Free Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy

made eye contact.”
    He’d put his cup down and begun scribbling again.
    “Since I missed all the news,” I said, “would you tell me who the elderly man was? He told me his name, but it didn’t mean anything to me.”
    “Benjamin Bettencourt is the secretary of state’s father-
in-law,” he said as though that explained everything.
    I waited.
    “He went missing this afternoon. Gone from his home. Family was frantic with worry and they were afraid he’d been abducted.”
    “But he just wandered off?”
    “I don’t know,” Ellis said. “Something doesn’t smell right. With the murders today and now this, the administration is under siege, if you ask me. ’Course, nobody’s asking me. I got a sense about these things.” He tapped his temple. “Lot of years on the job tells me there are too many incidents happening at once. That guy—Brad—who took off knew more than he wanted to tell, that’s for sure. Wish I could have had a chance to talk to him.”
    A young kid, probably a cadet, appeared in the doorway. “Officer Ellis?”
    He turned around.
    “Her ride is here.”
    “Got it.”
    I stood and held up my half-finished coffee. “Where do I put this?”
    “Just leave it,” he said with a wave. “I’ll get it. You go home and get some rest.”
    My ability to get rest would depend greatly on which agent they’d sent to escort me home. I’d had run-ins with several, and didn’t feel like being used as a stepping stone for one of the newer agents to make a name for himself at my expense. There were a couple I endeavored to avoid.
    “This way,” the cadet said. He led me down a long hall to a metal door. He swung it open with a smile. “Have a good night.”
    As I stepped into the waiting room, I started to say, “Thanks—” The rest of what I would have said died on my lips when I saw who was waiting for me. “I thought you were out of town.”
    Tom MacKenzie, my ex-boyfriend and head of the PPD, looked just about as happy to see me as I was to see him. “Flew in about a half hour ago,” he said. “This was on my way.”
    “Great.”
    We fell into step and made our way outside where I took a breath of the fresh, cold air. “I didn’t realize how stale it was in there. Smelly.” A bright star twinkled above. Closingmy eyes, I made a wish. But when I opened my eyes again, Tom was still there.
    “What happened?” he asked.
    At least he didn’t start with “Why is it always you?” the way he usually did.
    “I think I’m being followed.”
    He pointed his key ring at a shiny, dark Mustang in the lot’s far corner, beeping it open.
    “New car, huh?” I said as I got in. “It’s nice.”
    He settled himself behind the wheel and started it up with a roar, not looking at me. “Kim picked it out.”
    “Yeah? How’s that going?”
    “Good.” He pulled out of the lot. I think the fact that he didn’t have to ask directions to my apartment was not lost on either of us. “Very good, I mean. Great.”
    “I’m glad.”
    “What happened today?”
    I didn’t feel like rehashing every little detail. “How much do you know?”
    “Everything. Except how you got mixed up with Bettencourt. That’s too much. Even for you.”
    “Even for me? Nice.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “The guy who followed me on the Metro knew about my involvement at Lexington Place today,” I said.
    “What?” Tom yanked the steering wheel so hard the tires squealed against pavement. He pulled to the curb and banged the car into park. “Talk to me.”
    “He said it’s been all over the news.”
    Fury made Tom’s words come out clipped. “It hasn’t. We kept you and Sargeant out of it.”
    “I figured. Otherwise the cop who hauled me in would have known. He clearly didn’t.”
    “You didn’t say anything to the local guys, did you?”
    “Give me a little credit, would you?”
    Tom rubbed his forehead. “Just what we need,” he said as he started driving again. “You’ve done it again,