LITMIR.BIZ

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miles) was wrapped up, she showered in the training facilities and grabbed a pack of crackers from the vending machine on her way out. She had the rest of the day at her disposal; four hours to do whatever she wanted before hitting the treadmill at the gym – a little routine she’d managed to fall into just to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

      What to do with the rest of her day? Maybe she could finally finish unpacking. There were still six boxes in her apartment that she had not cracked the packing tape to. That would be the smart thing to do. But she also wondered what Harry was up to this evening, if he would hold good for his drinks request. Did he mean tonight or some other night?

      And, beyond that, she wondered what Agent Ellington was doing.

      She and Ellington had nearly met up a few times but it had never stuck – likely for the best, as far as Mackenzie was concerned. She could go the rest of her life without being reminded of the embarrassment that had occurred between them back in Nebraska.

      As she tried to decide what to do with her afternoon, she headed for her car. As she slid the key into the door lock, she saw a familiar face go jogging by. The jogger, a fellow agent-in-training named Colby Stinson, saw her looking and smiled. She jogged over to Mackenzie’s car with energy that made Mackenzie think that Colby was starting her run, not wrapping it up.

      “Hey there,” Colby said. “Did the class leave you behind?”

      “No. I snuck in an extra run.”

      “Well, of course you did.”

      “What’s that supposed to mean?” Mackenzie asked. She and Colby knew one another fairly well, although it might be a long shot to say that they were friends. She was never sure when Colby was being funny or trying to get a rise out of her.

      “It means that you’re super-driven and a bit of an overachiever,” Colby said.

      “Guilty.”

      “So what are you doing?” Colby asked. She then pointed to the pack of crackers in Mackenzie’s hand. “Is that lunch?”

      “It is,” she said. “Sad, huh?”

      “A bit. Why don’t we go grab something? Pizza sounds awesome to me.”

      Pizza sounded good to Mackenzie, too. But she really didn’t feel like suffering through small talk, especially not with a woman that tended to lean a little too close to the gossipy side of conversation. Yet, on the other hand, she also knew that she needed more in her life than training, extra training, and holing herself up in her apartment.

      “Yeah, let’s do that,” Mackenzie said.

      It was a small victory – stepping out of her comfort zone and trying to make friends in this new place, in this new chapter of her life. But with each step, a new page was turned and she was, quite frankly, eager to start writing.

*

      Donnie’s Pizza Place was only half full when Mackenzie and Colby arrived there in the afternoon, the lunch crowd thinning out. They grabbed a table in the back and ordered a pizza. Mackenzie allowed herself to relax, resting her sore legs and arms, but was not able to enjoy it for long.

      Colby sat forward and sighed. “So, can we address the elephant in the room?”

      “There’s an elephant?” Mackenzie asked.

      “There is,” Colby said. “But it’s dressed in all black and sort of blends in most of the time.”

      “Okay,” Mackenzie said. “Explain this elephant to me. And tell me why you’re waiting until now to mention it.”

      “Something I never told you is that the first day you showed up at the Academy, I knew who you were. Just about everybody did. There was a lot of whispering. And that’s why I’m waiting to tell you now. As we get to the end of this, I don’t know how it is going to affect things.”

      “What whispering?” Mackenzie asked, pretty sure she already knew where this was going.

      “Well, the important parts are about the Scarecrow Killer and the meek little lady that bagged him. A little lady that was so good being a detective in Nebraska that the FBI came calling.”

      “That’s a rather glorified version of it, but yes…I recognize that elephant. You said the important parts, though. Are there other parts?”

      Colby looked suddenly uncomfortable. She tucked a strand of her brown hair nervously behind her ear. “Well, there are rumors. I’ve heard some agent played a hand in getting you on board. And…well, we’re in a male-driven environment. You can imagine how the rumors go.”

      Mackenzie rolled her eyes, finding herself embarrassed. She had never stopped to wonder what sorts of hushed rumors might have been circulating about her and Ellington, the agent that had indeed played a large part in getting her a shot at the Bureau.

      “Sorry,” Colby said. “Should I not have said anything?”

      Mackenzie shrugged. “It’s okay. I guess we all have our stories.”

      Apparently sensing that she may have said too much, Colby looked at the table and sipped nervously from her soda. “Sorry,” she said softly. “I just thought you should know. You’re the first real friend I’ve made here and I wanted to be as blunt as possible.”

      “Ditto,” Mackenzie said.

      “We good?” Colby asked.

      “Yeah. Now how about you throw out some other topic to talk about?”

      “Oh, that’s easy,” Colby said. “Tell me about you and Harry.”

      “Harry Dougan?” Mackenzie asked.

      “Yes. The would-be agent that seems to undress you with his eyes every time you’re in the same room together.”

      “Nothing to tell,” Mackenzie said.

      Colby smiled and rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

      “No, really. He’s not my type.”

      “Maybe you’re not his type,” Colby pointed out. “Maybe he just wants to see you naked. I wonder…what type are you? Deep and psychological, I bet.”

      “Why do you say that?” Mackenzie asked.

      “Because of your interests and tendency to excel in profiling courses and scenarios.”

      “I think that’s a common misconception about anyone interested in profiling,” Mackenzie said. “If you need proof, I can point you to at least three aging men on the Nebraska State Police.”

      Conversation dwindled down to the mundane after that – their classes, their instructors, and so forth. But all the while, Mackenzie seethed on the inside. The rumors Colby had mentioned were the exact reason she had decided to stay under everyone’s radar. She had not gone out of her way to make many friends – a decision that should have afforded her plenty of time to get her apartment set up.

      And under it all was Ellington…the man that had come into Nebraska and changed her world. It sounded clichéd to think such a thing, but it’s essentially what happened. And the fact that she still couldn’t get him out of her head was slightly nauseating.

      Even as she and Colby shared pleasantries as they finished their lunch, Mackenzie wondered what Ellington was up to. She also wondered what she would be doing right now if he had not come strolling through Nebraska during her attempt to bring down the Scarecrow Killer. It was not a pleasant image: she’d probably still be driving those agonizingly straight roads, bordered by either sky, fields, or corn. And she’d likely be partnered with some chauvinist prick that was just a younger and more stubborn version of Porter, her old partner.

      She did not miss Nebraska. She did not miss the routines of the job she’d had there, and she certainly did not miss the mindset. What she did miss, though, was knowing that she fit in. More than that, she was in the top tier of people in her department. Here in Quantico, that wasn’t true. Here, she had massive competition and she had to fight to stay at the top.

      Fortunately,

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