Investigator

Chapter 6: The meeting

Mort was giddy all day at work. Everytime he passed by Susie the two gave each other loving undertoned glances. Now Mort was sitting in his office, typing away at his laptop as he wrote an article that was due days ago. As he sat there in bliss, his phone began ringing on his desk. Mort picked it up and held it to his ear. "Hello?" He asked in his deep but cheerful voice.

"Hi, this is Mort Pollician correct?" The familiar voice said at the end of the telephone. Mort recognized it immediately as his boss John, no one else had a voice that smooth.

"Yes this is him," Mort said leaning back in his chair with a confused expression prevalent on his face. Mort was a mixture of fear, over possibly being fired, and confused, what he could have done to make John call him. Though to be fair the list of things Mort did wrong was long.

"I need to talk to you whenever you get the chance. It's rather important, please stop by my office whenever you can. Thank you," and then John hung up, not even allowing Mort to get another word in. Now Mort's heart was pounding, he was fucked absolutely fuuuuuuucked! He stared wide eyed at his computer, phone still in hand, and his breathing was heavy. Though luckily it wasn't a panic attack, at least not yet. No instead it was fear, fear of losing his job after finally finding happiness in what he was doing, or more so finding happiness in someone.

Mort finally hung back up the phone and stood up to exit his office. His legs nearly buckled as soon as he stood up. He tried to think positive but that only made things worse, since he didn't have anything positive to think about. Mort stepped out into the hallway and was immediately greeted by Susie. He must of had a worried expression on because Susie smile faded into concern. "What's wrong?" she asked sincerely.

Mort took a second to find his words. "John wants to see me, in his office, alone. He says it's rather important."

Susie looked wide eyed as well now. "Shit. Well either you're fucked and fired, or this is the start of a gay porno." Mort looked at Susie with a sharp confused gaze. "What? I'm just saying."

The two walked together to their bosses office and stopped outside the door. Mort put his head in his hand as he gave a panicked sigh. "Alright, alright wish me luck." Susie gave him a double thumbs up and he replied with a nod before entering the office.

Mort stepped into the office and felt the cold air smack him in the face like a brick. John was sitting at his desk on the phone, he silently motioned for Mort to enter further into the room. Mort shut the door quietly behind him and began slowly and quietly walking towards John who was speaking to the person on the other end.

"No we need it ready by tonight," John paused as the other person spoke "Well then get another shipment or whatever. I have to go, we can talk about it later!" John hung up the phone and put his face in his hands. After a few seconds he looked up at Mort. "Sorry about that, we're somehow running out of paper in the printing department. And the manager down there is being a pain in my... back." John shook his head and put on a smile. "Anyway, let's talk about you."

Mort felt another pang in his heart as the worry kept crawling higher and higher up his spine. He shakenly sat down in one of the two cushioned chairs across from John and put on a worried smile. "Now Mort I'm going to be honest with you, we have a huge story on our hands." Mort looked at John confused so he continued. "That crazed man? He is a big story and the fact that he came into our studio gives us a major head start."

Mort's mind went blank. It was too much for him to process and the fear of being fired was taking its time to understand the situation as well. "Wh... what?" Mort asked, his mind still booting up.

John chuckled and stood up to walk over to a nearby window. "Mort, I want you to write this story. I want only you. I need you to gather information, facts, and do some exploring to create this and then spin it however the hell you want: Mental patient, pill popper, or even a murderer. I want you to head this," John smiled and turned around to look at his employe.

Mort was awestruck and his brain was now processing at an even slower speed than before. It was like winning the lottery twice in one day after returning from your trip in LA where you drove Lamborghinis around all day. Mort still had several questions to ask.

"Wait, so I'm not getting fired?" He asked.

"Nope," John replied

"And you want me to lead an article that is this huge?"

"That is correct."

Mort stared at his feet and then back at John "Should I question the man from the other day?" Mort asked John.

"No no, I can do that for you or have someone else do it. I just need you do some poking around, some investigating if you will. Mostly, to be honest, I want you to find this supposed asylum the man talked about and see if you can gather any evidence from it."

Mort thought it was weird, considering that they didn't even know if such a place existed however maybe that was better. If there wasn't an asylum then Mort would still get his name on an article and not have to do any labor at all. Now it all seemed clear to Mort. "Alright, I'll take it."

"Wonderful," John said walking back over to Mort with a smile and positive energy. Mort stood up from his chair and it was like John was trying to usher him out the door. "Oh and uh feel free to bring some friends along with you, but no one from the studio. Got it?" Mort nodded silently. "Great!"

John opened up the door to his office and Mort could see Susie on the other side acting casually. "Oh and uh good luck." And with that Mort was outside in the hallway and John had slammed the door behind him. Mort and Susie looked at each other in silence for a few minutes.

"Wow, so did piss him off or did you really piss him off?" Susie asked, finally breaking the silence between the two. Mort chuckled a little.

"No, it was nothing like that, he just wanted me to supervise a project," Mort said with a smile.

"Oh, what kind of project?" Susie asked curiously.

"Oh uh..." Mort had just remembered he wasn't supposed to tell anyone from the studio, even if he like Susie. "It's just a normal article, you've heard about the prices decreasing at the Shop Smart, the local store." Susie nodded. "He just wants me to cover it, that's all."

Mort liked Susie, like a lot, but he needed this story for himself. He couldn't even imagine how much of a loose thread he was already on, this was probably John's way of telling Mort to get his act together. He had to have this story all to himself.

"Well I'll see you around!" Mort said, quickly walking away from Susie before she asked any other questions.