Chapter 99

“Shannon is requesting you review three potential hires by the end of day,” Jillian said, standing by Marc’s desk and rattling off the things he needed to know about the next couple of days that weren’t on his usual schedule. “I’ve already taken a peek, and you can ignore the first two; she included them to make the third one look better. I think he might be someone’s nephew, I just haven’t narrowed down who yet, but I’ll find it for you. Tobias should be wrapping up the SelCor documents with his team today, and he’ll do final checks and have them to you tomorrow morning, so you should have data to give to Bob during your lunch tomorrow. And last thing - Fiona is pregnant again. She isn’t telling anyone yet, but she’s doing that same thing with the garbage cans that she did the last two times.”

Marc grunted softly and sighed. “What are the chances she doesn’t take the maximum leave again on the third baby?”

“Almost nothing,” Jillian grimaced slightly. “Her husband Jonas is apparently great with their oldest now, but is useless with them as babies.”

“Shit,” I said, shaking my head. Fiona had been a fantastic recruit to the department five years ago and I’d flagged her for a fast-track, but she’d taken two year-long parental leaves and both times she came back, she’d picked things up at a slower pace as she re-entered the team. If the trend continued with the next return, she wouldn’t be a benefit to the team, she’d be an anchor. And that fast-track was already off the table. “OK,” I said. “Keep an eye on it, and I’ll work up a package to see if we can pay her out a lump sum so she can just focus on her home life.”