Chapter 6: 60 Minutes

Sunday, September 23, 2018

We had a quiet Labor Day weekend. The weather had been warm, dry, and sunny the entire weekend and we spent it goofing off with the kids and taking them out on the pontoon boat. My parents put their boat in the water and came over as well. The amusing part was that rather than go home at night, they just tied up to the dock and slept on the boat a couple of nights. Well, if the boat is rocking, don’t come knocking. Kelly and I had been known to do the same sort of thing some weekends with the kids, letting them and the dog sleep on mats on the main deck while we stayed on the top deck. I had invested in a tiny RV-type bathroom so we could stay out overnight as needed.

The CBS producer flew down after lunch on Tuesday and I met her over at WMGA Channel 9. Her name was Hilly Donovan. She was one of the people that made shows like 60 Minutes work. All you saw on the screen was the famous reporter, but when they introduced the segment, the producer’s name was in fine print somewhere. They set up the interviews, they did the research, and they made all the arrangements for when the reporter showed up to film the segment. That being said, I gathered that being a segment producer on one of the news shows was a plum assignment. I was sure it got you lots of frequent flyer miles.

It was twenty minutes from the house to the studio on Mount Matucket. I had told her to call me when she was leaving the airport. I left half an hour later, so I was only a few minutes early when she and a cameraman showed up in a rented van. I was waiting in the lobby when they showed up. They went to the receptionist window and were pointed towards me, so I stood and smiled. “Hilly Donovan?”

“Mister Reaper?”

“That’s me.”

“Nice to meet you. This is Wake Foley. He’s my assistant.”

We shook hands all around. “Where’re you staying?” I asked.

“The Holiday Inn.”

“Do you need to go there and check in?” I asked.

“Yes, but let’s talk for a few minutes first.” She went over to the receptionist window and let them know the pros from Dover had arrived, and could they get someplace to talk to me? A muckety-muck at the station promptly showed up and ushered us inside. Even though WMGA wasn’t going to be involved in the taping or production, CBS News would be using their facilities and would probably be paying something for the privilege. With luck, the station would be mentioned.

We were given use of a small conference room and Hilly laid out the plan. “We’ve already got quite a bit of information and video on the attack. You’re one of the last we need to shoot. Scott will be down Thursday night and we’ll do him and you on Friday,” she told me.

I nodded. “That’s what I was told, anyway. Who all did you get to talk?” I asked.

“Well, the FBI wouldn’t go on camera, but they did put out a statement praising the Matucket Police Department for their assistance in capturing the terrorists. Homeland Security wouldn’t say anything, citing national security.”

I stared for a second and laughed. “We assisted the FBI? They refused to give us any help and told us we were on our own, then they came in at the end of it all and tried to snatch it all up!”

She smiled at me. “So, we’ve been told. We couldn’t do an in-person interview with your Chief Crowley, but we were able to get a very nice Skype segment with Scott in New York. The District Attorney, I guess he’s a U.S. Attorney now, gave us plenty of background and information when Scott interviewed him in Washington. That’s Bo Effner, right? He was more than happy to talk to us.”

I smiled at that and shook my head in amusement. “I will deny this if you air it, but Bo is a bit ambitious. I love him like a brother, but this was the case that moved him from Matucket to Atlanta and Washington. He’s got some serious political interests.”

She gave me an odd look. “Are you saying he might have ulterior motives? Would he have exaggerated or lied?”

I held my hands up and waved them. “No, no! Nothing like that. I’ve known Bo since we were little. He’s honest and I can’t imagine him lying to you. If he comes across as angry or outraged by what happened, that was totally real. I’m just saying that he’s a budding politician. You know them. They could spend the entire day talking to you as long as a camera is in sight.”

“Ah, I understand. That’s okay. That’s why we have an editing room.”

I gave her a thumbs-up at that. Then I asked what they planned to do in Matucket.

“I want you to give me a complete history and background on what happened, right down to the last detail. When did everything happen, what did you do, where did things happen, that sort of thing. I gather the big shootout was at your home. We’ll want to go there and look around. If everything works out, we’ll want to have Scott interview you there.”

“Okay. The only other places involved in town would have been the police station or the hospital afterwards. Not sure what that would get you,” I commented.

“Your police chief, the new one anyway, said he couldn’t comment, that it was an ongoing investigation, and that you weren’t allowed to talk, either. What’s that about?”

I grimaced and explained what had transpired after the attack, how Crowley had been forced out and I had been classified as disabled. “Crowley give you any of this?”

“Some,” she answered noncommittally.

“Well, it’s not like they can do anything to me either, so I’m not worried. The county council thinks that killing terrorists isn’t peaceful, modern, and progressive, so they aren’t in favor of us. They’re cleaning house down at the station.”

“I’ll let Scott know, but it’s probably more than we want to get involved in on this broadcast.”

“No reason you should. Mike and I are both going to be fine.”

With that we got down to business. They had worked up a timeline based on the FBI report and the video the department generated. We went over everything from Monday on. The only thing I refused to cooperate on was where I had stashed Kelly and the kids. 60 Minutes had figured out that I had sent them to Tolley Hunter for safekeeping, but I wasn’t going to confirm that until I talked to Tolley. I wasn’t going to drag her into this if I didn’t have to, and she didn’t need that sort of thing public knowledge. I simply told Hilly that I could neither confirm nor deny any information she might think she had, and that the safety of my family was too important to me to talk about without checking with them. She pushed but I just smiled and didn’t answer.

At the end of the talk, we drove over to the house. Kelly and the kids were home, and I introduced them. Riley and Seamus didn’t understand what was going on. Kelly did, so after she gave the pair a snack, she sent them out to play in traffic while she joined me with the TV people. By then it was just a matter of walking around the place while Wake commented on camera angles and shooting locations. Some of that would depend on the weather when Scott showed up. If the weather was good, we’d do some of the interview out on the deck with Lake Matucket in the background. The rest would be a walk around the front yard, showing where the firefight had taken place and the ditch I had stayed in.

As luck would have it, the weather was perfect through the end of the week. Scott Pelley flew in Thursday evening, but I had spent the entire day in Athens, and it was too late to do anything. I met him at the station Friday morning to go over what he planned to do. Not much had changed since I had met with Hilly on Tuesday. She had spent the last couple of days working on the segment with her assistant and the technical people back in New York. She also had a list of suggested questions for Pelley that he was to ask me. I wasn’t allowed to see them, but I couldn’t imagine they were anything that I hadn’t heard already. After a quick review we drove out to the house.

Kelly was there, though the Dreadful Duo were in school. We walked around the house, with Hilly suggesting where to do the interviews and where to walk the ‘killing ground’ as she called it. Scott had brought down his own coterie of assistants, so Kelly made coffee and sweet tea for everybody. Then a makeup artist did makeup for Scott, Kelly, and me and we set up some folding captain’s chairs on the deck.

“Let’s do the deck interviews first,” said Hilly. “Kelly, don’t take this wrong, but I’m not sure yet how much you’re going to be in the segment. We might not even know until we get to final editing.”

“That’s fine by me. I really wasn’t here anyway.”

With that, the three of us sat in our chairs while the camera crew fussed. Then somebody said “Action!” and we were on.

“Sergeant Reaper, Doctor Reaper, it is good to see you again. Thank you for having us,” said Scott.