Chapter 16 #2
“He flagged anomalous activity on the department’s authentication servers after burying a report he missed that might’ve resulted in Hartwell’s arrest weeks earlier.”
Naomi didn’t flinch. “I was alerted that Joan Matthews, Mansfield’s second-in-command, is acting as chief.”
“We’re auditing her as well. So far, it doesn’t appear she knew what her boss had done.”
“Good.” Naomi picked up her glasses and put them on.
Emma took a deep breath, and I knew what was coming. It was time for her to come clean about keeping her boss in the dark about the real reason K19 was in the building. As she explained the chain of events leading to today, Hale leaned forward and folded her arms on her desk.
“So, not a random car accident, then?” she asked when Emma stopped talking.
“No, ma’am.”
“Any leads on the fraud investigation?” she asked, looking between Emma and me.
“Derek is cooperating, which we believe will get us closer to one.”
“Then, get to work,” her boss said. “We have a building to hold together.”
We were about to leave when Naomi said, “I’ve also been informed that my temp from last week is now sitting outside your office. Perhaps once I’m confirmed, you’ll enlighten me on how you always manage to snatch the good assistants.”
Emma smiled. “It’s the only way I can get six months’ worth of work done in the three weeks you gave me.”
Naomi chuckled, and we left.
We took the stairs to the third floor, but Emma didn’t speak until we reached her office.
“She handled that better than I expected.”
“She has complete faith you’ll keep all the balls you’re juggling in the air until they need to land.”
“That’s what worries me.”
I left her office and crossed the hall to Luke’s.
“Alice has the access she needs to get into Mansfield’s web of deceit,” I said.
“I received marching orders before you had time to get out of the detention center parking lot,” he responded.
“Good luck,” I said as I walked the few steps to my office, opened my laptop, and began monitoring the floor.
The morning’s foot traffic followed the same rhythms I’d mapped last week.
Darla’s habits were gone, replaced by Marlene’s.
She rose less often, and when she moved, it was purposeful.
If Emma summoned her, she responded. Otherwise, she kept her focus on the work in front of her.
She was efficient in a way that made her easy to overlook, which I noted as an observation rather than a compliment.
Brad arrived at Emma’s office at eight forty-five.
He didn’t have a meeting scheduled with her, so I watched.
He set his laptop bag on the desk, spoke to Marlene for under five minutes, then she handed him something as he left.
There was nothing remarkable in the exchange, and that was why I made a note of it.
Astrid passed Emma’s office twice before lunch.
The second time, she slowed near the entrance, peered in, and continued without stopping.
That was different from the behavior I’d witnessed last week.
Before, Astrid would stop, knock, and ask Emma a question without much regard for scheduling time with her.
Today, she hesitated and moved on. I didn’t know what to make of it.
By ten, the news about Mansfield was circulating. By noon, three senators’ offices were requesting statements and the press liaison was drafting language designed to say nothing.
Emma was at the center of all of it.
Luke and I alternated walking the floor. I checked in with Alice by text twice. She was deep in Mansfield’s suppression filters and said the volume of buried alerts was worse than she’d expected.
At five-thirty, I went to Emma’s office. “Let’s head home.”
She was signing something. “Ten more minutes.”
She signed two more documents, capped her pen, and grabbed her coat without me having to say it again. Neither of us talked on the way down to the garage or on the drive home. I ran my usual countersurveillance through Maryland, and the road stayed clean all the way to the bay.
Once home, I heated one of Zary’s dinners while Emma dropped her coat on the back of a chair.
We ate on the sofa, with our plates balanced on our knees.
While she cleaned up the few things we’d dirtied, I checked in with Atticus by text.
Alice still needed more time on the suppression filters. Luke was still on the NGO filings.
Emma returned to the sofa and tucked her legs beneath her. “Anything new?”
“Not yet. We’ll know more this week.”
“So we wait.”
“We wait.”
“I hate waiting.” She said it to the ceiling, not to me.
“I know.”
“Marlene was good today. Really good. Brad made a smart call recommending her. When Darla comes back and the temp assignment ends, I’m going to recommend Naomi consider giving her a permanent position.”
I didn’t answer right away. I was still thinking about Brad’s unscheduled visit this morning and whatever Marlene had handed him before he left.
“Come on,” I said. “Long day tomorrow.”
As soon as we were in bed, Emma settled against me with her back to my chest and my arm across her waist. I should have been winding down. Instead, Brad and Marlene’s interaction and Astrid’s two passes at Emma’s door without stopping kept nagging at me.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand with a text from Alice.
Someone just used Mansfield’s admin credentials to log into Treasury’s network.