Page 41 of Smoke Screen
“Well, Charlie Charm, I suppose that would be great. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, where are we going?”
Maddy checked her phone. “Would you run me back to my office? I left my laptop and I need it over the weekend. It’s after five, so I won’t have to face the administrative staff. I can’t stand the idea of them looking at me like I’m a thief.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to prove them wrong.”
8
The front entranceof the Thompson Presidential Center crawled with news vans, cameramen, and reporters. Two networks had even set up tents.
Maddy supposedtheyplanned on being here a while.
“Oh my God,” she said. “They’re here, too.”
“I figured,” he said, his tone fairly casual.
Was she naïve? She’d never thought so, but somehow, she hadn’t expected a mob of reporters camped out in front of the Center.
Yep. Naive.
Phin rolled to a stop at the corner, his attention fixed on the crowd. “How bad do you need your laptop? I can turn on the next block and avoid the reporters.”
The crowd had doubled from the courthouse, and sickness rolled in her stomach. Obviously, someone at the FBI continued to leak information to the press.
President Thompson enjoyed PR, but this? One of their employees being questioned regarding the theft of priceless artifacts?
Not good.
“There’s an employee entrance around the side. Maybe they’re not over there.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
Thanks, Mr. Negative.Reporters or not, leaving her laptop all weekend wasn’t an option. She pointed out her window. “If you turn right here, we can go to the next block and enter from the rear lot.”
Phin turned, cruised to the next street, and pulled into the lot, taking the first available spot. From here, she’d walk to the east side of the building and slip in through the employee entrance.
“How about,” Phin said, “I get out and make sure there are no pain-in-the-ass reporters by the door?”
She sat for a second, staring at the pathway leading around the building. Right there. That’s where she needed to go. So close. But who knew what waited there?
An entire weekend without her personal computer?
No way. Sure, she could do a lot on her phone, but her life was on that damned computer and the way things were going, she couldn’t risk it going missing.
She didn’t want to believe someone she worked with would take it, but she wouldn’t have believed someone from within the organization would steal her keys and be involved in the exhibit theft either.
And, oh … The FBI. Every crime show she’d ever watched replayed in her mind. The FBI might seize everything in her home and office.
No time for that now. She needed to concentrate on next steps. “Reporters or not, I need my things. I have to go in.”
Phin turned the engine off. “Okay. We’ll do it like we did at FBI headquarters. If there’s a crowd, I’ll lead you through.”
“I—”
He put up a hand. “Don’t argue. We’re doing this.”
How the heck had she gotten this lucky? Technically, Phin worked for the Thompsons and here he was, helping her. His family couldn’t be happy about this.
