Alien in the House

seem like it, and I don’t know how saying you merely killed the wrong guy removes your guilt or gives you sympathy from a jury. He said he’d been given written information, and lots of it, that he hid to protect Lydia from finding it. If we can figure out where he hid that information, then we can determine if he’s telling the truth. And we want to so determine, because if Eugene wasn’t full of it, then Vance’s theory becomes much more sound and likely.”
    “Okay, let’s say that you’re on the right track, that your new buddy’s got the goods. How does that change what we need to do? Because we still have assassins running around, in addition to people who may be Clarence and Hamlin, or may be androids, or may be something else.”
    “He’s not my buddy.”
    “Right. You’re forwarding his theories, you backed him up, he was running around on the roofs with you—he’s your friend.”
    “Do I detect a hint of jealousy?”
    Reader shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. “No. I mean, you’re allowed to have other friends. Even if they happen to be married gay guys who dress well and have a certain amount of class.”
    “Oh my God, you
are
jealous! Vance is not my replacement for you. But while we’re on the subject, let me mention that you and Tim had all those little private jokes with Santiago, some of which were about me.”
    Reader grinned. “Yeah. We used to joke with Santiago that you were our little tiger and that once you were on the case, you’d never stop until you figured out what was going on and did your best to save the day.” He sat up straight. “I think I know what that last message of his meant.”
    “That he hoped you were right about me?”
    Reader nodded. “When Santiago got to D.C., he called me. He said he’d found some odd things, nothing he thought was too big a deal, but he was hoping to talk to us about them, just to ease his mind. He made it sound like it was policy stuff, nothing life-threatening or even all that urgent. I told him we’d take a look after the party and that if it was anything that needed our attention, we’d handle it.”
    “Santiago knew he’d been poisoned. Tito and the paramedics were talking about arsenic poisoning around him. They’d had no choice.”
    “So he was trying to ensure you’d be the person who cleaned out his desk because I’d bet that’s where he left whatever it was that he found.”
    “And he wanted you ready, ready to back me, in case he was wrong, and whatever he found was indeed a big deal and connected to his death, right?”
    “Yeah, I think so. I mean, I have to believe he’d want us to avenge his death if we possibly could.”
    “And we want to. At least I want to. And not just because you’re mad at me.” Hadn’t meant to say that out loud. I looked down so I didn’t have to see Reader’s expression.
    Reader got up, moved next to me on the couch, and put his arm around me. “I’m sorry I’ve been upset with you. I’m not really mad at you, Kitty.”
    “You called me Ambassador most of the night.”
    “Because we were in a very political situation, and you weren’t acting like the ambassador—you were acting like the Head of Airborne. I can’t blame you for it, and I don’t blame you for it. You had to take over because we’d all failed at our jobs.”
    “That’s not true. No one thinks you’ve failed.”
    “Well, Santiago’s not able to tell us his thoughts. Which is the failure.”
    “I don’t think you’re a failure. You’re doing a great job.”
    “Some days.” He hugged me. “You’re still my girl, Kitty. You always will be. And you’re right—I am jealous. I barely get to see you, we rarely get to work together, and when we do see each other, we’re at separate tables. And the person you were risking your life with last night wasn’t me, it was some guy who seems like a substitute for me.”
    I laughed. “Vance could only be James Lite and that would be with a lot of work on his part. He says he wants to be friends, but he’s not you. I hated him on sight. With you . . .”
    “Yeah, I know.” He chuckled. “Still ready for me to turn straight so we can run away from all this?”
    “Every day. You ready to man up and do it?”
    He kissed my head. “Sorry, still gay. And unlike your new buddy, not bi.”
    “Still breaking my heart as always.”
    We both laughed and I leaned on his shoulder. Just like always, it was a great place to be.
    “It sucks