Our Little Secret by Starr Ambrose

desks. Relieved to know which one was Meg’s without having to ask, Lauren sat down and began rifling through files on the desktop.

    The woman hadn’t left. “Hey. You’re not Meg.”

    “I’m her sister,” she said without looking up. “And I need to find Meg immediately. Family emergency.”

    “So why don’t you just call her?” The woman sounded truly confused.

    Lauren looked up. “You just told me she hasn’t answered her messages. Have you heard from Meg today?”

    “Um, no, but—”

    “Neither has anyone else. I need to find her.” Spotting an agenda book, she flipped to the current week and began reading the cryptic notes Meg had made.

    Across the room, Drew had collared the first staffer he saw, identified himself, and demanded the woman find his father,
now.
Impressed with his urgency, the woman began dialing, but questioned him as she did. “Actually I’ve already called a few places today. We’ve been looking for him, too. What happened?”

    “I don’t know. But he’s dropped out of sight, and we have reason to believe he might be in danger.”

    That bit of exaggeration helped. Lauren could hear the concern in her voice as the woman began pestering half of D.C. with phone calls.

    Lauren gave up on the date book and began examining three loose leaf notebooks on the desktop. The woman who first accosted her had disappeared, but another woman watched her with a frown. “She can’t do that,” she announced to no one in particular. “That’s Meg’s desk, and a lot of that stuff is confidential.”

    Lauren didn’t bother answering as she continued flipping through meeting notes, but Gerald stepped between her and the young woman. She was a goodthree inches taller than him in her heels, but lacked the confidence of Senator Creighton’s personal secretary. Hands on his hips, Gerald faced her down. “Did you hear what young Mr. Creighton just said? Are you aware of the seriousness of this situation? We have a missing United States senator here. And his wife. You can either let Meg’s sister look for clues to their whereabouts, or we can notify the authorities and you can have a squad of policemen and forensics experts ripping this place apart, including your desk and all the other ones in here. Your choice.”

    Lauren nearly snickered at the part about the forensics experts. But it intimidated the woman enough to have her looking at other office staff for support. Lauren glanced up to see what would happen. Two other staffers shrugged helplessly, and the one making calls at Drew’s command paused long enough to snap, “That’s Senator Creighton’s personal secretary. Listen to him.” With a sullen look, the woman returned to her desk but kept her eyes on Lauren.

    “Wise choice,” Gerald said, nodding sagely. “The senator will appreciate you handling this discreetly.”

    “I thought you said the senator was missing,” the woman challenged.

    “He is. But when we find him, he’ll appreciate how you handled this. Believe me, I’m his personal secretary, and I know how he would want—”

    “Gerald,” Lauren interrupted.

    He turned. “What? Did you find something?”

    “No, but I need you to hold these files so I can check this stuff underneath them.” More like, she needed to keep him from pissing off the secretary who was already on edge about them going through Meg’s desk.

    “Oh. Sure thing.”

    She searched for another ten minutes while Gerald held a stack of files and looked important, but her efforts yielded nothing. Lauren put her elbows on the desk and rubbed her forehead. She was becoming more worried about her sister’s disappearance with every passing hour. At least she wasn’t the only one. Drew wasn’t having any luck either, and she could tell his concern was rising, too.

    “Did you try Senator Steinberg’s office?” he asked the secretary as he paced.

    “Yes, sir.”

    “How about the environmental lobbyist from that clean water