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It was crowded thisearth shattering like baseball players using steroids People starving all over the world, dying on battlefields, hacked to death by their neighbors, and thethe leaders of the free world could think of was a bunch of big-headed, s steroids Who cared? Not Eues had insisted it ressman Coffer wasn’t on any of the relevant coht face, or kept her rabbed a cup of coffee on her way to her desk, andwith the laptop and Lacey’s memorial book inside She’d left the box in her rooiant purse

She’d barely ed to take a few sips of precious caffeine and ski, when the Congressues jumped up to head into the office Eo, she would have been every bit as pu But thisbut a distraction What she wanted to do was sit doith her computer and follow up her new idea about how to identify the women from Victor’s parties

It was past noon when she had the chance, however The , and then there’d been a pile of constituent requests for her to wade through Most had been shuffled to other staff ht away, but a few had been of a more serious nature and she’d had to deal with them herself

But finally the office was nearly eton took its lunches very seriously, seeing them as one more opportunity to court votes or raise money or so for an hour or two E It was cranberry, the runt of the litter, crushed and disreputable looking, which was probably the only reason it was still there She took it and yet another cup of coffee back to her desk, pulled up the list of woh Lacey’sfor names She was initially surprised at the nuned the book She’d been in such a fog, and she’d had no idea that ned their names, but most had written at least a feords of condolence, and a very few had done et lost in their remembrances as she read the words of people she didn’t know, but who had known Lacey and wouldthe book at all, so she wiped away her tears and began searching the pagesto decipher so when a door opened and Guy Coffer’s surprised voice said, "E on a piece ofsip, thankful it had sat there long enough to be only warave her a worried look, his hand outstretched, as if he was thinking about patting her on the back "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned "I didn’t mean to startle you"

Emma took another sip of coffee and waved a hand dis the cup down She spun her chair around, bracing a hand on her desk and surreptitiously hitting the hot key on her laptop which would shut down her files

"I didn’t realize you were here," she said cautiously

Coffer gave her his handsoh earlier You were hard at work"

Ehtly alarmed by the idea that he could have passed by without her noticing Then she glanced around and felt a new kind of worry The phones were ringing almost constantly, as usual, and she could hear people in the outer office, but other than that she and Coffer were alone If Sharon walked in right now, she’d stroke out, and maybe fire Em--"

"Don’t apologize You’re entitled to lunch just like the rest of us I caet a cup of coffee"

"It’s pretty low Let me make some fresh" E over to the coffeeer setup out front, but venturing to the outer office so, so the analysts working in this part of the office tended to use this one Everyone was supposed to do their part to keep the pot full, but as always, there were those who shirked the duty, thinking it beneath them Emma wasn’t one of those She valued her coffee tooat the mourner’s book which lay open on E until she’d filled the coffee to face him "That’s the condolence book fro her real eood-bye to Lacey, people I didn’t even know" She paused, glancing out the , noticing the winter’s acculass

"Were you and Lacey very close?" he asked, and his eyes were so sad that E

"Lacey was like a sister to me The only family I had"