The mornings are always busy at FOX5. News producers run around the newsroom getting information from other producers for the newscast. Jason gets a text from Alyssa. He picks up his phone and looks.
Did you hear what's going on today?! She texts.
Jason texts her back while walking to his desk.
No. he responds. What happened?
Mass shooting at the Mizpah Casino and Hotel in Tonopah Yesterday Morning.
"What??!" Jason responded with mad cat emoji. He looks up from his phone and sees Alyssa running up to him.
"Seriously," Alyssa said. "Come look at this." Alyssa runs back to her desk. Jason follows her over. She quickly looks up the news article from the Review-Journal about the shooting. Jason looks at the headline.
"Mass shooting at Tonopah Hotel and Casino," he repeats. "Tonopah Police respond to a mass shooting at Mizpah Hotel and Casino that left 15 people dead and one bartender brutally slaughtered." Jason's eyes widened.
"Holy crap," he said. "That's awful."
"I know," Alyssa said. "Look at this. Talking to some witnesses, they all claimed that they saw a lady that was short with blonde hair and a tall guy with black hair and had darker skin than her."
"A lady that is short with blonde hair," Jason said while thinking.
"Yeah, and it says here that she denies the claims," Alyssa says.
"Well," Jason said. Their news director, Tom, comes over with their scripts.
"Are you guys looking at the developing story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal?" Tom asked.
"Yeah." they responded. Tom looked back at the clock and looked back at them. "This is a developing story, they're getting more updates from the Tonopah Police on the last victim. That person is missing."
"Missing?!" Jason and Alyssa exclaimed.
"What do you mean missing?" Jason asked.
"One of the victims' families is looking for her," Tom said. "The mother of the victim works there as a receptionist." Alyssa is shocked.
"Wow," she said. "I hope the police find the receptionist." Jason nods. Tom sighs and looks at the two.
"Yeah." Tom said. "You guys need to make sure not to give away the suspect."
"Why is that?" Jason asked.
"The suspect looks like the Mayor of Vegas." Tom said, walking away. "I'm sure one of them is Michele's hitmen." Alyssa looks at Jason. Jason looks at Alyssa and looks at the television. The news director yells out "commercial break!" in the news studio down the hall. Jason and Alyssa walk in. Cassandra waves to get their attention.
"Hey!" she said. "What's the matter?"
"Who did the breaking news story about the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah?" Alyssa said.
"I did," Dave said.
"Did you mention anything about the mayor and Michele's hitmen?"
"No." Dave scoffs. "Why would an old lady do something like this?" Alyssa sighs in relief.
"Good because we'll probably be in big trouble if you did," Alyssa said. Dave looks at her confused.
"Jason," Dave said facepalming. "Did you tell her to say this?"
"No," Jason said. "Tom said that. He said that the suspect looks like the mayor of las vegas and the hitman is one of Michele's hitmen."
"Holy," Dave said. "I wouldn't believe it. You know, Tom does know a lot of things but gets facts mixed up."
"I don't think he was joking when he said it," Jason said. Everyone went silent.
"You know how much trouble we will get, Jason?!" Feven exclaims.
"Why are you getting mad at me?!" Jason exclaims. "Tom said this, not me!"
"Ok! I'm sorry," she said. "Tom is going to get us all killed."
"It would be just him. I think." Cassandra interrupts.
"If it spreads then it wouldn't be just him," Jason said. Tom walks out of the control room. Cherney walks towards the parking lot. Tom stops while she passes him.
"Amhara," Tom said, "I need to talk to you." Cherney stops and turns around. She smiles and waves at him.
"Hi, Tom." Cherney cheered.
"Are you doing the Tonopah murder story later?" he asks.
"Yes?" Cherney said. "What's going on? Did anything come up?"
"Well yes, it did." Tom looks behind Cherney and looks at her. "When you look at the suspect. Did you see any similarities to the mayor?"
"Well, looking at the camera footage earlier. I saw a similarity in her hairstyle and color."
"Ok. Did you recognize the guy next to her?" Cherney thinks for a minute.
"Not really, this is the first time seeing him."
"You haven't because that is one of Michele's Hitmen," Tom said. "You see, they switch, they're hitmen. But since Michele is in jail for prostitution. Carolyn is taking over her and Michele's mafia group."
"Oh," Cherney said surprisingly.
"Watch. Carolyn might have a secret backup right now and you won't know who it is." Tom said. "It might be someone here and you won't know."
"Are you serious?"
"Very," Tom said. "When you go out tonight to report it, just remember, Carolyn is the one that did it. Dry snitch but don't snitch."
"Got it," Cherney said. Tom walks back to the newsroom. Cherney keeps walking out of the parking lot.