“Right before they cleared the food table, I snagged you three meatballs and some of those little hotdogs.” The voice was Tricia’s, its point of origin neither ahead nor behind, neither left nor right. She was standing in my old listening point two hundred feet on the opposite side of the great rotunda.
I spoke at normal volume. “Thanks. How much did you hear?”
“Most of it. Congratulations. You didn’t punch him this time.”
The crowd had thinned enough to reveal her across the expanse, looking professional in a white button-up blouse, paisley scarf, and black skirt. She carried a clipboard, the ultimate credibility prop. “What’d you find out?” I asked.
“Apparently a lot more than you.”
“Come on. He approached me. Running away wasn’t an option.”
She glanced at her clipboard. “The vent covers in the main concourse still have simple clasps. No big deal. Only one overnight guard and he’s supposed to make his rounds on the half-hour. But I bet he snoozes.” She looked over at me. “We’ll have the run of the place.”
“Even Reuben will be impressed. How’d you get all that?”
Her bright eyes beamed across the distance. “Have you forgotten your N. Jefferson Chapel? Among the tedium of the watchman’s devoir, your presence may... may…” She tapped her pencil on the clipboard. “Shit. Well, in short, a bored guard likes a break.”
“I beg your pardon, I know my Chapel. What’d you do?”
“Sweet-talked him.”
What red-blooded man, numbed by tedium or not, could resist her?
She was still talking, a lovely refrain no one around me could hear. “You told Tony about a secret courier, someone dear to you. Did you mean it?”
“You know I did.”
“Fair enough,” she said, as three businessmen strolled across our line of sight and moved on. She grinned. “Then how much did you mean it?”
I took a deep breath and eased it out through a smile. “Meet me under the highest point of the great dome and I’ll answer your question.”
The End
About the Author
Gordon MacKinney is a decade-long monthly columnist for the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and has served as guest columnist for the Denver Post. He holds an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Miami University of Ohio. He co-owns a marketing communications agency, www.lightsourcecreative.com, and resides in the foothills of the Rockies in Northern Colorado.
Learn more about his writing at www.gmackinney.com.
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