Tom Herald returned to his cubicle after checking in with his editor for the morning and updating him on the things that he'd uncovered so far with his assigned story. It was still a tough one and one that he knew he'd need more information on to complete and do well, which was something that Tom had always prided himself on. But the worries on possible criminal activity that spanned the state and would relate to some of the big interstate crimes that had gone on, be it the Gamboni crime family or Lionel Ulysses would require information from more than just the state wide and federal entities, but also from local city police departments.
And getting responses from the local police departments was the difficult thing. Tom half understood that, as since becoming a were, he'd gotten the sensation that many of the things that had spooked his editor were more coincidences than anything else. This then meant there likely wasn't some large scale criminal conspiracy that was likely coming and that was reinforced by what answers Tom had gotten thus far. Every law enforcement agency that he'd talked to had reported no "unusual" activity, which was in a way a good thing and would assure his editor and his paper's readers, but for the moment, he had to follow the assignment and gather as much information as he could. The only way he could get around that would be if the were secret weren't a secret and he could explain to his editor the nature of the coincidences that drew a crime family from New York to Washington state and one street level gang member to go across the country, murder a US Marine Corps officer and then come back and then be murdered in a Seattle hospital by a supposed vigilante.
But for the moment, that wasn't something Tom could do. The were secret was still in place, and while he had plans in place to bring weres into the open, and they were bearing fruit, it would still be a step by step process. And Tom would honor his word to the people of Moon Lake not to rush things until he could go over the plan with Moon Lake's City Council and get them fully put together in a way that wouldn't necessarily expose Moon Lake and present weres in the most positive light. Which meant until then, he would have to keep with his assigned article and the requirements that came with it.
"Of course that will assume that Moon Lake's City Council will work with me on this," Tom thought to himself and pulled his chair back to sit down, "given that this reveal will go against all their past..."
With the intent on checking his email seeing if any of the local police departments he'd sent inquiring emails to had responded to them, he began powering up his computer. As the desktop's cooling fan began to blow, Tom stat back and waited for the device to power up and that let his mind wander a bit on some of the other things that plagued his mind that related to big reveal, and the fact that weres not being one hundred percent on board with the idea being among them. He'd had two shadow agents threaten him over the reveal, a group of people had formed some massive mob outside his future father-in-law's home where he and his fiancée were staying for the moment, and that mob had shouted insults at her as well.
That was enough to show that many weres weren't comfortable with the idea. Even if a majority accepted his argument, which admittedly had been the case, if only narrowly, the group that was uncomfortable was clearly uncomfortable and was more than willing to make that discomfort obviously felt. On certain levels he understood it, for people would always fear that which they didn't know and that which would bring the most amount of change. The reveal would bring about a great deal of change to were society in general and would likely affect the world, assuming weres didn't only live in Moon Lake, and that would bring a great deal of fear, but as Tom saw it, were society had gotten extraordinarily lucky in that something didn't reveal them by accident earlier. And as technology advanced, they would be running that risk even more, and as such, Tom knew that if weres wanted to keep the peace they had now... they would have to come out into the open before another Lionel Ulysses did something stupid and exposed weres while committing a crime.
"And the reveal would be done by me," Tom thought to himself as he moved the curser to click on the internet icon, "Moon Lake can help arrange the information that would into the reveal and how it will be arranged... all the positives and negatives and how the positives outweigh the negatives... but the actual delivery would be from him and away from Moon Lake... That way they won't be at direct risk and if things go south... the only one they can identify is me."
Tom figured that was the best way to go about things. For he could get the sense that many in Moon Lake were afraid of his plan, and he knew there would be some degree of risk in it, and he didn't want Alice hurt. But it was something he had to do, and he would make sure that the one who took the biggest risk with all of this, was himself. After all, he'd long sought to stand for the truth, be it "truth to power" or using the truth as a means to illuminate things that might be secret... and show that the shadows and secrets some often hid behind weren't always as scary as they were made out to be.
He then logged into his email for the paper and looked through what replies that came in. He found that there were a few emails that were there. Some were actually spam, which Tom could never figure out how it got there, as he didn't use his paper's email address for personal emails thus didn't share it around, but there were a couple of ones that looked more important. And they were replies to his interview requests, and this got him interested. He hoped that the dates wouldn't be too troublesome, as some of them looked like they came from the eastern part of the state, and that could require a pretty much all day trip to and from the location if the interview was to be done in person, and that could complicate things with regard to the big reveal. Thus he quickly clicked on the reply.
