Page 45 of Jep

“He’ll have to be.”

“Maybe you should go talk to him.”

“Jep or Lawson?”

“Both. You seem to be the only tie those two have. If anyone can mend this, you can.”

“There’s nothing to do right now. They need to cool off. Trust me. Jep will be back, and Lawson will take him.”

“I hope you’re right.”

The elevator doors opened, and Emery swallowed a tiny gulp of air, but it wasn’t Jep. It hadn’t been all week.

“Hey, Pearce,” she said as he walked past.

“What’s up?”

“Jep hasn’t come back.”

“No.”

“Are you still confident he will?”

He thought about it for a minute. “I honestly thought he’d be back by now.”

“Do you know if Lawson has told the deputy director yet?”

“He’s been putting it off.”

“Truman won’t be happy to find out he’s the last to know.”

“He’s got bigger issues at the moment. He’s currently testifying at a congressional hearing, so Lawson can avoid it until that’s finished.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should call him. Jep, I mean.”

“I have.”

She jerked forward. “You did? What did he say?”

“When he finally answered after I called him a half a dozen times, he said—and I quote—‘Never going to happen.’ He obviously needs more time to cool down than I anticipated.”

“It sounds to me like he’s made up his mind. I wonder if—” She shook the thought away.

“What? If you have an idea, you had better share it. We need a miracle here.”

“I was thinking, maybe I could call him. Now that my arm is healing and I’ve been cleared of any other ailments emanating from it, maybe that would soften the ground for his return.”

“You’d feel comfortable doing that?”

“Comfortable? No. It will definitely be awkward. I barely know the guy. But if it would help, it’s worth a shot.”

Pearce let out a relieved sigh. “Honestly, I’d hoped you’d offer. I didn’t want to ask after everything that’s happened, but I think we’d have a better chance of him listening if it’s coming from you. Whatever it is he sees in you, you may be the only one who can bring him back.”

She got stuck on his “whatever it is he sees in you” comment for a second. “Okay. If that’s what it will take, I’ll call him.”

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