In Plain View

SFX: Ker-flush

That's the sound of my career going down the toilet. Three months ago, I was the freelance reporter to call for full-color images of an international crisis.

Now? I'm stationed at the far edge of the Chicago flyover as a disappointing mother-sub to my eight-year-old niece and the babysitter for a newsroom College Boy.

Camera still: a man in Amish clothing hanging from a tree. Dead.

One photo of the lifeless man was all I needed to see—there's more to this story than anyone wants ...