“I think you’ve given people plenty to be interested in besides the Twitter Terrorist case,” Cameron said. “Speaking of which, I’m glad you stopped by today. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
She folded her hands on top of her basketball-sized stomach, using it as a shelf. “Assuming all goes according to plan, Baby Boy Pallas will be here in about eight weeks. Which is a good thing—if it went much longer than that, I think Jack and I would be blacklisted at every baby store in the Chicago area.”
Cade chuckled. To say that Cameron’s husband, FBI Special Agent Jack Pallas, was a bit protective of his pregnant wife and unborn child would be an understatement. “What did Jack do now?”
“In addition to returning our third baby monitor in a row for having ‘questionable security controls,’ this weekend he interrogated the guys who delivered the baby furniture for forty-five minutes on their ‘training and special skills in the crib-installation arena.’”
Cade laughed at the image. He’d seen Pallas’s interrogation face—it wasn’t for the faint of heart. “Did they pass?”
Cameron shook her head. “Nope. So now I’ve got a box the size of a refrigerator sitting in the baby’s room instead of a crib. Jack asked Nick and Sam to come over this weekend,” she said, referring to two other FBI agents in the Chicago office. “Apparently, they’re going to put it together themselves.”
“What do McCall and Wilkins know about putting a crib together?”
“Exactly.” Despite Cameron’s wry tone, there was an unmistakable sparkle of happiness in her eyes. “Anyway, I’ve told the attorney general that I plan to take three months off for maternity leave, and we’ve agreed that the logical course is to name an acting U.S. attorney while I’m gone. The smoothest transition would be to temporarily promote someone from within the office, so the attorney general asked for my top recommendation. Which means . . .” she paused, with a sly expression, “that if you’re interested, the position of acting U.S. attorney is yours.”
Cade blinked. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary,” Cameron said. “You’ve earned it. You’re an excellent trial lawyer, and we have the same agenda in terms of cleaning up Illinois politics. I’m happy—and, candidly, relieved—to know that you’ll be holding down the fort while I’m gone.” She pointed, her gaze firm. “But it’s just for three months, Morgan. I will be back.”
“Understood. I promise not to burn the place down in your absence.”
“I appreciate that. And I wasn’t being flippant when I said that people are watching. You’ve come up in more than one conversation between the attorney general and myself. I have a feeling this acting U.S. attorney position is going to open a lot of doors for you.”
Cade worked hard as a prosecutor and enjoyed his job, but there was no denying that he’d begun to think about the next step in his career. Most AUSAs stayed on for ten years or less, with the majority going to lucrative positions at large firms afterward. Based on the assumption that he would want to continue on as a trial lawyer after leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he’d already put out feelers with two top-tier Chicago firms who’d expressed interest in bringing him on to lead their white-collar crime practices.
But, no doubt, this acting U.S. attorney position opened up even more opportunities. Assuming he didn’t screw up the job—which was a safe assumption since he planned to kick ass for those three months—this could very well be a springboard to higher-level political positions should he choose to continue on in the public sector.
He and Cameron began to discuss the logistics of the transition, and agreed that he would begin sitting in on status meetings with the AUSAs who were handling more complex cases, as well as meetings related to all new matters that came in over the next two months. Cameron also suggested setting up meetings with the heads of the Chicago branches of the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, ATF, and IRS to give him an overview of the open investigations their office was working on with each agency.
“When do you plan to tell the others?” he asked at the end of their meeting.
“Soon. I know people have been curious about what’s going to happen after I have the baby.” She placed one hand affectionately on her stomach. “Actually, I’m a little curious about that myself.”
“You know there’s a pool going around the FBI office, right? First