The Election

"Why can't I find a story?" I cried as I banged my head against the keyboard of my computer. The Mayoral election has been rather dry, somehow both the candidates had stayed on message and hadn't gone negative. As a citizen it was nice to see but as a cub reporter whose job was on the line, it was infuriating. "Maybe things will look better tomorrow."

I grabbed my purse and headed to my house. When I slid into the driver's seat, my phone buzzed. It was a text from my mom asking if I was coming over for dinner. I sent an affirmative text and drove home.

I decided to jog to my mom's. She lived about a mile away from me and would drive me home if I asked nicely. At least I could pretend to work out and act healthy. There was a small forest behind my apartment building, if I cut through it I could take time off my jog.

There were police lights flashing in the distance, might as well try to stave off unemployment for another week. I took out my cell phone and started recording, the video would play well on the blog entry that went along with my article in the paper. As I got closer, I saw that they were moving a dead body. How lucky can a girl get? A dead body! Pop open the champagne bottles, unemployment was going to wait a bit longer.

"Mayor Brown actually wanted us to move the girl's body? I still don't get why!" The Officer closest to me said.

"Because she was killed at the Mayor's Mansion and he would have a lot of explaining to do." It was like the Keystone Cops were doing this, why didn't they look around to see if anyone was listening to them? No matter, their stupidity was my winning lotto ticket.

I stopped recording and headed back home. One text went to my mom letting her know I was alright, and another went to my editor. Both responded right away. Murphy asked me to post the video with a breaking news story on the company blog asap. My mom offered to bring me food.

After I posted the story, I decided to try and figure out who the missing girl was. The local gossip has taken to posting her every thought on Facebook, normally it irritated me but I was thankful in that moment for it. The dead body probably belonged to my high school rival Teresa Sinclair, better known by her stage name Candi Cane. I verified that Candi had indeed been reported missing and added it to my report for the morning. My gut told me to go back into the woods, to get more evidence. This was the story of the year and I wanted every beat for myself. Maybe I could win a Pulitzer.

Back in the woods, I noticed someone standing over the body or where the cops had put the body. My phone was at the ready to record anything that happened. When he spoke, I knew immeaditely who it was: Max Edwards, the reason Candi and I were rivals and the other candidate for mayor. "...It sucks that you had to die, that I had to kill you. It was the only way tbough, you know. Claire didn't care we were sleeping together, we're only married for the idiots of this town. But you being pregnant put me in a bad position...."

A cold metal tube was pressed against my temple. "You're going to come with me and you will ne silent. If I had done this earlier then I wouldn't have to deal with it now. You Nancy Drew types are the same."

I should have been afraid but there was a real thrill charging through my body. Someone had thought enough of me to stalk and kidnap me. Now was the time when I was supposed to come up with a clever way to get out of this situation or a hunky guy would come rescue me. But the hunky guy was a philandering murderer, try to find that in a Hallmark Movie.

"Why are you kidnapping me?" Hey it works in the movies, why not try it in real life?"

"Don't be cute. God, why do you girls always try the cute thing? Back in my day, the women were the ones running things. Men were just figureheads. Look at what happens when we let them run things. They see a pretty girl and start thinking with the wrong head." It dawned on me where I knew the voice from, it was Diane Brown, the Mayor's wife. "I told my idiotic husband that covering up a murder was stupid. We could have pinned it on the help."

"That would have ruined someone's life."

"God you're logic is as simple as your writing. We would have quietly had them pardoned. It wouldn't have been necessary if Max hadn't gone off script. I had orchestrated the whole peaceful election and it was working. Carl would have won re-election and then in the next cycle run for Senate, leaving the Mayor's seat open for Max. That is until that stupid stripper showed up."

"She was a human being!"

"Please, you hated her as much as anyone. The way max bounced between the two of you." Anger flared in me. I stopped marching, almost daring her to pull the trigger. My foot came down on hers hard. She yelped in pain and I took off running. A bullet whizzed past my ear. Maybe unemployment wouldn't have been a bad option.

** Epilouge**

The story was huge. It was picked up by several papers and I became a true-crime writer. Diane Brown is still out there hunting me, so the FBI put in the Witness Protection Program.

Murphy won the election that almost ruined the town. Nobody remembered she was running.

I have learned to stay away from politics.