Read Flowertown for Free Online

Fenos, authority figures who liked to think they still had some ability to intimidate the population, and judging by the way some people still danced to their tune, she guessed they did. She put on her best game face, which looked very much like her “I don’t care” face and her “I wish I were higher” face, and took her time heading up the steps. There was nobody in the front of the office—not a good sign.
    “She’s here.” The new girl, perched as lookout, announced her arrival. Ellie could hear Big Martha swear under her breath and, as she turned the final corner to her little desk crammed as far back in the office as possible, saw that her boss was physically shielding her desk from two men and a woman in matching suits. They didn’t call her Big Martha for nothing. Ellie felt reasonably sure that all three suits, with the new girl in tow, couldn’t have moved the heavyset woman. Once Ellie was in sight, however, BigMartha sighed and, with some reluctance, took a step away from the desk.
    “Something I should know?” Ellie asked.
    Big Martha shot her a warning glance, telling her with overgrown eyebrows that the situation was serious. “It took you long enough.”
    “Meds.” Ellie addressed the answer to the three unsmiling suits.
    The new girl spoke quickly. “Your appointment was marked for eleven thirty.” She held out her watch. “It’s after one now.”
    Ellie leveled her gaze at the girl, no expression on her face. The girl stood her ground for a moment, then another moment, but as long seconds ticked past, her face flushed red. Nobody jumped in to save her, and Ellie let her twist a while before speaking.
    “Don’t get a wet spot just yet. The job is still mine.”
    “I…that’s not…you were supposed to…”
    Ellie dismissed her with a roll of her eyes and turned back to the people in the room who still thought they mattered. “Is there some sort of problem?”
    The shorter of the two men tapped a manila envelope against his palm. “Are you Eleanor Marie Cauley?”
    “Seriously?” Ellie asked. “Don’t you think we’re past that by now?”
    “Please answer the question. Are you Eleanor Marie Cauley?”
    Big Martha nodded at her to answer. “Yes. I am Eleanor Marie Cauley. But my friends call me Lady Esmeralda of Wainright.”
    The man smiled at that, still tapping the envelope. “Hello, Ellie.”
    “Or some people call me Ellie. Whichever you’re more comfortable with, Agent…?”
    “Mister. My name is Mr. Carpenter.”
    “Ah, Mr. Carpenter.” Ellie nodded, mimicking the false friendly body language of the man before her. “No Federales here, eh? Just working people. Feno Chemical getting down and dirty with the proletariat. Little PR stunt?”
    “Hardly.”
    Something about the man’s easy smile put Ellie on her guard. Maybe it was the way he tapped that envelope like it held the golden ticket or the way his coworkers tracked him from the corners of their eyes, making sure to stand just slightly behind him. This man held himself as the dominant force in the room, and Ellie understood that, although late to the party, she was being lured to conversion. She wouldn’t go easily.
    “Now that the niceties are out of the way, Mr. Carpenter, why don’t you tell me what exactly it is that I can do for you?”
    “Do you know what that red paint on the floor over there means, Ellie?”
    A thousand inappropriate answers rushed to her tongue, but Ellie took a deep breath to contain them. “Yes sir.”
    “Do you?” He held the envelope in mid-tap, feigning surprise at her answer. “Well now, that makes my job a little more complicated then. You see, that red paint is a clear indicator of where public files end and Feno Chemical confidential files begin. Everything on the red paint is tobe handled by authorized Feno Chemical employees only. I don’t suppose you’ve picked up classified authorization over the past few weeks, have you, Ellie?”
    “No sir. Haven’t been