snatched the package, then shoved it into the bottom drawer of his desk. He was tempted to lock the drawer except it would be a dead giveaway that these papers were precious to him.
“Good heavens,” Gray said. “Love letters? International intrigue? I can’t imagine what’s got your protective hackles so raised.”
Luke scratched behind his ear and looked out the window. “Like I said, it’s nothing.”
“When you were a little kid, do you know how I could always tell when you were lying?”
Luke quit scratching behind his ear. It was an old tell he’d forgotten about. He folded his hands across his chest and grinned. “Fine, it’s something,” he admitted. “I’m not ready to tell anyone about it yet.”
“Whatever it is, it’s making you blush.”
He was blushing because he was nervous and embarrassed. He wasn’t ready to peel back the layers of his soul and expose this wildly romantic, overblown experiment to his fusty older brother.
“Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to show it to the world, but for now?” He leaned over and locked the drawer. “For now, I’m keeping it to myself.”
Once Luke’s office was operational, he set about tracking down the lovely Marianne. He knew almost nothing about her except that she was pretty and valiant and that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her in the two weeks since they met on the ice.
The Department of the Interior was housed in a massive building on F Street with two marble wings built atop a granite foundation. The department was a hodgepodge of government agencies that didn’t neatly fit anywhere else. It oversaw the US Geological Survey, the Census Bureau, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Pensions, and a dozen smaller agencies.
Luke had an old friend who worked in the department’s accounting office. Oscar might have access to payroll records that could lead to Marianne’s identity.
Luke got straight to the point after entering Oscar’s crowded office. “I know the department has a team of photographers documenting the state of the city,” he said. “Do you know one named Marianne?”
Sadly, Oscar had no access to employee records. Over six hundred people worked for the Department of the Interior, and Oscar didn’t know of anyone named Marianne, but he managed payments for the department’s external vendors.
“I pay a weekly bill for our photographers to use a darkroom on Twelfth Street every Friday morning,” Oscar said. “You could probably track her down there. Better hurry, though. There’s a rumor that the government photographers will be getting the axe soon.”
“What do you mean?”
Oscar rolled his eyes. “Penny pinchers are always looking for ways to trim the budget. They’re saying that the government has plenty of blueprints to document all our buildings and bridges, so they don’t think the photographs add anything.”
Luke frowned. It was hard for a woman to make her way in this city, and he didn’t like the thought of Marianne losing her job because of tightfisted government bureaucrats.
“Thanks,” he said to Oscar, casually strolling from the office.
Where did this clawing sense of urgency to protect Marianne come from? He didn’t even know her, but he felt an instinctive need to look after her. He had connections throughout the city, and if Marianne needed help, he would be there to provide it.
Three
Marianne trudged down the sidewalk on Friday morning, cradling the satchel of photographic negatives for the pictures she’d taken this week. Ice and a crusty film of snow covered most of the sidewalk, but she aimed for the few patches of bare concrete as she made her way to the Gunderson Photography Studio. It was the largest studio in the city, with a gallery in the lobby, a studio for making portraits, and darkroom space that could be rented by the hour.
It was mercifully warm inside. She flashed a smile toward old Mrs. Gunderson at the front counter. “Is the government darkroom available?”
“Abel Zakowski is still using it, but he should be out soon.” Abel also worked for the Department of the Interior, although they performed drastically different tasks. While she took photographs of people and buildings all over the city, Abel took photographs at government speeches and events.
Marianne took a seat in the waiting area. It was crowded today, with a number of families lined up to have their portraits made. Photography was becoming more affordable, with some people coming every few years for new family pictures. Marianne’s gaze ran across the photographs mounted on the wall. None of