Chapter 16

When Thursday’s edition of the Press hit the streets with Savage Land, all available copies were instantly snapped up. Within a few hours Horndecker’s office was under siege with readers demanding a copy. When he tried to explain that although he had doubled his usual press run, there were none left, the readers grew so angry he had to kick them out and lock the front doors.

“You manage to find out anything about this Winston Conlee. He’s becoming a pain in my back side,” Horndecker complained to his editor.

Rothenburg looked up from his desk. “I’ve been looking high and low, even reached out to my city contacts and so far no luck. No one’s heard of him before he come out of nowhere and chose your rag to make his debut. It makes me wonder. Why would he do that except for the fact that he’s local and your paper was the most convenient one available? Or maybe he’s just a rookie writer who didn’t know his true worth so he decided to use your paper to test the waters.”

“Yeah, they’re all probable excuses I guess, but for the likes of me I can’t figure out if he can write like that why didn’t he just ask me? I’d a jumped at the chance to put his stories in my paper,” Horndecker mused.