Chapter 19: Nobody Doubts a Husband

The theater speakers popped, and a restaurant came out of them.

Silverware, a waiter, the low roar of a lunch crowd.

Kasper's voice followed, warm and easy, loud enough to fill the theater.

"The insomnia angle is gold. My wife has a mind that doesn't turn off, and I mine it."

Six hundred heads turned toward the sound.

"Every night she's awake, I make a quarter million downloads."

A man laughed on the tape.

"Her sleep is my gold," Kasper said. "She'll never know the difference. She's too tired to read the contract."

Then, after a clink of ice, a new sentence.

"And if she ever gets loud, I'll say she's unwell. Nobody doubts a husband."

The room made no sound at all.

Kasper stood at the desk with both hands flat on it.

"That is out of context," he said. "That is edited."

"By whom?" a woman in the balcony shouted.

He had no answer.

In Box A beside the speaker stack, the sponsor's CEO, a heavy man in a charcoal suit, rose slowly from his seat.

He did not look at the stage.

He buttoned his jacket and walked out through the side door, and a young man with a tablet hurried after him.

Over Kasper's head, the banner with the sponsor's logo flickered once and went black.

A stagehand in the wing pointed up at the camera tower.

"Feed's down!" he whispered. "The platform pulled it!"

"Get it back," Kasper said.

"They won't."

"I have two million listeners."

"Not right now, you don't," the stagehand said.

The engineer's voice came over the monitor, mild and clear.

"Mr. Lindahl, the stream is closed, and I've turned off the red light. I quit at intermission, and intermission was a minute ago."

Some people in the audience began to clap.

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