WALKING DISASTERS | Jack Thompson

38.

"HOW DID THEY GET THIS?" Daniel asked, eyeing the headline of the newspaper he was holding. "We haven't even released a statement yet."

"Isodyne desperately wants the world to believe that Jason Wilkes is a Communist," Peggy said. "And they have friends at the Times."

Leading the way into Daniel's office, Sera stopped so abruptly that Peggy slammed into her and Daniel bumped into them. Sera eyed Jack Thompson as he sat at Daniel's desk with his feet kicked up leisurely, a file in hand.

"Well," he greeted. "Look who finally decided to show up for work."

"Jack, what-"

"An appalling surprise," Peggy finished.

"I missed you too, Marge," Jack said.

Daniel whacked Jack's foot with the newspaper. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey," he said. "I had some business in town, figured I'd drop by and clean up another one of your messes."

"Is that what you think you do?" Peggy asked.

"Your incident report from the accident at Isodyne," Jack said. "I fixed a couple of details."

Peggy read from the file, "I chased the Russian spy into the lab but couldn't apprehend him before he set off an explosion."

"This is rubbish," Sera said, snatching the report from Peggy and throwing it at Jack.

"This is covering Carter's behind," Jack said. "I'm not filing a report about you running around Hollywood with this guy. People might get the wrong idea."

"And what idea is that?" Peggy asked.

"That you're a Communist."

"The only Communist we know is Dottie Underwood," Sera said. "Have you or your FBI friends gotten one iota of information out of her yet? Or is she still rearranging the office furniture atop your sternum?"

Jack stood up and fixed Sera with a stare. "Don't worry about things that don't concern you, Stark."

"She was stealing from the very organisation that we are investigating, Thompson," Sera said, matching Jack's stare.

"And that investigation is concluded," Jack replied. He uncapped a pen and held it out to Peggy. "Your John Hancock, please."

"I'm not signing my name to that," she said.

"Fine," Jack said. "You don't need to."

As he made to sign the paper, Daniel said, "You can't do that, Jack. She was acting as a part of my investigation."

"On loan from my office."

"Isodyne is using Wilkes as a patsy," Peggy said. "They found something so dangerous, it destroyed their own lab. Now they're pretending it never happened."

"If only you could prove that," Jack said.

"Watch the Isodyne film," Sera said. "See for yourself what they're hiding."

"I already read the book," Jack replied. "And it stunk. The case is closed."

Peggy scoffed and stormed out of the office. Daniel said, "I'd forgotten what a pleasure it is working with you," before he left too.

Sera folded her arms and fixed Jack with a glare. "So, you want to tell me what you're really doing here?"

"Not really, no," Jack replied. "How are you finding it out here in sunny LA?"

"It was great, until you showed up with your big-boy boots and tried to undermine our investigation," Sera replied. "Which, it seems, you're rather good at."