Elementary, My Dear Watkins Read Free Page A

photography for Scene It . The zoo? Get real. Their photo shoots were some of the most notoriously ambitious and authentic in the industry.
    “Even if Scene It is your type of place,” Chester continued, “surely you can’t be enjoying the piddling little internship salary they’re currently paying you. What have they got you doing, anyway? Running the fax machine? Making coffee?”
    “Mostly rights clearance and color corrections,” Danny replied, listing jobs that were a step up from making coffee—though not by much. “But it’s not about the money right now or my specific duties. I’m learning the ropes. I’m seeing the magazine business from the inside out. I’ve been able to work with some of the top nature photographers in the world. Just today I met Kalunga Bashiri and helped prepare for his next photo shoot to Switzerland and then Africa.” Danny smiled at the thought of the tiny man with the big lens, a legend and a hero to nature photographers around the world.
    “I know your background, son,” Chester said, shaking his head. “Before you landed this internship, you were nothing but a backwoods portrait photographer with some stock photo sales on the side. Small potatoes.”
    “That’s not exactly true,” Danny said defensively. “One of my stock photos was recently bought by Twentieth Century Fox for background in a movie poster. I wouldn’t call that small potatoes.”
    “Perhaps. But how many times can lightning strike? Come work for Haute Couture , and we’ll make you much more than the underpaid color monkey you are here. You’ll be a contract photographer doing studio product shots.”
    “Thank you so much, sir, but I’m afraid I’m not interested. Not my kind of photos and not my kind of magazine. No offense.”
    Chester took a puff on his cigar, the smoke hovering around his lips like a tiny gray cloud.
    “I can offer you a retainer of one seventy-five plus bonuses and expenses. Effective immediately.”
    Danny blinked, momentarily speechless.
    A hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars plus bonuses and expenses? Even though Danny had absolutely no interest in working for a fashion magazine, the thought of that much money made the coq-au-vin turn a flip in his stomach.
    He swallowed hard, wondering what he’d done to deserve such an offer.

    In the end, one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the country told Jo that her pain was coming from a sprained ankle, and he would suggest ice packs and anti-inflammatories.
    “But you were right to bring me here anyway,” Jo admitted humbly to her grandmother as she climbed back into the waiting limo. “He also gave me a removable cast and an order for physical therapy.”
    Jo settled onto the deep leather seat and held out her leg to show off the black removable cast. After the doctor’s thorough poking and prodding, the bad foot felt worse than before, and Jo found the support and security of the cast to be an absolute relief. She was glad she had come.
    “So your doctor was right too,” her grandmother conceded. “Just not as aggressive in her treatment.”
    “Correct.”
    Both women smiled. With Jo’s grandmother as stubborn as she was, a draw was usually the best outcome to their arguments. As the driver pulled away from the curb, Eleanor surprised Jo by inviting her to come and stay at her estate for the duration of the physical therapy.
    “The timing couldn’t be better,” Jo’s grandmother said, directing the driver to head toward Westchester County. “After I had the stroke last year, we converted the carriage house into an on-site medical facility. There’s a whirlpool in there and all sorts of machines. The physical therapist already comes every other day. It’s ridiculous for you not to take advantage of it as well. We’ll pick up a few clothes and toiletries to tide you over tonight and then you can send for your things tomorrow.”
    “That’s very kind, Gran,” Jo said, surprised that her grandmother was