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“No. Just like the lawyer you talked with, the DA they talked to threw them out of her office. And the Army Officer basically did the same. She outranks Madison, so they couldn’t push the issue with her. Shepherd will have to decide if he’ll take it farther.”
“That may be what we encounter when we talk to the major at Fort Jackson tomorrow.”
“I really didn’t want to talk to you to talk about work,” Dupont said. “We’ll do that on the call tomorrow. I just wanted to see how your day went and ask you something.”
Laura Lee waited a few beats, but he didn’t continue. “Ask me what?”
“When this case is over and you’re back, would you like to have dinner again?” He held his breath after putting the offer out there. He hoped she wouldn’t shoot him down.
“Are you cooking?” she asked.
“Given you’d pop a frozen pizza in the oven for me, yeah, I’ll be the one cooking.” He laughed.
She also laughed. “It’s a tempting offer. You are a great cook. And I’ll admit after that call came, I lost my appetite, so I would like a second meal of your incredible food.”
“You want to spend time with me just for my cooking?” he teased, fishing for her thoughts.
“I do like talking with you. You’ve been a good friend and I appreciate that you have my back,” she answered after a short pause to think about her reply.
“I enjoy talking with you too,” he said, feeling every bit the nerd he was. The truth was, he hadn’t asked a woman out in over a decade. Working overnights, as he had for most of his adult life, left little time for a social life. Not that any woman outside of the intelligence community could know or understand what he did. “I like that I can be myself with you.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Was he not himself with everyone else? “It seems like you are all the time with everyone.”
“Yes, I guess at work anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind, nothing,” he said. He wasn’t sure if she understood that his asking about dinner was for a date, and he didn’t want to have to elaborate and explain his motives. “Let’s just say I don’t have much of a social life with the hours I normally work.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Laura Lee said. “Try travelling every week to different cities for the installs. Besides the guys on the team, I only interact with my mom and sister through video chats.”
“Then let’s definitely plan on that dinner when you get back so we can have time to relax and talk for a while,” Dupont said.
“And maybe listen to some more jazz,” she added. “I meant to ask you. They can fix your car, right?”
“Yes, and I’ve insisted on OEM parts only. That will get her as close to as good as new as she’ll get. I still can’t believe I had to crash my baby.”
“Doing it more than likely saved your life. I’d say it was worth it.”
“I know,” he agreed.
“And that was quick thinking on your part. I’m not sure I would have thought about doing that. I may have frozen if I witnessed what you did,” she said.
“No, I think you’ve received enough training that something would have clicked.”
“I just hope I’m never in a position that I have to find out,” she said. “Don’t discount your quick thinking. It was pretty spectacular.”
He was embarrassed by her commentary. “I better let you go. We have an early meeting tomorrow. I’ll see you then,” he said.
“Yeah, see you then. Good night, Brad.”
“Good night, Laura,” he answered and then ended the call. He sat back, more relaxed, now that the call was over. He had a date with Laura when she got back. He just wasn’t sure if she thought of it as one, too.
Juliette
Laura Lee received a text message from Garcia to join him in his room for the video meeting with the team. It was zero five hundred. She was just about to log in from her own room. She’d woken a half-hour earlier, feeling exhausted. The hotel had complimentary coffee available in the lobby. She grabbed two cups as she headed to Garcia’s room.
Garcia already had the video chat launched when she arrived. Caleb Smith was on. He was in Ops at HQ. She handed the second cup of coffee to Garcia. “Good morning,” she said to both men.