“What is NAGPRA, DI?”
Gene had been going through his files, trying to get up to speed on everything. He was sitting next to Julie, laptop in his lap, wiping his finger across the screen as he read. Ethan was pretty sure Julie took Gene’s hiring as a bad sign, bordering on a threat. She had started staying for client meetings and Guy—never one to turn down an opportunity to play into vampire stereotypes—could not have been happier by this development and how uncomfortable she looked sitting in the corner taking notes, trying to shrink herself out of existence whenever Guy glanced in her direction.
“That’s a pro bono file,” Julie said. “None of your concern.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s pro bono.”
“So … just because it’s pro bono that means he doesn’t need any support?”
Ethan reached out and lowered Gene’s laptop screen so that it was half closed. “We try to minimize the resources devoted to pro bono work whenever possible.”
“Well, that seems somewhat disingenuous,” Gene remarked, green eyes wide and the right side of his mouth curled down.
“This is not a charity—”
“NAGPRA is The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, right? Then DI would be Department of Interior I suppose?”
Now Gene had Julie’s attention and curiosity, she gave up scolding him and leaned towards his computer to look at the file he was reading. She said nothing, but having two of them prying into the John Wilson case was infinitely more stressful than one.
Ethan tried to change the subject, “Julie, do we have approvals from finance on those fundraising events yet?”
“I haven’t gotten a response—Let me go ask.”
She stood and he started to say no, let Gene handle it. Let this be another opportunity for him to figure out where everything was and who everyone was. He wanted to say that, but she was on her feet and out the door before he’d even muttered a single word.
That was the other thing. Since Gene was a threat, Julie had become incapable of delegating a single solitary task. It was as if the volume of tasks completed was going to secure her position.
They watched her race out, eager on the verge of panic. Gene turned back slowly, smiling that little cocky smile of his.
“What?” Ethan snapped.
“Nothing! She’s pretty uptight, don’t you think?”
“She’s excellent at her job.”
Except she really wasn’t. She wasn’t bad at her job and there were parts she did excellently, but there were other parts she didn’t do at all. Still, maybe out of loyalty or maybe out of the need to put Gene more properly in his place, Ethan couldn’t bear to admit that Julie was anything less than the perfect GRA.
“So,” Gene hummed. “What does NAGPRA have to do with vampires?”
“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with them. I told you, I have other clients.”
“Mmm, no, you don’t. I’ve been through all of your files. And this one is listed under the same billing ID as a chunk of work that’s quite obviously about vampires. So—NAGPRA?”
Ethan sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“It’s not, I assure you.”
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