“Then ask for a meeting.”
Zimmer thought for a moment. “I will see him tomorrow. It would be an easy chance to mention that I’d like to chat with him in private sometime.”
“That’s the spirit. Do it.” She paused, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Then let me know what happens. I know this will be uncomfortable for you, Max. But if our bosses do know something they’re not telling, we have an obligation to make sure it comes out. An obligation to Emily Blake. And everyone else who died on April nineteenth.”
33
Christina sailed through the office doors as if floating on a cushion of air.
Jones took one look at her and frowned. “Damnation.”
The moderate swearing did not dampen her spirits in the least. “Some problem, Jones?”
“Well…I guess you couldn’t exactly call it a problem,” he said, twiddling with his cell phone earpiece. “Good news, actually. I was just looking forward to having the pleasure of using it to bring you out of the state of grump in which you have been residing for the past oh-so-many days.”
“I have not been grumpy.”
“You have. But it’s academic. I can see that the grump has left the premises. What happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Oh, right.”
“Well, Ben and I were both home last night. For the first time in a long time.”
Jones’s left eye twitched. “Do I want to hear this?”
“We just spent a quiet evening at home.” She paused. A lascivious grin came unbidden to her face. “Well, actually, he wasn’t all that quiet.”
“No,” Jones said, averting his eyes. “I do not want to hear this.”
“This morning was pretty excellent, too. Come to think of it, I wasn’t all that quiet this morning.”
“Earth to Christina. Administrative assistant does not want to hear about this.”
“Oh, you know you love it.”
“I’m absolutely certain I don’t.”
“So what’s this hot news you have?” she asked, deftly changing the subject.
“You’ll never guess.”
“The legislative holds on the constitutional amendment have been lifted.”
His expression could not have gone flatter quicker had he been hit in the face with a frying pan. “Who told?”
“No one. But it was inevitable.”
“Excuse me. No one in this entire building saw this coming. How could it have been inevitable?”
She winked. “You should read the morning papers, Jones. All kinds of interesting stuff in there.”
Still smiling, she sashayed down the corridor and into Ben’s office.
“Hey, lover boy.”
He jumped to his feet, hushing her at the same time. “Christina, what have I always told you?”
“That I’m the best lover you’ve ever had?”
“Other than that.”
“That my sheer unadulterated beauty makes you tremble.”
“Keep trying.”
“No PDA in the workplace.”
“That’s the one I had in mind.”
She leaned across his desk. “I’ll try to contain myself.” And then, without a bit of warning, she planted one right on his lips. “But with a pistol like you, it’ll take some doing.”
“Christina-” But before he could protest further, she was smooching again and he seemed to lose his enthusiasm for resistance.
Jones appeared in the doorway. “Boss, you got a memo from-”
Ben and Christina abruptly jumped apart. Jones slapped his forehead.
“Jiminy Christmas, I hate this!”
“Jones, relax…”
“Why did you two have to get married? Why couldn’t you just go on smoldering with unspoken passion? I liked that much better!”
“Jones-” Ben said, but it was too late. He was gone.
Ben turned his attention back to Christina. “You see what happens when we break the rule?”
“Oh, honestly, Ben. What would Jones do if he didn’t have something to complain about? He’d be miserable.”
Ben flopped back into his desk chair. “Did you come in here for a reason? Other than…” He waved his hand aimlessly in the air. “to break our rule.”
“I certainly did.” With a flourish, Christina pulled a small stapled report out of a file folder tucked beneath her arms and dropped it in front of him.
Ben scanned the cover. CORONER’S REPORT. “Ugh. Why on earth would I want to read-Ohmigosh. Ohmigosh! Do you know what this is?”
“Well, duh.”
“This-this is the report on Emily Blake.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “The first lady.”
“Yes, thank you for that clarification.”
“How did you get this?”
Christina shrugged. “The Freedom of Information Act. Augmented somewhat by the coroner’s secretary, who was persuaded to unlock her file cabinet and go on a coffee break at an opportune moment.”
Ben looked at her sternly. “Did this inducement involve cash?”
“No, just good gossip. What do you think I am, some sort of crook?”
“Well, I have known you to flout the rules on occasion.”
She gave him a look that was indescribable, then pointed to a section on the third page of the report. “Check this out. When I first got the report through the FOIA, this part had been redacted.”
Ben quickly scanned the five lines that followed the section heading SEROLOGY. A few moments later, his face began to flush.
“Pretty hot stuff, huh?”
Ben placed a finger under his collar. “I don’t really see that it’s…I mean…she did meet her husband at the airport, after all. And we know they hadn’t seen each other for several days. I hardly think it’s unusual, even for the First Couple…”
Christina rolled her eyes. “You’re not reading carefully enough, ADD boy. Try again.”
Ben perused the passage again, this time more slowly.
“Oh,” he said, followed a few minutes later by an even lower-pitched “Oh.” Which finally culminated in an “Ohhhhh.”
“Now you can see why the passage was redacted, right?”
Ben cleared his throat. “I can-can-certainly see why someone might want it kept quiet.”
“Someone like the President of the United States?” Christina smiled. “Ben-you’ve got to ask him about this.”
