“Good. Except for when your friend came by.”
That stopped her. “Who?”
“Littlefield.”
She closed her eyes and took three calming breaths before sheopened them. Zane was beside her, his pulse throbbing in his neck. She waited for him to look at her. “Okay?”
He didn’t answer her and instead focused on Greg. “Please give us the good news that he’s in jail.”
“Sorry. Though it wasn’t for lack of trying on my part.”
“What happened?” Tessa asked. “Start at the beginning. Please.”
Greg leaned against his desk. “He showed up around one thirty p.m. with a big basket.”
“Do we want to know what was in the basket?” Zane asked.
“He left it, so you can see for yourself.”
“What?” Zane looked around Greg’s desk area. “Where is it?”
Tessa put her hand on Zane’s arm. “Focus. We’ll worry about the basket in a minute. Let’s get the whole story first.” She turned to Greg. “Please, continue.”
“Right.” Greg pointed out the window. “I saw him getting out of his car, so I called Ms. Leslie to let her know we had some unwanted company and for her to stay put for a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” Tessa and Zane spoke at the same time.
“Ah. Wasn’t nothing. We all love Ms. Leslie. I didn’t want her to decide to head home and get caught in the middle of everything, especially since she was in here on a Saturday.”
She’d have to remember to add Greg to her coffee rotation when he was in the office. The man could be a scoundrel when it came to his dating life, but he knew his job and did it well.
“Anyway, he came to the door and walked right up to my desk as bold as could be.”
“Was his photojournalist with him?” Tessa asked.
“The cameraman? No. It was just Littlefield. He had this basket of stuff. Said he knew you were working today, and that it was an apology gift.”
Tessa shared a look with Zane. Sounded like Littlefield hadgotten his rear kicked over the report Friday evening and was trying to make amends.
“I told him he was welcome to leave the basket, but that he couldn’t go any farther. He got all yappy then. Rambling about freedom of information and freedom of the press. None of it made sense. I think he throws words like that around to try to intimidate people. I have a degree in political science and history. I know the Constitution. I also know the law as it relates to the presence of a reporter at a federal agency.”
Definitely adding Greg to the coffee club.
“I repeated myself. Kept my voice calm. Told him no one was allowed in without prior authorization, which he didn’t have. I did not mention that he was persona non grata. Didn’t seem to be the kind of thing he needed to know. But I did tell him if he wanted to speak to Special Agent Reed, he should call the office and schedule an appointment.”
Zane leaned against the wall. “How’d he take it?”
“’Bout as well as you might expect. There were several more minutes of blustering followed by his claiming he would be back with permission to enter.” Greg pointed to the cameras mounted in the corners of the room. “It’s all on video if you want to watch.”
“We’ll want to do that. Thanks.” Tessa could not believe this was happening. Wasn’t it enough that she had a viable threat against the president? But now she had to deal with Hank Littlefield’s idiocy?
“He left the basket. Said it was for you, and that he would be calling later.”
“Oh, joy.”
Greg chortled at her remark. “I hope you don’t mind, but I went through the basket. Took everything out. Scanned it. I haven’t had a dog come, but we can do that.”
Tessa couldn’t stop herself. She reached for Greg and took his hand. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
