Free Game Over by Fern Michaels Page B

up short. I promise. I think I’m going to wear yellow today. You know, spring, sunshiny, flowers blooming, that kind of thing.”
    Maggie grinned. “I looked out the window before I came downstairs. I saw snow flurries under the streetlight. There’s a flower shop on Independence Avenue that opens at seven o’clock. Stop and buy some tulips for your desk.”
    â€œWell, aren’t you Miss Sunshine herself this morning! I’ll do it. I love tulips, especially at this time of year.”
    â€œWell, now that we have the immediate problems of the world solved, I think I’m going to head home, since I’m already dressed. I might try for some springy attire myself. Thanks for the hospitality, Lizzie.”
    The two women hugged one another before Lizzie headed up the steps to the second floor while Maggie called her driver to pick her up.
    Twenty minutes later Maggie was settled in the back of the luxurious Town Car and headed to her house in Georgetown. She spent the entire ride home wondering what surprises the new day would bring.
    Â 
    Lizzie Fox drummed her fingers on her desk, her gaze on the window and the lightly falling snow. She tore her eyes away from the wintry scene to look at the spring tulips sitting on her desk, her thoughts a million miles away. She’d bought several bunches of the colorful blooms, one for the president, one for Jackie Hollis, the president’s private secretary, and the last for Tobias Daniels, the president’s chief of staff. She’d been rewarded with smiles and effusive thanks. But that moment was gone, and she had a full day’s worth of work piled on her desk.
    Lizzie removed her jacket to reveal a bright summer yellow silk shirt. It was a yellow day, no doubt about it. As long as you didn’t look outside.
    It was midmorning when Lizzie looked up to see Jackie Hollis standing in the doorway. Lizzie scribbled a few more notes but motioned for the elderly woman to come in.
    Jackie Hollis was the mother of six and a grandmother of eight. Her office was decorated with pictures of her brood in every possible setting. She had unruly gray hair, cut very short, twinkling eyes, and a firm jaw. She wasn’t exactly a dragon guarding the portals of Martine Connor’s domain, but she came close. She played no favorites and donated to homeless shelters all the goodies people heaped on her in hopes of a tad of favoritism. She dressed conservatively, in suits of beige and gray, with colorful blouses. Lizzie suspected she had dozens of suits, in different styles, but she never ventured outside of the gray and beige color range. If she had a fault, it was that she smoked and was known to sneak outside with the help of the Secret Service agents, who, as she put it, covered her butt, with no pun intended. On more than one occasion the president and her closest ally scurried off to some unseen location to take a few quick puffs, with no one the wiser.
    â€œI thought you might like some coffee, Lizzie,” Jackie said, holding out a cup with the presidential seal emblazoned on the side. “I just made it.”
    Lizzie smiled. “I never turn down a cup of coffee. If you have time, sit down, and we can chat. I’m overdue for a break.”
    â€œI do have about ten minutes,” the older woman said as she settled herself in Lizzie’s one comfortable chair. “Do you think it will ever stop snowing?”
    Lizzie laughed as she tried to figure out if Jackie Hollis was privy to the president’s secret, her secret now. If she was, she was wearing one of the best poker faces she’d ever seen. “The weatherman said it’s snowed every day since Christmas.” Was it her imagination, or did Jackie look uncomfortable?
    Never a paranoid person, Lizzie realized she had become one. Secrets could be a terrible thing. Then again, there were secrets, and there were secrets. She crossed her ankles under the desk and hoped