CHAPTER XXIII: A FINE LINE

Before we had to leave for the station and after dinner I was left to myself for awhile. The twins had to study and Rob was doing paperwork. I have said many times that leaving me unsupervised is rarely a good idea. HAHAHA, but this time I needed it.

When there is anything happening such as what we had been experiencing these past few weeks and months, as a reporter and even as a detective...there is always going to be a balancing act, a fine line if you will, between doing what is most desirable in an ongoing investigation (which is to keep everything under wraps as much as possible)...while bearing in mind the public's right to know.  More than that, it is always the duty of law enforcement to actively engage the public in the conversation from a public safety standpoint whenever there is a public safety issue in play. It is imperative not to tip ones hand too much and give the perp some welcome insight into any ongoing investigation but you do have to reveal as much as is necessary to apprise the general public that there is a problem and they need to take precautions to stay safe and away from becoming a notation in the victim category. You also need to help by providing information on how to avoid problems whenever possible. The trick beyond all that is to inform without inciting unnecessary fear. A panicked population is a dangerous population.

It is different in every situation and with every perpetrator and while it might be nice in theory there are no general rules or formulas or any sort of guide as to how exactly to provide the necessary information without compromising the law enforcement search for the evildoer let alone overly alarming your audience. That is NOT EVER easy. So, now I had to figure out how to relay sensitive but important information WITHOUT divulging so much that it could tip anyone off that we were hot on their trail.

I needed the time to write the script for the piece and boy talk about stressful, but after about ten minutes of musing I decided to just go for it. I would share it with Rob of course...and I knew he would do his best to help me.

When I had talked to the station earlier we had thought that maybe I would do what they call a 'canned piece', meaning we would tape it for play later (the 11pm news) but then we all decided that due to the subject matter and the importance of it we should do it live on air during the regular post-prime-time newscast. Okay. I have done both and am at ease with it either way. Rick and I along with Rob went over my copy after we got downtown to the station and he said it looked very good, not too much or too little and Rob said he had told me the same thing which he had at home. I was still a little nervous (which is unusual for me when it comes to being 'on air' but I well understood how important it was to get it right).

Before long the newscast was underway and Rob, the twins who had insisted on coming along, and I stood off  'in the wings' as they say, and then seven minutes in it was SHOWTIME. It went smoothly, my on-air time was about 4 minutes (which is a lot in a half-hour news program) and bam it was over. I had included at the end a solicitation for the public to come forward if they had any information they thought might feel useful in our quest for the murderer (anonymously of course and we had a special telephone line at the precinct that could be used for that) and then after thank you's from Rick and the staff we headed home. Another day and no closer to whodunit.

PFUI.

We got home about ten minutes to Midnight and since we were all tired headed to bed...JUST AS THE PHONE RANG.

"Well, that didn't take long," Rob mused.
NOBODY LAUGHED.

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER XXIV: