Page 4 of Absent Remorse

“I’m not sure that I believe that,” Amber replied. Her former boss was not a chilled out kind of person.

“Well, maybe since he found out that his PA was a murderer.”

Actually, Amber had been the one to discover that, and it hadn’t seemed to improve Harry’s temper at the time. He’d been busy chewing Amber out when she’d quit.

“How are things at theNews?” Amber asked.

“Busy,” Joseph replied. “There’s always another story demanding attention, always another deadline to hit, especially in DC. The fashion department have been pushing for more space since they axed the puzzle section.”

Amber winced at that. Harry had taken the puzzle section out of theNewsafter she’d left. Officially, it had been because of the difficulty of replacing the puzzle editor at short notice. Unofficially, it had been because of the difficulty of getting a replacement puzzle editor and the fact that Harry’s PA had been obsessing over puzzles when he murdered people. Unofficially, Amber suspected that a big part of it was a kind of revenge against Amber for quitting as suddenly as she had. She’d left, and the next day, the puzzle section was gone.

“Sorry,” Joseph said. “I should have thought about how that would affect you.”

“No, it’s ok,” Amber said. “It isn’t my problem anymore.”

She was surprised to find that was true. She was committed to becoming an FBI agent now. It hurt a little that Harry had taken away her section, but she had already been moving towards a new life even as he did it.

They took a moment to order food. Amber ordered the pasta Amatriciana, while Joseph chose fish. They ordered wine between them, and Amber sipped hers, just barely.

“What’s it like, training to be an FBI agent?” Joseph asked. “I guess you’re doing amazingly.”

“What makes you think that?” Amber countered with a slight frown. She certainly didn’t feel like she was doing amazingly.

“Because you have the kind of mind that works things out. You helped to catch a killer while you were still an editor. Now that you’re training, I’m sure you must be even better.”

Amber felt a surge of pride at the praise from Joseph, and not just pride. Almost casually, she let her hand brush against his. She couldn’t deny how attracted she was to him there like that.

“It’s more difficult than I thought it would be,” Amber said. “The physical aspects of the training are hard. I can memorize the things I need to know and work through cases like they’re puzzles, but when it comes to running down criminals … or shooting …”

She couldn’t quite bring herself to give the full details of how bad she was at that part. It was easier to turn things around on Joseph, get him talking and simply listen. Amber found that she liked listening to his voice.

“What about you?” she said. “I’m just training, but I guess you’ve been working on a bunch of new stories. That piece on money laundering in the financial district was impressive.”

“You read that?” Joseph asked, sounding slightly surprised.

The truth was that Amber made a point of reading all Joseph’s pieces now, finding a kind of comfort and connection in the voice he brought to his work.

“I’ve been trying to keep up with what you’re doing,” Amber said. “It’s a good window on the outside world.”

“So, the training course is taking up all of your time then?” Joseph asked.

Amber raised an eyebrow. “You almost sound like you’re interviewing me.”

“Maybe that would be a good idea,” Joseph countered. “The puzzle editor who became an FBI agent. The piece on you catching the puzzle killer did well.”

For the briefest of moments, Amber found herself worrying that this was all just work to Joseph, that he was bringing her to the restaurant where the newspaper brought important people to interview them in order to get another story out of her. Intellectually, she knew that he wouldn’t do that, but there was still a part of her that didn’t feel like she was good enough to be there with Joseph on a real date even now.

“Maybe another time,” Amber said.

She found it easy, being there with him, eating good food, drinking wine, and talking about their lives. She barely noticed the other diners there in the restaurant, or the time passing. Amber felt as though she wouldn’t have minded if the night went on forever.

“Oh!” Joseph said. “I almost forgot.”

Was this the point where he was going to say that he had something important in the morning that meant he had to leave now? Amber pushed those doubts back the way she did with all the others.

“I got sent something the other day, this … cube.”

“A cube?” Amber said. She looked at Joseph, waiting for more information. “Just a cube?”

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