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MURDER ON ICEby Alina AdamsPROLOGUE |
MURDER ON ICE
by Alina Adams
PROLOGUE
Prior to starting her first season as a figure-skating researcher for the 24/7 network, Rebecca "Bex" Levy received an iceberg-high load of advice.
Some of it was concise.
"Don't screw up," Gil Cahill, 24/7 Sports' Executive Producer told her.
Some of it was obscure.
"A cheated Triple Axel is not a Quadruple Toe Loop," coach Gary Gold lectured.
Some of it was obvious.
"I need all my research prior to the start of the event," commentator Francis Howarth intoned meaningfully, while his wife, Diana, stood nearby, rolling her eyes and needling, "I think she knows that, dear. I hardly think Bex was planning to give you your information after the closing credits rolled."
But only one piece of advice turned out to be actually useful.
"Remember," 24/7's veteran skating director told Bex before their first production meeting for their first event, "The skating season is not a sprint. It's a marathon. Ration your energy accordingly."
He wasn't kidding. The skating season, which had once encompassed the European and U.S. Championships in January, followed by the World Championships in February, and once every four years an Olympics followed by ten months of getting ready for next year, now stretched from early September to late March, with Senior and Junior eligible competitions, ineligible competitions, pro-ams, exhibitions, Grand Prix event, a Grant Prix Finals, Nationals, Europeans, World Championships and once every four years an Olympics followed by a five month, 30-city tour of champions. And then three whole weeks to relax, regroup and get ready for next year.
The killer schedule - if it's Tuesday, it must be Biellmann Spins - took its toll on everyone connected to the sport. Not only the athletes, who dutifully packed up their sequined costumes practically every weekend for yet another jaunt to Europe, to Asia, to Canada, to New York and California and back again, but also on the coaches, parents, team-leaders, doctors, judges, choreographers, skate-sharpeners, nutritionists, agents, publicists, make-up artists, seamstresses, hair-stylists, print journalists, internet journalists, and assorted other hangers-on. And then there was the television media. Commentators, directors, producers, cameramen, technical-directors, tape-operators, sound mixers, editors, production managers, production coordinators, production assistants and researchers - let's not forget the researchers! - all of whom arrived days before the competition commenced to set up their crews and command centers, and stayed days after the event ended, to edit and transmit and clean.
Naturally, as a result of jetting off every few days to yet another time-and-strain-of-flu zone, by the time the World Championships rolled around, everyone from skater to entourage to media hack, was exhausted. And even though the World Championships were currently being held in the U.S. -- San Francisco, CA, in point of fact; home of the Golden Gate Bridge and record-breaking earthquakes, but not, Bex made a point of highlighting in her research notes, Rice-A-Roni - which at least meant less travel time for the American delegation, everyone was still dead-tired from eight months of globe-trotting and eating strange, greasy foods and sleeping in strange, greasy beds and bathing in strange showers with drains that somehow seemed to be perennially clogged. Everyone, as a result, was operating on a very, very short fuse.
That was why, in only ten days of competition, they'd already seen eleven hysterical melt-downs, eight formal complaints about biased judging, seven counter-complaints about biased refereeing, five screaming matches, four out and out fist-fights, two reporters getting their credentials pulled, and one arrest (disturbing the peace; Belgium's ice-dancer decided to celebrate his bronze medal win by doing a naked Yankee Polka on the roof).
And this was all even before the Italian judge turned up dead.