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Authors: Carsen Taite
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was hoping you’d say that. I’ll start digging through the bank records.” She motioned to the stack of boxes on the other side of her desk.
“Great. Mind if I take a box?”
“You got it.”
Sarah hefted one of the bankers’ boxes and hauled it over to her desk. She opened it, randomly selected a bulging file, and started poring over the bank account entries. She still loathed this part of the job, but she’d gotten used to the monotony. The day of the explosion was, sadly, the most excitement she’d had in a long time. She should feel bad about that, but she attributed part of the excitement of that day to seeing Ellery at the reception.
Tall, handsome Ellery. Who was apparently attached. Sarah had asked Danny about the woman who’d shown up to claim Ellery moments before the explosion occurred, but all Danny had been able to tell her was that Dr. April Landing was a cardiac surgeon, one of the more successful alums of the Alpha Nus. Well, la di da. She hadn’t liked the way April had claimed Ellery, mostly because she’d wanted to do some claiming of her own.
She shook off the distracting thoughts. They’d been working overtime since the explosion, part of an interagency effort to track down the people responsible. Because no one had claimed credit it seemed more likely the bombing had been a homegrown incident rather than a foreign terrorist plot, but every lead had to be pursued, no matter how unlikely. Part of her wanted to be out in the field, interviewing witnesses, assessing possible suspects, not sheets of paper. She was used to getting her information in the flesh, not reading between the lines on a bank ledger. Daily, she had to remind herself she’d chosen this path for a reason—so she could have a life outside the job. But she was working as hard as ever, just as affected by the tragedy of it all, but without the same level of satisfaction she used to have from tracking a real life suspect rather than running down fuzzy accounting. To top it all off, she was never going to meet an Ellery if she spent every waking moment behind this desk.
Her cell phone rang and jerked her out of her pity party. She recognized the 202 area code and answered on the second ring. “Flores.”
“So, they didn’t get you in the blast.”
Sarah smiled at the sound of Trip’s voice. “Took you long enough to call and find out.”
“Oh, I already knew you were okay.” His signature deep booming laughter echoed through the line. “I know everything and don’t you forget it.”
“Then why do I sense you called me for a favor?”
“I may know everything, but I can’t do everything. A couple of names came across my radar and I wanted to pass them along to someone I trust before I share them elsewhere.”
A surge of electricity flew down Sarah’s spine, and she hunched over the phone and glanced around her desk as if someone might be listening in. “Maybe I should call you back on another line.”
“No need. Be sure to check your mail when you get home. I sent you all that stuff you left behind in your desk.”
“Okay.” Sarah knew he was talking code and all she wanted to do was get off the phone and head home. “Anything else?”
“We miss you, kid. You know if you ever want to come back here, you’ll always have a spot.”
A tug, a small one, pulled at her, but she kept her response casual. “Thanks, pal. Tell everyone I said hello.”
Sarah spent the next few minutes paging through the files on her desk, but she could have been looking at gibberish for all it mattered. Her mind was back on the cagey conversation with Trip and she was consumed with curiosity about whatever he was sending her way. Focus, Flores, focus. She stood and took a lap around the offices, ostensibly to get a donut, but she walked until her head was clear. When she sat back down at her desk, she reopened the bank files for Welcome Home International and started combing through the entries in earnest. Before long
“Great. Mind if I take a box?”
“You got it.”
Sarah hefted one of the bankers’ boxes and hauled it over to her desk. She opened it, randomly selected a bulging file, and started poring over the bank account entries. She still loathed this part of the job, but she’d gotten used to the monotony. The day of the explosion was, sadly, the most excitement she’d had in a long time. She should feel bad about that, but she attributed part of the excitement of that day to seeing Ellery at the reception.
Tall, handsome Ellery. Who was apparently attached. Sarah had asked Danny about the woman who’d shown up to claim Ellery moments before the explosion occurred, but all Danny had been able to tell her was that Dr. April Landing was a cardiac surgeon, one of the more successful alums of the Alpha Nus. Well, la di da. She hadn’t liked the way April had claimed Ellery, mostly because she’d wanted to do some claiming of her own.
She shook off the distracting thoughts. They’d been working overtime since the explosion, part of an interagency effort to track down the people responsible. Because no one had claimed credit it seemed more likely the bombing had been a homegrown incident rather than a foreign terrorist plot, but every lead had to be pursued, no matter how unlikely. Part of her wanted to be out in the field, interviewing witnesses, assessing possible suspects, not sheets of paper. She was used to getting her information in the flesh, not reading between the lines on a bank ledger. Daily, she had to remind herself she’d chosen this path for a reason—so she could have a life outside the job. But she was working as hard as ever, just as affected by the tragedy of it all, but without the same level of satisfaction she used to have from tracking a real life suspect rather than running down fuzzy accounting. To top it all off, she was never going to meet an Ellery if she spent every waking moment behind this desk.
Her cell phone rang and jerked her out of her pity party. She recognized the 202 area code and answered on the second ring. “Flores.”
“So, they didn’t get you in the blast.”
Sarah smiled at the sound of Trip’s voice. “Took you long enough to call and find out.”
“Oh, I already knew you were okay.” His signature deep booming laughter echoed through the line. “I know everything and don’t you forget it.”
“Then why do I sense you called me for a favor?”
“I may know everything, but I can’t do everything. A couple of names came across my radar and I wanted to pass them along to someone I trust before I share them elsewhere.”
A surge of electricity flew down Sarah’s spine, and she hunched over the phone and glanced around her desk as if someone might be listening in. “Maybe I should call you back on another line.”
“No need. Be sure to check your mail when you get home. I sent you all that stuff you left behind in your desk.”
“Okay.” Sarah knew he was talking code and all she wanted to do was get off the phone and head home. “Anything else?”
“We miss you, kid. You know if you ever want to come back here, you’ll always have a spot.”
A tug, a small one, pulled at her, but she kept her response casual. “Thanks, pal. Tell everyone I said hello.”
Sarah spent the next few minutes paging through the files on her desk, but she could have been looking at gibberish for all it mattered. Her mind was back on the cagey conversation with Trip and she was consumed with curiosity about whatever he was sending her way. Focus, Flores, focus. She stood and took a lap around the offices, ostensibly to get a donut, but she walked until her head was clear. When she sat back down at her desk, she reopened the bank files for Welcome Home International and started combing through the entries in earnest. Before long
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