Free Reasonable Doubt by Carsen Taite

she started noticing a disturbing pattern and she began scribbling notes on a legal pad.
    “Hey, Flores, you want to join us for lunch?”
    Sarah looked up to see Liz and Sam, one of the other agents, standing by her desk. She glanced at the time on her computer, surprised to see it was almost one o’clock. She pointed at the files on her desk. “I think I’m going to stick with this.”
    “Really?” Liz asked. “My stack was a big bunch of nothing. Come on, we’re going to Pappasito’s.”
    “Thanks, but I may need to head out a little early today. I’ve got some stuff coming into the apartment—the last of my move from D.C.”
    The tiny lie slid off her tongue with ease and the group trooped out without her. Sarah waited until she was sure they’d left before gathering up the files on her desk and making her way over to Beverly’s desk. “Hey, Bev, call me crazy, but I prefer to look through documents on the computer.” She hefted the stack of files. “Any chance I can scan these?”
    “You could.” Bev paused and smiled. “Or you could look at the set that’s already scanned.”
    Sarah let loose a big smile. “You’re a lifesaver.”
    “They’re on the network drive.” She wrote a note and handed it over. “Here’s the location.”
    Sarah took the note. “Thanks a million. Hey, any reason Liz has all the boxes on her desk?”
    “What can I say? She likes paper.”
    “That makes one of us.” Sarah started to walk away, but then paused. “Oh, yeah, I meant to tell you that I need to head out early this afternoon, but you can reach me on my cell if you need anything.”
    “No problem. I’m sure if anyone needs anything it can wait until tomorrow.”
    The comment made Sarah think of the call from Trip and how this new job was the polar opposite of her last one where she’d been on call twenty-four seven and nothing could wait until the next day. She’d thought she’d grown to hate the constant interference in her life, but now she wondered if the boredom in her new position was just the other extreme. She thought about the entries she’d flagged in the bank records and considered whether she was making too much out of them, just for the sake of having some level of excitement in her life. It was clear she wasn’t getting excitement in any other way. The only time she’d been out since she’d come to town was the night of the reception at the W when her chances with a hot woman had been thwarted by the woman’s date and some terrorists. Not a great track record for her new lease on life and not much appeared to be changing since she was transferring all the bank records for WHI onto a flash drive to review at home. Right now, the only thing she had to look forward to was a potential lead in a case that would probably be snatched from her if it turned out to be viable.
    Trip’s offer echoed in her head. Maybe she should go back to her old unit. The nightmares and viciousness she confronted on a daily basis might be a fair trade off for feeling like she was really accomplishing something.
    She spent the rest of the drive home mulling over her life choices, decidedly unsettled by the time she reached her apartment. She’d leased a place in Uptown, close to Danny and Ellen and close to the gayborhood. She’d been to the local bars a couple of times since she’d been back in town, but they were the same as bars everywhere—full of women looking for something for the night, but not necessarily any longer than that. If she wanted more, she was going to have to find it elsewhere, but the thought of getting involved in something other than her job was a foreign concept and required a level of commitment she wasn’t sure she possessed. She flashed back to the evening of the reception. Politics. The only thing about that event that had been palatable was the promise of lots of eligible, desirable women, but the one she’d settled on had been taken.
    Get over it, Flores. Ellery Durant