'I came to see my fiancée.'
'Fiancée?' Gifford looked thunderstruck.
'Yeah. I know you can't wait to congratulate us.'
'But you're a talent. A big one. She's a full-spectrum prism. There's no way any marriage agency would match the two of you.'
'Who said anything about going through an agency?' Lucas asked.
Gifford's mouth opened and closed several times. He stared at Amaryllis. 'I don't believe it. A nonagency marriage? You?'
Amaryllis smiled very sweetly. 'Sort of makes synergistic hash out of everything you've ever taken for granted about me, doesn't it, Gifford? I'm afraid I'm not the woman I used to be.'
'Comes from hanging out with bad company,' Lucas explained. 'I on the other hand, have become extremely narrow-minded in recent days. One might even call me a straitlaced prude. For example, I don't like finding my fiancée in another man's arms.'
'I was just having a little chat.'
'Get out of here, Osterley, before I get really annoyed.'
Gifford did not hesitate. He walked quickly toward the door. 'Amaryllis and I were simply discussing some private business,' he muttered as he went past Lucas. 'Nothing of an intimate nature occurred, I assure you.'
Lucas did not bother to respond. He folded his arms across his chest and regarded Amaryllis with grave interest. 'I wonder if you'd care to demonstrate a few of your newly lowered standards.'
'What did you have in mind?'
Lucas straightened, closed the door, and locked it. 'We once discussed the propriety of making love on a desk.'
Amaryllis's mouth went dry. 'Did we?'
'Yeah. My memory is real clear on the subject.' Lucas walked toward her.
'Clementine will wonder what's happening in here.'
'Your boss and I had a short conversation a few minutes ago. She said you had the day off in order to recover from your traumatic experiences last night.'
'Yes, I do.' Amaryllis watched, fascinated, as Lucas's hands went to the buckle of his belt. 'What about your newfound streak of prudery?'
'It only applies to some things.' Lucas came around the desk and gently pinned Amaryllis against it. He reached down and eased her legs apart.
'That's odd.' Amaryllis put her arms around his neck. 'My standards have only been lowered in some areas.'
'There you are.' Lucas's smile held the devil's own satisfaction. 'Our relationship has made interesting changes in both of us. A perfect example of synergy in action.'
Amaryllis pulled his mouth down to hers before he could get carried away with a boring lecture on synergistic principles.
Much later, after Lucas had gone back to his own office, Amaryllis tidied her desk and picked up several items that had fallen to the floor. Then she reached for the phone and dialed the Department of Focus Studies. Irene Dunley answered on the second ring.
'Miss Lark.' Irene sounded anxious. 'Are you all right? I saw the morning papers. I could hardly believe what I read. Imagine, Senator Sheffield a murderer.'
'I know. What's more, it's likely that he killed Professor Landreth, too. The police are going to reopen the investigation.'
'Is that a fact? Perhaps justice will be done at last.'
'I think so, although, as my boss pointed out, Sheffield is a city-state senator and he's denying everything. He may walk.'
'At the very least, his career in politics will be ruined,' Irene said. 'He probably won't be able to recover from this scandal.'
'I shouldn't think so, but I wouldn't count on it.'
'This is not a happy day. I wish the criminal had been anyone other than Senator Sheffield. This city-state needed his vision and leadership.'
'I expect we'll all get along just fine without him,' Amaryllis assured her. 'Irene, I have to go away for a couple of days. Family stuff. But I'll be back the day after tomorrow. Probably quite late. Would you like to get together for coff-tea the day after that? I think we should talk. After all, you and I sort of solved this case together.'
'I would enjoy seeing you again. Miss Lark.'
'Great. Irene, I want to thank you for supporting me during this whole thing. You were the only one who believed in me and who tried to be helpful.'
'Professor Landreth was very special,' Irene said softly. 'In spite of that unfortunate relationship with the syn-sex stripper. There will never be anyone else quite like him here at the Department of Focus Studies.'
'He was one of a kind,' Amaryllis agreed. 'It's people such as Professor Landreth who truly embody the best virtues of the founders.'
'Well said. Miss Lark. Well said. Good-bye. I'll look forward to having coff-tea with you when you return.'
'Good-bye, Irene.'
After she hung up the phone, Amaryllis sat gazing at the instrument for a long time. Not every question had been answered with Sheffield's arrest, she thought. One small one remained. She wondered if she would ever learn the answer to it.
Chapter 18
'What do you mean, how did Madison Sheffield discover that Landreth had put together a file that could embarrass him and hurt his election chances?' Lucas took his eyes off the highway long enough to give Amaryllis a wry glance. 'If you're looking for the person who leaked the information to him, you've got a long list of candidates. I'd say that there are as many possibilities as there are people in the Department of Focus Studies.'
Although she had been thinking the same thing, it jolted Amaryllis to hear her fears put into words. 'I don't want to believe that someone in the department, someone Professor Landreth trusted, did such a thing.'
Lucas lifted one shoulder in a negligent shrug. 'Hell, it could have been a janitor or a guard or one of the lab techs who stumbled onto some of Landreth's notes. Who knows?'
'It must have been someone who felt strongly about supporting Sheffield's candidacy. Whoever did it must have thought that he or she was doing the right thing by warning Sheffield about the existence of the file.'
'Amaryllis, I know that this will come as a great shock to you, but not everyone is motivated by a driving need to do the right thing. Lots of people are motivated by other stuff.'
'Such as?'
'Money.'
She stared at him. 'You think someone sold that information to Sheffield?'
'Why not? Someone tried to blackmail him with it later. The world is full of people who do things for cold, hard cash. Come on, you're not that innocent.'
'Someone leaked the information about the file to Sheffield. Sheffield opted for a direct method of dealing with the threat. He murdered poor Professor Landreth, not realizing until too late that the professor had taken the precaution of giving the file to Vivien of the Veils.'
'Yeah,' Lucas said softly. 'Simple. Most things are at the core.'
Just like her feelings about Lower Bellevue, Amaryllis thought. She hated the place. Pure and simple.
She lapsed into silence and gazed at the cultivated farmland slipping past the car window. By any measure, it was a beautiful sight. The carpets of verdant green fields stretched into the distance, prosperous, rich, and full of new promise. The founders would have been proud. The knowledge did nothing to lessen Amaryllis's dislike of
