The Jovians: Meet Them

Chapter 2

~~Reporter Joanne Cobbler~~

Terrible news for all you single ladies still hoping for a chance with the strapping Will Topping. The hopeless romantics that spend all their mornings in the gym hoping that during a shooting he picks them out. You ladies hoping for the chance to be the lady to change Mr. Hottie Topping, I'm sorry to disappoint but you've got to look for a new celebrity . . .

I knew I had to get more things in the article announcing to the world that celebrity model Will Topping was dead. But one thing was clear, it had to end with

My readers may say I'm a strict critic, but if the shoe fits, the Cobbler's going to make you wear it.

That was my signature, the cobbler cobbling the shoe, because people apparently liked the play on words. But seriously, Will Topping was dead? That's something. Didn't know the guy from Adam, and neither did three-quarters of the country, but they're sure as hell going to be pissed when they find out. Kinte's most eligible bachelor, dead . . . maybe that should be my tittle. I definitely needed something though.

"What are you working on?" David asked

I stopped typing and looked across my table at my desk mate. His tie was hanging loosely from his neck, stretched to hide the mustard stain on his shirt. He was such a child. It's a mystery to anyone who sees him or reads his writing, how he got this job. Personally, I find it insulting that a columnist on Kaven State's number one newspaper had to share a desk with a complete clutz.

"What are you working on?" He asked again

"I heard you the first time."

"But you didn't reply."

"I was ignoring you. Ever heard of that David?"

"Don't be a sour puss Jo. Come on share your goods and if you're lucky, I might share mine."

If I am lucky! The nerve on you. "I think I'll just stick with what I've got."

"What's the point in being desk mates if we don't help each other out?"

"I've been asking myself the same question." I replied muttering, "and you'll never know for how long."

"I'll just keep pestering you if you don't spit it out."
"Fine." I replied, pushed to my limit "I'm working on that celebrity, the one who was murdered."

"The model?"

"Yep."

"Funny, that's the same thing I'm working on."

"Really?" He slid his chair towards me, and I could smell the mustard on his shirt.

"So check this out." He placed a folder on my desk and brought out two pictures. One was of Will Topping lying dead in the park, and the other was of another dead man. They both had the same kind of bullet wounds on their chest.

"The same kind of wounds." David pointed out.

"Who is the other man?" I asked.

"His name is Vincent Galruay. He was murdered like a lifetime ago. The case was kept really quiet, the government didn't want anyone knowing or worrying about it. The creepy part was that, he had bullet holes right through his chest, but there were no bullets anywhere remotely close to the murder scene."

"Why was it kept quiet?"

"Vincent Galruay was a key Jovian speaker."

I was stupefied. "Jovian. As in the Jovians; the crazy people that go around bombing clinics?"

"Abortion clinics . . ."

"Same difference. Abortion clinics are clinics. People go in there with problems and come out feeling better."

"It's a little more complicated than that."

"I thought Jovians stopped existing centuries ago." I continued, ignoring him.

"They went under-cover centuries ago, after the murder of Galruay. His death started Jovian response with bombings and all that. The government tried using the military to subdue the Jovians, but the Jovians were more skilled than expected. They just covered it all up by calling it a civil war."

Really? "How do you know that?"

"How do you think I got this job?" I always just thought that he had some kind of rich relative that paid to get him in. "I can find anything that ever existed, as long as there was some kind of record of it, even if it was just a verbal record." He winked at me. "You know what that makes you?" I shook my head. "It makes you the luckiest writer in this newspaper to have me as your desk mate."

I rolled my eyes. "How does this have anything to do with Topping though. Topping couldn't have been a Jovian. He was probably shot by a real bullet."

"He probably wasn't Jovian. Jovians aren't usually public figures. One thing is for sure though, his death is in every way like Galruay's."

"How do you know that? Have you seen the reports from the police department?" I went through the papers on my desk looking for the homicide report; if it had been sent then I was meant to get it first.

"I don't need forensics or crime scene examination reports. The diameter of the wound was way smaller than the range of a bullet."

"It could have been a smaller bullet."

He shook his head and rolled back to his half of the table, leaving me with information that I wish I had never been told. If all that he said was true, then a Jovian or Jovian related person had just been murdered, so someone was going to pay. If Will Topping was a Jovian, Kinte might just be on the brink of its second civil war. With all the technology available now, it was scary to think of what would be left after the war was over.

I prayed fervently that Will Topping was not a Jovian. I hadn't prayed in a very long time, but now seemed like a perfect time to start.