He found though that the answer was short and not one that would actually allow for an interview. The email read: "While it was a surprise to receive an interview request from one of the largest papers in the state, our local department has not had anything out of the ordinary, at least with regard to any comparison that could be made from the reasons for the request in your email. However, to answer what concerns and questions you may have regarding crime in our city and our department's handling of it, attached is a summary of what we have worked with for the past month, complete with statistics and you will find that most of them would be in line with national averages. Hopefully this helps you assure your readers that the people in Washington state are quite safe. Thank you."
Tom gave a brief sigh at that, as it did fit with most of the other answers that he'd gotten thus far. He considered it good news in that it would provide more context to assure that some of the things that had surrounded the arrival and capture of the Gambonis, Lionel Ulysses' shootout with the Seattle PD and FBI, Lionel Ulysses later murder by a vigilante, and the reported gun battle in Moon Lake as a result of the hunt for the vigilante were more coincidence than anything else. Surprising and shocking, but not necessarily a sign of any massive crime wave. And as he looked through the attachments, he found that the provided statistics matched up with the email's message.
"That will at least make things easier with regard to travel," Tom thought to himself and backed out to move onto the next email, "information without needing to travel..."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Much of the rest of the morning went the same way for Tom. There weren't too many emails that had come in, but those that were replies to his interview requests essentially ended the same way that the first one did. Most of them included statistics for their respective cities, which were either attachments or posted in the body of the email. One even gave him the contact information for their town's local paper for reference on what they'd covered. Tom took it and posted what he needed, but he didn't expect an immediate reply from them. All in all, it essentially confirmed some of the things he suspected and would help him get the information needed to put the article his editor wanted together.
That essentially let him continue to think over things that related to the big reveal, and the first session with Moon Lake's City Council on discussing the plan for that reveal. Much of it related to what he felt would be the most important things he'd need to convince the City Council on, as he did have the sense that he might still have to debate even going through with the reveal to some extent. But Tom remained confident that he could do it and that things would generally be fine. Some might have issue with how some things went when it came to national politics, but from what Tom had found, while there were always problems to solve, for the most part the worst offenses were often overblown.
"And giving ample evidence that weres aren't the monsters Hollywood has made them out to be will largely help deal with that small segment that would be "racist" against weres," Tom thought to himself has he made his way into a Subway to buy some lunch. As he entered, he came across one of the other reporters for his paper, Josie Ridley. She often worked with the team that covered theater and the arts, which more often focused on productions in Seattle or related events. They might give their two cents on movies as they came out, but that wasn't as much of their coverage.
"Well... here he is, Dandy Tom, finally get a break from your research project?" Josie asked, largely referring to the assignment the editor had given Tom.
"For the moment," Tom answered, "as there is a lot of information to cover that will go beyond a school play."
"I'm sure," Josie smiled, "all while working up an image for some young woman half your age."
"Huh?" Tom raised an eyebrow with some suspicion. Technically Alice Stevens was younger than him, but she was an adult and given how long weres could live, their exact ages wouldn't matter.
"Come on... just about every one's seen it," Josie half teased, "you've gotten your hair back... it all looks like its lost the gray that was in there, you look fit and toned. It's like you met someone young that's excited you."
"I didn't know you were doing the paper's gossip column this week," Tom stated with somewhat narrowed eyes, as technically that all related to his meeting Alice and becoming a werefox to be with her. It wasn't necessarily untrue, but it came off in a way that wasn't necessarily flattering.
"I'm not..." Josie raised her hands, "and trust me... I don't mean anything bad by it. But given your dedication to getting at everything and the amount you put into your work... it's not as though you're some playboy out looking for just any woman..."
Tom had to concede that, as pretty much every one of his past relationships had ultimately fallen apart because he often couldn't separate himself from his work. That had changed with regard to Alice, as ever since she turned him, he could a bond to her that transcended everything. That transformation also covered many of the things that had changed in his appearance, namely his muscle tone, hair and hair color.
"Well... I will admit to have met someone... someone special," Tom admitted.
"She must be, given your reputation," Josie laughed, "any interest in conspiracies?"
"Very funny," Tom narrowed his eyes at her.
"Alright... I give! I give!" Josie backed off, "though still... I hope you two end up happy together..."
"We are," Tom found himself smiling on reflex, "She's..." he paused for a moment before catching himself to realize that he was about to say "the most beautiful vixen I've met" and until the big reveal was handled, that wouldn't sound right. So Tom collected himself and finished, "she's very special."
"Bring her in for the Christmas Party," Josie urged, "with some of the stuff that's gone on... it'd be good to meet someone that could get you to get active and buy Rogaine."
Tom sighed and privately realized that the big reveal couldn't come soon enough. Josie might only be teasing him a bit, largely because he didn't normally work with her part of the paper, but he really did wish to tell the world how wonderful Alice Stevens was and all that she had done for him. And he couldn't really do that until after the big reveal.