Free Love Story by Kathryn Shay Page A

afternoon. So at noon, she sat in her office with food bags from Zabar’s spread acrossher conference table.
    He came to the door at twelve. She was perusing an art book of Dali’s works but looked up when he said, “Hi.”
    “Hi.” Today he seemed even more attractive. The gray-checked shirt he wore made his eyes glimmer. He gestured to the table. “Some of that for me? Because I gotta tell you, sweetheart, Zabar’s is one of my favorite places.”
    “Mine, too. I thought we couldtell anyone who happened by we were discussing the exhibit.”
    He came inside and sat.
    Elizabeita set out the sliced pastrami, potato salad, sourdough bread and a dozen thin and crispy chocolate-chip cookies. “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I guessed, based on your Reuben preference.”
    Snatching up a cookie, he bit into it. She watched his mouth chew, remembering what it had done toher only hours ago. She had to quell the shiver that went through her.
    Leaning over the food, he captured her gaze. “Don’t do that. Or we’ll end up right on top of this food.”
    Her laughter sounded girlish, even to her. “All right. Tell me about your morning.”
    He opened a Coke for him and a bottle of water for her. As he began heaping the meat onto bread, he talked. “No work stuff.I had some personal business to attend to.”
    “I thought you were doing errands for the museum.”
    “No. Who told you that?”
    “Delores.”
    “She was mistaken.” He bit into the sandwich. “Hmm,” he said with his mouth half-full.
    She was still looking at him. “Yeah, hmmm.”
    o0o
    At the end of day, when Nick was touching up the walls for Lizzie’s upcoming art exhibit, thelights dimmed. Then he heard over the PA system, “This announcement is from security at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The building is now on lockdown. Patrons are to stay in the room they currently occupy, with the security guards assigned there. Thank you for your cooperation.”
    Nick went to the hallway and saw that some floor lights had come up, and people were heading in different directions.When he caught sight of Delores, upset and panicky, he hurried to her.
    The woman’s eyes were glazed. “Somebody shut down the computers in the museum. Backup security is in place, and there’s a generator for lights, but this has never happened to us before.”
    Nick’s first thought was to find Elizabeita. But he had other responsibilities. Instead, he headed for the security office. He walkedin to find Will on the phone. “That’s right. Everything’s on hold, but we need the NYPD.”
    Nick would have to stay out of the police’s way because he hadn’t left the force that long ago and someone could recognize him. “What can I do?”
    Davidson looked up. “It’s related to the emailer, right?”
    “So far, he’s not done anything of this magnitude. We didn’t know he’d had the capability.But we can’t ignore that it might be him. Or her.”
    “Fuck.”
    “Have you found what made the computers go down?”
    “No, but I—”
    The full lights came on, and the computers in Davidson’s office rebooted with loud bleeps and hums. “What the hell?”
    Nick’s brows rose. “A glitch in the system?”
    “Too coincidental.”
    “A show of force?”
    “For what? To keep modern art out of theMet?”
    “No, to scare us. I think that’s what the emails are for.” He frowned. “Will, I was sent here because of the importance of the Met to society. If this is some kook, I have to find him. If it’s more serious, we’ll need Homeland Security. But right now, we should call Cyber Crimes in. I have them on speed dial. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
    “What will they do?”
    “My task forthe two weeks I’ve been here has been to observe the goings-on of daily activities and scrutinize the files of the employees in the Contemporary Art division to see if this is internal, if someone here might be the emailer. But I didn’t find anything that would