Evening staff meeting ended up lasting close to an hour. Josh had come down off his victory high a little as he listened to CJ talk about an unnamed White House source that gave Steve a quote that had him jumping up and down, and listened as Toby and Sam talked about their progress on the President’s address for next week at the United Nations. But as he crossed the northwest lobby again headed for the bullpen, his excitement returned anew. Donna was going to be so happy. No one had expected him to be able to sew up the votes for the funding in this meeting. They were, he decided, going home at a decent hour tonight. They’d earned it. Both of them. Donna really deserved the credit for getting him started on this anyway.

“Donnatella Moss!” he shouted as he burst through the double doors into the bullpen. Everyone was working away, and most barely noticed him as he came in shouting. It was, after all, an hourly occurrence.

“I don’t think she’s here,” Ryan offered.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t see her anywhere.”

“Ah. Okay. She hasn’t come back at all since I’ve been in staff?”

“I haven’t seen her since I came back an hour ago,” Ryan offered, “But that doesn’t mean she isn’t here somewhere. I honestly didn’t even know you were in staff.”

“Okay, well, I’m gonna go in my office for a little bit and you should, you know, continue standing there, taking up valuable space and breathing air that could be put to better use elsewhere.”

“Will do,” Ryan said as Josh turned and went back into his office.

Where had she gone again? He picked up the green Post-It he’d left on his desk. As often happened with Donna’s stylistic penmanship, a second look worked like a decoder ring and he could read it clearly:

Josh,

Going to Karim’s for Capitol Subs. Couldn’t bear the thought of another meal from the mess! Back before you know it. Don’t spoil your dinner!

Donna

“Capitol Subs!” he said out loud. Well, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than carp tonsils. He looked at the clock, wondering when she’d left. 6:07. His mouth watered in anticipation of Karim’s handiwork. He picked up a briefing memo and settled down in his chair, throwing his feet up on the desk.

You’d better hurry, Donna, he thought to himself. War makes a man hungry, and only a meal fit for the master of all he surveys will do.

**************************

6:07. Donna stared at the clock high on the wall. She was feeling much calmer about the situation. The three of them seemed calm, so that made her feel calm. She wasn’t lightheaded anymore and was almost thinking normally again. The leader was still in the lobby with them, but the strong one had gone into the back about ten minutes earlier, when the short one had let out a whoop and declared success with the vault. The bank manager had looked at one of the other employees nervously when it happened. Donna didn’t think he should worry. They weren’t going to hold him responsible for this. He did what he was told to do. He did what was smart. He didn’t upset their plans. That was going to work out best for everyone.

She could hear the two of them moving things around in the back. She assumed they were moving money out of the vault. She found herself briefly wondering how much money was in a small branch vault like this. More than enough to pay all her bills and leave her with enough for a cabana in Hawaii and a villa in the Mediterranean. She almost smiled at the thought. But a ragged breath drawn by the teller next to her brought her back to reality. She chided herself silently. This wasn’t a game of “What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery?” She briefly wondered if she wasn’t a little hysterical to be thinking about it. Well, whether or not she was, she felt calm, anyway. And she was glad of that.

***************

The dinner rush was in full swing across the street at Capitol Grille, and Karim had been his usual busy self, cooking like a madman and chatting up his customers. It was only when he caught sight of a take-out order still sitting on the front counter that he took a moment to glance at the ticket. His brow furrowed when he read “Donnatella” in his own handwriting. He’d finished her order, what, an hour ago?

“Sarah,” Karim called to the Georgetown student running the register. “Donna never came to pick up her order?”

Sarah walked over and looked at the ticket, her young face contorting a little as she read. “I haven’t seen her since she was talking to you earlier,” Sarah said. “I didn’t even realize this was sitting here. To be honest, in the dinner rush I’d forgotten all about her.”

“Yes. I just assumed she’d come back while I was busy,” Karim replied.

“Maybe something happened and she had to go back in to work,” Sarah offered.

“Maybe,” Karim said, glancing across the street as he remembered Donna’s trip to the ATM. “But she said she was just going to the teller machine, and then she was headed back to the White House anyway.”

“Well, maybe it was an emergency,” Sarah reasoned. “They could have called her cell phone, and maybe there wasn’t really time to come back. Do you want me to have it delivered?”

“We could call her and ask, I suppose,” Karim said distractedly. “Her number should be in the call-in customer database.”

Sarah nodded and headed to the touch screen behind the register.

Karim was still staring at the bank thoughtfully. Something just didn’t seem right. “But...she was just running across the street for some cash, I don’t understand why she couldn’t just stop back by. What could have been that urgent?”

“No, I know, ‘cause it’s just the White House,” Sarah joked good-naturedly, scrolling through the customer database. “Oh, and speaking of cash, the modem’s up again.”

