Hidden In Plain Sight by Amy Lee Burgess

Author:Amy Lee Burgess
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press, Inc.
Published: 2012-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The afternoon sun beat through the conference room windows with an almost malevolent vengeance. At least it seemed so to me thanks to my lingering headache.

The Italian Advisor, Marco, saw me wince when I walked into the room after lunch and hastily got up to draw the blinds. This produced an unsettling gloom that could not entirely be alleviated by the light cast from the hanging chandelier above the mahogany conference table.

I sat at the head of the table as Paddy hovered beside me. Kathy took the same seat behind the Advisor’s chairs and the panel of Councilors filed in to take their previous places.

Kathy had managed to get me to eat a warmed-up plate of the souffle, which now sat in an apprehensive lump in my stomach.

Someone in the room wore the same cologne Murphy liked to wear only it didn’t seem precisely the same because the body chemistry was different. It was enough alike to make me think Murphy was in the room for a moment, but he wasn’t.

I’d probably smelled it all morning, which had added to my frustration that he wasn’t with me. Odd how certain scents evoked emotional cravings.

Everyone took a few moments to settle. Water was poured, homemade chocolate chip cookies were passed around and chairs were adjusted.

Armentano and Hill had removed their jackets. Perkins kept his on, fastidious as ever, and probably conscious of his role as chairman of the panel.

Hill tried to catch my eye but I kept my gaze averted. The bruises on my hands were starting to ache and when I’d walked into the room I saw the marks of my fists on the wall.

At the moment I was drained and tired. I wished I hadn’t eaten the souffle because it only dragged me down further. The scent of Murphy’s cologne had sucked up the last bit of emotion inside me and now I felt hollow and insubstantial.

“Please tell us what happened when Nate Carver came back to the root cellar, Advisor Newcastle.” Although Perkins was chairman, it was Armentano who spoke. He was the ranking member of the Great Council and he took control easily. He was the kind of man who would dominate any room.

My thoughts flashed to Jason Allerton. He had the same sort of effect, only not as brutal and invasive as Armentano’s style. Councilor Armentano demanded attention. Jason Allerton simply was impossible to ignore.

“In your own words. There will be no more censoring,” Armentano added with a look at Hill, who gave an emphatic nod that appeared more conciliatory than anything else. The very force of it made me think he did it under protest.

Rosemary Young’s empathetic face was the one I focused on just as I had in the morning session.

“I don’t know how long I’d been there in the root cellar plotting to shift and escape, but when the lights came on, they scared me because I was half asleep. I was disoriented and shocked that I had let myself doze off. So I was off balance.

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