star does,’ Sienna cut in, her voice dropping into a tone cold enough to freeze water. ‘You do exploitative podcasts about murders.’

‘Ha, yes. That is a big part of what we do, but what happened at Violet caused a real sensation, and public interest is still rabid.’

‘I’m not interested in being part of your circus. Don’t call this line again.’

She slammed the receiver down and went straight back to her spreadsheet.

Twenty minutes later, the phone rang again.

She picked it up. ‘Sienna Vance.’

‘Sienna. Hello. My name is Eleanor Reid. You may know my work. I was a senior investigative producer at the BBC for some years.’

Sienna sat up a little straighter. Eleanor Reid was a renowned news producer, a serious heavyweight in factual entertainment.

‘Eleanor Reid?’ Sienna said uncertainly.

‘I think you spoke to my colleague a moment ago.’

‘You’re producing at North Star?’ Sienna asked, slightly horrified.