Read Online Lust, Money & Murder by Mike Wells - Free Book Online Page B

see why you can’t work on outside cases. As long as you get your required work done, do your DOPS.”
    “My—DOPS?”
    “Daily Operation Summaries.”
    “Oh.”
    “Anyway, as long as you get your required work done, I don’t see it as a problem.”
     
    * * *
    Elaine spent the first few weeks settling in. There was only one other field agent working out of the new office, Ken, a man who had been with the Service only two years. A former Chicago police detective, he had a lot of experience and he spent much of his time working alone. Most of the activity in the Great Falls office concerned financial fraud, counterfeit checks, and Internet account hacking. Great Falls, Montana, was not the center of the world’s illegal currency counterfeiting activity. Or the center of anything else, it seemed.
    Bill Saunders seemed to make constant excuses to go into Elaine’s office and talk to her, or call her into his. When he had to pick up a file or get his coffee cup, he would move uncomfortably close to her, sometimes “accidentally” brushing up against her. She noticed that he often discreetly inhaled when he did this, as if savoring the smell of her perfume.
    One evening they were going over a list of banks in Montana that had been receiving a certain type of fake check, Bill reached over and took her hand.
    “Elaine,” he said, his voice wavering, “I have to tell you something.”
    “Don’t,” she said, pulling her hand away. She had been expecting this ever since the first day. She glanced at his open office door, afraid Susan would hear them.
    “Susan’s gone, and Ken is up in Billings tonight.”
    “I don’t care,” Elaine said, standing. She had been sitting beside him at his credenza. She put several feet of distance between them.
    His face went red, and his scalp went even redder. “Elaine, I can’t stand it. Ever since you came to work here—”
    “Bill, don’t do this. Please?”
    “You don’t feel attracted to me?”
    “That’s not the point, Bill. You’re my boss.”
    “So what?”
    Elaine opened her mouth, but closed it again, not wanting to sound like a newbie reciting rules from the Secret Service employee manual. “You’re married.”
    “Not really.”
    She motioned to the wedding band on his finger. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that’s a Secret Agent Decoder Ring?”
    He chuckled. “Joan and I are finished. We’re getting a divorce.”
    Sure you are , Elaine thought.
    Bill noted her expression. “Look, I’ll take the ring off, if that makes you feel better.” He did so, putting it in his desk drawer. “I won’t even wear it home.”
    “Bill...”
    “What?” he said, reaching for her waist.
    “I’m not going to do this,” she said, moving farther away. “I refuse to mess up my career.”
    “Mess up? What are you talking about? This can only be good for your career.”
    “You know better than that, Bill.” She searched for excuses. “If we started something and then it fell apart, it would be bad. Really bad.”
    His expression grew cold. “What about after I get my divorce?”
    Even if she had been attracted to him, and he really did get a divorce, she wouldn’t allow herself to become involved with her boss, not at a place like the Secret Service. But if she told him that, she didn’t know what he might do. She didn’t have much experience with men, but her instincts told her to tread very carefully with this one.
    “Well,” she said, “of course if you were di... single, things would be different.” His face brightened at this. “Now can we please put this aside and get back to work?”
    “Sure thing,” he said.
     
    * * *
    For the next few weeks, Elaine diligently went about her duties, hoping that Bill’s infatuation would pass. She stopped wearing perfume and tried to dress down, hoping that would help.
    She often came in early and spent an hour or two working on what she now thought of as the “Ronald Eskew” case. She ran the name