Looking With Lauren

“Mr. Smith, can you please explain to us why the FBI is not looking for the missing girl?” Lauren Green asked as the man sitting in the chair across from her, shifted uncomfortably. Her green eyes narrowed, as she glanced down at the index cards in her hands. “Well Director Smith?”

“Miss Green, the FBI cannot be expected to jump into every missing child case. We only get involved if the local authorities need our assistance or if there is reason to believe that the victim has crossed borders. This is not the case with Rachel Rodriguez.” Director Smith took a drink from the water glass that was in front of him. As the cold liquid hit the back of his throat, he wondered again why he had agreed to be interviewed by the viper. “As a matter of fact the investigation was going well, until you got involved.”

“So you think that I’m impeding the investigation? Well sir maybe if you were out in the field with us, looking for this poor girl, then you would see how helpful I have been.” Lauren looked away from her guest and into the camera that was pointed at her. “When we come back, there is footage of me helping to find this missing young girl.”

“And we’re out.” The Director called from beside the cameras. Lauren sat back in her chair as her hair and makeup people rushed to touch up their work.

“Miss Green, I think what you are doing is very dangerous. Not only for yourself, since we don’t know what kind of people have her, but also for the missing girl herself. All you are doing is pandering to the public without any facts and getting millions of false leads. There is no way you will ever find the girl that way.”
“Director, at least people see me doing my job. Which makes them feel good about me, unlike you, they view you as a pathetic figurehead.” Lauren glanced at her phone, and shoved it back in her pocket. “It also makes you look like a racist. If this was a rich white girl that was missing, there is no doubt that you would pull out all of the stops to find her.”

“I explained to you, on the air, that the local authorities have everything under control. That is the only reason why we have not gotten involved in this case,” A stagehand ran on the stage, and ushered Director Smith off before he could continue. Lauren smiled to herself, she knew that this episode would be a ratings bonanza.
“We’re back in 3, 2…” The Director pointed his finger at her and the camera moved in closer.

“Welcome back America. This is Look with Lauren, and tonight I am going to take you inside the search for poor Rachel Rodriguez. Not only did I help with the search, but in fact Sargent Taylor Reed actually made me a search captain. Watch.”
Once the clip started playing, Lauren pulled her phone out again. She typed a fast message then looked back at the clip. The video hadn’t yet started the actual search for Rachel but was Lauren doing another introduction about what was happening. Back in the studio, she smiled to herself and let herself dream of all of the Emmy’s that she was certain to win.

“Now we are going to start looking for Rachel. Without her parents, AGAIN!” Lauren lifted her head to the monitor and watched the clip. It was the dead of night but there was enough light to make sure Lauren could be seen on camera. Leaves were being crunched because they were in the woods during this particular expedition, Lauren had thought that it would make for a more dramatic episode.

The search had actually taken three hours but the video had been edited down to three minutes for the sake of the audience’s attention spans. In the last thirty seconds, Lauren bent down in front of a tree and triumphantly held up a gold necklace with a cross on it. “Ladies and gentleman I have found Rachel Rodriguez’s necklace, the same one that she was wearing when she went missing. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new chapter in the Rachel Rodriguez saga.”

Back in the studio, Lauren scoffed to herself. There was no way that she wanted this story to end, not yet at least. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered was her show being one of the most watched on television and the network backing up a money truck to Lauren’s house to get her to agree to continue the show. Quickly she looked at her phone again, and pushed it back in her pocket before the director pointed at her. “There you have it folks, there is proof that Rachel Rodriguez was in those woods. Even though the police weren’t sure that whoever took the poor girl would have been brave enough to go in there, as there are many wild beasts, clearly he did. Tomorrow we will be back with more on the Rachel Rodriguez case. Tonight though I leave you with words from a very famous war poem. ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row’ Remember finding this poor girl is just like a war.”

“And we’re out.”

Lauren pulled out her phone again, as she made her way to her dressing room. When she was certain she was alone, she swiped her finger over the last missed call. After two rings she heard “Hello, Lauren.”

“What do you want?”

“I’m bored. I need something to do, while you’re away. Please.”

“You have something to do. I have told you many times that you can watch TV or read a book. Going online isn’t an option it’ll ruin your brain.”

“I hate this. I miss my parents.”

“Fine Rachel, if you don’t want the fame, you can be reunited with your parents.”