People die every day. The death of an innocent person in the streets was not his problem. His problem was keeping his client happy and making money. Making as much money as he could in as short a time as possible. Cold, business thinking. Bourbon thinking.

“Alex, let’s get a story ready about how much Bayou Oil is helping to clean up the mess. Bayou has worked round the clock, sleeping in shifts, bringing in experts—whatever we can find. We need something heroic to put a better face on them,” Sarah said to bring us back on topic. “Let’s run back-story articles on Dan Broussard’s charity work. We need images of good deeds, not black, gooey oil.”

So, mission in hand, off I went to my cube world. The truth be known, I was happy to have the mission. I was damn good at this stuff. I could dig up good or bad stories about anyone or anything. I could grab your heart and change your mind. Manipulating human emotions is what I was born to do. Trained to do it, too. Excitement replaced fear. Still, something wasn’t right about the way Sarah reacted to the news of another body. She momentarily lost her composure. She never does that. I guess it’s understandable, though. She may be older than the victims, but she’s a woman. Soon enough, these thoughts fled, replaced by conjured images of Bayou Oil’s heroic efforts to save the city of New Orleans from polluted waters. I pulled up my background files on Bayou and Dan Broussard and hit pay dirt. Mr. Broussard was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award by the New Orleans YMCA in 2005 for his efforts helping New Orleans get back on its feet after Hurricane Katrina. He worked with the Krewe of Rex charitable group to rebuild schools damaged or lost in the storm. He formed his own group to rescue cats and dogs left homeless by the storm, and built a shelter to house them until they could be reunited with their owners. The optics were great. He knew how to work the photojournalists.