Alien in the House

paper with writing; and things that were either trash or such obscure clues we’d never figure them out. This third pile every one of us looked at, Pierre included, and then we set it aside for Chuckie to enjoy at his leisure, with the assumption that if there was something in them, he’d be the only one with a prayer of finding it.
    This focused us back onto the pieces of paper and the calendars and planners. Gower and I took the pieces of paper, Raj and White took the planners, Jeff had the calendars. I explained my Sith Lord Theory while we searched. Everyone other than Jeff thought it made sense.
    “I believe I’ve found something, Ambassador,” Raj said after a while.
    “Dude, what happened to Kitty?”
    He grinned. “Just testing. At any rate, there are some consistent entries in all the calendars. They aren’t much to go on, but every one of these has some meeting with ‘L’ in them. Most are within a month of death.”
    “So, our killer’s name begins with the letter L.”
    “Maybe.” Jeff didn’t sound convinced. “But that’s quite a leap, baby.”
    “Is it? We know three people who could be or are involved whose names start with that letter.”
    “We do?” Gower asked.
    “Lillian Culver, Langston Whitmore, Lydia Montgomery. And that’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more.”
    “I’m sure there are more, too,” Jeff agreed. “That’s my point. There are a lot of people whose first or last names start with L. That doesn’t mean they’re the same person in each calendar entry, or the murderer. A lot of people abbreviate their appointments.”
    “Do you have anything else?”
    Jeff sighed. “No, not yet. And before you ask, yes, I see some L appointments.”
    “If the Mastermind is as thorough as he seems, why would he leave this information for us to find?” White asked.
    “Why in the world do you think the Mastermind would do office cleanup?” Pierre asked, sounding just slightly offended.
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “Darling, do
you
clean this Embassy? No, you absolutely do not. You are the ambassador, and the Embassy is cleaned
for
you. Does the President pick up his own dry cleaning? I sincerely doubt it, and if he does, he and I need to have a serious talk about what a personal assistant is and why the most powerful man in the world should be using one. And so on. If the Mastermind is as everyone says, then he’s not going to be doing something so mundane as cleaning out the offices of his victims. That’s what one has staff for, darlings.”
    “Pierre makes an excellent point,” White said. “And if we go with the Sith theory, then one of the Apprentices or aspiring Apprentices would have done that work.”
    “It could explain why you found less in some offices and more in others, too,” Raj added. “Different Apprentices doing the work at different times.”
    The com turned on. “Excuse me, Chief, but we’ve been contacted about the late Mister Reyes’ things. Apparently he left no forwarding address and they can’t determine next of kin. The lady at Rayburn House is asking if we can take possession of whatever was left in his office.”
    “Yes, Walt, tell her we will. Please tell her we’ll also be sending over some people to do the packing and such.”
    “Will do.”
    Gower was already on his phone. “Great, thanks.” He hung up. “James is sending over some Field Teams to do the packing.”
    Raj looked at me. “Would you like me to oversee that, Kitty?”
    “Dude, it’s like you read my mind. Please, and thank you.”
    Raj handed his pile of stuff to White, then he zipped off. Gower sent a text. “James is aware and has advised his teams. Raj will handle any confusion, I’m sure.”
    “Me too.” Looked at my watch. “We’ve got to get moving. Jeff and I are supposed to be at the Brewers’ place in a few minutes.”
    “They live close, at least as far as they said at lunch yesterday,” Jeff said. “Should we walk, take a gate, or take a car?”
    “I’m freaked out about walking. You’re such an easy target if we’re on the street.”
    “So are you.” Jeff shook his head. “We didn’t live in fear when we were with Centaurion Division. I don’t want to live in fear now, either.”
    “Sorry, Jeff,” Gower said. “But under the circumstances, you’re not allowed to walk around with a target on your chest. You’re taking a limo. Com on!”
    “Yes, Pontifex Gower?”
    “Please have