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CHAPTER 1 continued
She also knew that she was quite young to be in a position of such responsibility. At twenty-eight, she'd only graduated from college six years ago. Thanks to a lucky internship break, Laura had worked the summer before graduation as a clerical assistant in the offices of Hourglass, the network's top-rated news magazine show. To Laura's continuing good fortune, the always glamorous and sometimes acerbic Gwyneth Gilpatric, the broadcast's star correspondent, took Laura under her very impressive wing.
"Don't let any of these head cases around here scare you," Gwyneth had reassured Laura. "Most of these people are really pretty decent. It's the ego and the pressure that make them seem so driven. Just realize that if they scream, or yell, or act like you don't exist, it's because they're so involved in what they're doing and because they're terrified that they aren't going to make deadline or might make a mistake. It's no fun getting it wrong when millions of people are watching."
Laura tried to remember Gwyneth's advice whenever one of the Hourglass producers or editors snapped at her that summer. They worried constantly about keeping their jobs. Joel Malcolm, the executive producer of Hourglass, had let it be known in no uncertain terms that he intended to knock 60 Minutes off its first-place perch at CBS. Anyone who did not do his or her part to further that goal had no place on the Hourglass staff.
That had been the general feeling throughout Laura's six years at KEY News as she worked her way up from her extremely low-paying first job after graduation as a desk assistant, then broadcast assistant, followed by assistant producer and, now, associate producer. They were taking names at KEY News. If you fowled up, you were out. There was no place for excuses or second-bests.
So far, Laura had been more than okay, a golden girl. Her bosses liked her, gradually giving her more and more responsibilities as they grew to trust the judgement and skills they thought remarkable in someone so young. They did not know that she often came to work in the morning with a knot in her stomach, worried about what the day would bring. Or the nights she'd wake up at three o'clock, anxiously tossing and turning until dawn, insecure thoughts about how she might mess up running through her head. They didn't know about the "feelings" she sometimes got, but everybody seemed happy about the results of those feelings ... unquestioning when Laura had her obits ready even when her subject was not expected to die.
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