Free A Dangerous Talent (An Alix London Mystery) by Aaron Elkins, Charlotte Elkins Page A

months after he left, the company went public, Liz and I wound up making a fortune, and Craig was just one more unemployed techie. When the tech bubble burst a few months later, he was one more unemployable techie.”
    An image of Craig’s open, likeable face flashed through Alix’s mind. It was hard to picture him rolling around on the floor with the frowzy, silly woman who had met them at the airport. But of course, Liz wouldn’t have been frowzy then. Still…
    “Ouch,” was all she said.
    “Ouch is right. Liz and I came away with millions. Craig, after all the work he put in, came away with zilch. Truthfully, I feel kind of bad about that.”
    “Well, he’s not exactly poverty-stricken. Being a pilot for ShareJet surely isn’t minimum-wage.”
    “No.” A pause, and once again Alix picked up a sense of hesitation. “He doesn’t know it,” she said, her eyes lowered, “but I’m responsible for him getting that job.”
    “How do you mean?” This plot keeps thickening , Alix thought.
    “Well, I’d worked with one of the execs at ShareJet, and I knew that Craig had been an amateur pilot, but without enough flying hours to commercially fly people solo, so I convinced my pal to let him copilot while he worked on getting his commercial license. Of course, Craig never knew my fine hand was involved. Then, if they thought he was working out, they’d hire him for solo flights. He did, and they did. You look confused.”
    “I am, a little. If you never wanted to see him again, how come you use ShareJet and not some other company?”
    “Because we used them at Sytex and I just stuck with them afterward. There’s supposed to be an understanding that he’s never to be my pilot. I don’t know what went wrong; he never was before. Aren’t you going to have any of these chips? They’re delicious—thick-cut.”
    Alix shook her head. “My stomach’s still a little fluttery. But about Craig—you mean today was the first time you’d seen him since…since the thing with Liz?”
    She nodded. “You can imagine how I felt, with him suddenly walking in out of the blue, after so long. The last person in the world I ever wanted to see again. It just threw me for a loop. I just…oh, hell.” She looked down at her glass and grimaced. “What a mess.”
    Why, you’re still in love with him, Alix thought.
    “I’ve been going over and over it all day,” Chris said tiredly. “Did I blow it back then? Was I too quick to take Liz at her word, too unforgiving, too quick to dump Craig?”
    “Could be,” Alix said. “People have weak moments. People do make mistakes.”
    Chris thought about it, then shook her head. “No, this was more than a mistake. The lingering glances he was giving her, the ‘accidental’ touching…that went on for weeks.”
    “According to Liz.”
    Chris peered at her. “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying that’s Liz’s story. She’s the one you heard it from, not Craig. Maybe it’s not the whole story. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she was chasing him.”
    “And that’s supposed to make a difference—who was chasing whom?”
    “Well, sure. Wasn’t that your basis for keeping Liz as a friend and dumping Craig?”
    “I didn’t dump him,” Chris began, then shrugged. “Well, yes, okay, I guess I did,” she said uncertainly. She was silent for a moment. “To be honest, I think I did have my doubts about Liz. Even in those days, there was something about her that…But it’s all moot, Alix. I gave him a chance to defend himself, to explain, to blame it on Liz if that’s the way it was. Deep down I was praying that he would—but he didn’t. Why not?”
    “You’re right, I am just speculating here, but couldn’t it be because he was trying to do the gentlemanly thing? That he felt he should take responsibility for his actions? That shifting the blame to Liz wouldn’t have been—I don’t know—gallant?”
    Chris laughed her seal-bark of a laugh.