Karim didn’t answer. Something was off. He wasn’t a superstitious man. He’d seen too much in his life to believe in hokum. But something about the appearance of the bank, about Donna, about the whole situation, was making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Then the pieces fell into place. The blinds. The blinds in the lobby were never closed. They were always left open, so the lobby could be clearly seen at night.

“Sarah, has Fred come by yet tonight?”

“Haven’t seen him yet,” Sarah said, still scrolling through the database. Fred was the security guard at the bank across the street and a regular at Capitol Grille. On Friday nights, he’d get a take-out order for him and his wife on his way home from work. It was Friday, and the bank had closed an hour ago. These weren’t appointments, Karim realized. These people didn’t have some obligation to stop by. But Karim knew his business and he knew his clientele. An uneasy feeling started creeping up his spine.

“Sarah, let me know as soon as you get Donna,” he said before turning to take another order.

*********************

Ten minutes later, Sarah gave her boss an update.

“Karim!” she called over the sizzle of the grill. “I got Donna’s voicemail, so I left a message.”

“Voicemail?” Karim turned around. “We have her cell number?”

“Yeah,” Sarah nodded, “That’s what I called.”

The uneasy feeling grew worse. “Fred come by yet?”

“No,” Sarah answered, her curiosity growing with her boss’s distress.

“Okay, you know what,” he said, flipping a portion of sautéed peppers and onions on the griddle expertly. Go back in my office and pull Donna’s card out of the Rolodex for me. Donna Moss.”

“I know,” she chided him gently as she headed to the back of the store. She grew serious. “Hey, what are you thinking?”

“Nothing,” Karim said as he scooped another hot portion of meat and vegetables into a bun. “Probably nothing.”

***********************

Josh was elbow deep in the briefing memo when he heard Ryan’s shout from the bullpen.

“Josh! Line 3!”

“Who?” Josh shouted back.

Ryan appeared at the door and sighed heavily, as if contemplating the meaning of life. “I do not know.”

“You’re a big help, you know that?” Josh said before stabbing Line 3. The Caller ID read “Capitol Grille.”

He smiled and picked up the phone, “You’d better not be calling me to say they’re out of Capitol Subs, ‘cause Donna, I’m a man with a victory tonight. I’m a victorious man and I’m in need of a victory meal.”

On the other end of the line, Karim didn’t laugh at the joke. Donna wasn’t at work, and Josh believed she was here, and she wasn’t answering her cell. “Josh?”

Josh’s face fell abruptly when it wasn’t Donna on the other end of the line. “Karim?”

“Yeah.”

Josh was thoroughly confused. “What’s going on?”

The conversation that followed had set Josh swinging on an emotional pendulum. Karim had apologized for calling Josh at work, explaining that he had Donna’s card, which had the White House switchboard number on it. He’d asked if Donna was there, even though he knew the answer. Karim told Josh about his conversation with Donna, about the unclaimed takeout order, and how he’d started to worry when he hadn’t seen another of his regulars from the bank. Josh had gone from confused to interested to concerned.

“When did she leave the shop?”

“About 5.”

Josh looked at his watch. 6:36.

“Five!?!” he yelled. Dread started winding his stomach into knots immediately.

“Yeah, but like I said, I’ve seen nothing to make me think...it’s just this silly thing with the blinds,” Karim said, walking toward the front of the store again with the shop’s cordless phone.

“Okay, you know what, I’m gonna call somebody at MPDC. Have them drive by or something. They’ll know if it’s anything,” Josh said, mind already racing.

“It may be nothing,” Karim said again.

“Well, maybe, but if you think it might be something and I think it might be something, then...it just doesn’t sound like Donna.”

“No,” Karim said in agreement.

“Okay. Thanks for calling.”

“Josh? You’ll keep me informed?”

Josh smiled. Karim was a good man. He loved Donna. Everyone who’d ever met Donna loved her. “Of course. Bye.”

Josh called the front desk and confirmed what time Donna had signed out. After trying Donna’s cell phone with no luck, he called Bob Linden, a detective Sam knew at MPDC. He and Toby were holed up in Toby’s office working on the speech, so he called Ginger and got the name and number with no explanation as to why. It really didn’t matter that it wasn’t Sam calling. Josh may be next to unrecognizable in most of the country, but inside the Beltway, his was a name people knew. He’d explained the situation to Det. Linden, who’d listened intently. He told Josh he’d check into it, and would call him back, saying they’d probably send an officer to drive by the bank.

Barely five minutes had passed when his direct line rang again. He snatched it up, hoping that it was Donna calling to apologize for some mishap that had held her up. Instead, it was Linden, a little more frantic than the last time they’d talked.

“You said that was the branch on E Street?” Linden asked.

“Yeah, right off 14th.”

“Okay. Hang on.” Josh could hear Linden speaking excitedly with someone in the background. “Okay, Mr. Lyman, we’re going to send a couple guys by there and I’m gonna get back to you.”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Nothing yet. I just wanted to double-check the location,” Linden hedged.

“Well...is there —”