Chapter 34

Dayton Daniels, grim faced and arms crossed, had stood at the front door of the plumbing shop watching Martin pull away before turning slowly around to make his way to the back of the store. He watched as Martin put on his seatbelt and carefully adjusted his mirrors. “Come on, come on,” he thought and in the few short seconds it took him to pull away, considered Martin’s choice for a teacher highlight. “Frank Talbot? There isn’t a person in Burnett County who would consider him worthy of recognition as a teacher, even if he wasn’t…” Dayton stopped his own internal monologue. “Fran, if Lundeen calls for an appointment, I’m not available,” he said in an even voice.
Fran rose from her desk and followed at his heels as he strode to his office in the back. “Dayton! What are you thinking? Why wouldn’t you want a little publicity for this place? You have to talk to him – he wants to talk to you,” she shrilled. It was the same conversation they had in his office when Martin first arrived, Fran trying to coax Dayton out to meet with the Sentinel reporter. It took her twenty minutes to wear him down. She’d tidied everything in his office and filed every free piece of paper in the room while arguing her point. When Dayton finally agreed to go out to the front, he wondered once again about the wisdom of employing the idiot widow of his feckless uncle who his father, Dayton Daniels, Sr., the founder of Daniels Plumbing, carried throughout their years as business partners.
Daniels kept walking, and when he reached his office, he turned around and yelled into her face, “Shut up, Fran!”
He slammed the door in her face and heard her hurrying back to her desk, muttering about his rudeness. He went around his desk, plopped down and picked up the phone. He was in a corner and did what he always did when he needed to take the heat down on a problem. He called Clark Grayson.
“Good morning, Dayton,” Clark boomed into the phone when he picked up immediately upon hearing from Shirley that his biggest advertiser was calling him at 8:45 in the morning. “What can I do for Burnett County’s most successful businessman today?”
Dayton sneered into the phone, willing himself not to ridicule Clark about his transparent ass-kissing. He put up with Grayson’s endless fawning because he needed him. “Hey, Clark, buddy, how are you?” Dayton asked and then talked over him as Clark started to answer. “You know, I don’t mean to complain, but that reporter of yours - Martin Lundeen I think his name was – he just stopped in the store this morning, demanding an interview about the end of the school year. No call, no appointment, no warning. I’m happy to talk to him, but my God, the kid has to realize that we’re running a business here and can’t just drop everything for a piece of fluff for your paper.”
Clark frowned at Dayton's condescension, but also started sweating on the other end of the line. He couldn’t afford to offend Daniels, not his biggest advertiser, not one of the most powerful men in town. “Dayton, I’m sorry. You know these kids. Lundeen’s a go-getter, you know? And young and inexperienced. He just doesn’t know the rules yet," he cajoled in what he hoped was his most soothing voice. "I'll talk to him. I'll set him straight."
Dayton, satisfied, smiled to himself and replied, “It’s okay, Clark. No harm really. We’re just swamped here today, and he was just a little too eager to get his story. It’s never been the Sentinel’s style to have pushy reporters, so it was just a little...off putting. I’m sure you’ll take care of things, get things back on track over there, won't you...” Clark was giving him hurried assurances as he signed off. “Clark, buddy, gotta go. Have a good day.” And he hung up.
Clark looked into his receiver when he heard the click. He wiped the sweat from his brow and hung up the phone. “What the hell was that about?” he thought. He considered what Dayton had just said. Daniels Plumbing was swamped? Clark knew Dayton had a steady stream of business, but never so much that there wasn’t time for friendly conversation or an interview with the paper. And Dayton was always eager to get some recognition for his work on the school board. And since when did Dayton object to fluff in the Sentinel? Clark thought that was what the advertisers wanted, Dayton had as much as told him so on many occasions. “Maybe he and Nancy had a fight this morning, and he's taking it out on the world…”
Whatever was left of his journalistic instinct was feeling that something wasn’t quite right here, and as much as he wanted to keep Dayton happy, he wasn’t going to jump just because a big advertiser told him to jump. Clark was feeling a little feisty this morning himself. He and his wife had a bit of an argument themselves before work, and he’d be damned if one more person was going to tell him what to do.
Clark got up from his desk and moved toward the window to look at the cars in the parking lot. He saw Martin drive up, park his car and get out quickly to rush to the front door. Clark started moving toward the entry way himself to get Martin’s side of the story and settle him down if need be.
“Nope, something just doesn’t feel right here…”