A great resumé. Law review editor. Opinion writer for the state Attorney General. Chief counsel for the state legal ethics board. Assistant counsel for the state highway commission. Senior assistant then Chief of Staff to the Attorney General. Married. Two children.
Then a death. An off-year election. And now, Attorney General in his own right with marble-walled offices and parquet floors on the second floor state capitol building.
Political debts incurred were repaid with subtlety-slanted findings and fresh staff. Young, bright, connected, tempting.
One stood out. Given an office with an empty desk. Accompanied him on trips. Accommodating.
Restaurants. Baroque hotels in neighboring states. Reservations under assumed names lasting days longer that the scheduled meetings. Poolside. Sunglasses. Shadows.
One newspaper.
One front page.
One resignation.
One divorce.
One damn photograph.
Thomas Elson’s stories appear in numerous venues, including Blink-Ink, Ellipsis, Better Than Starbucks, Bull, Cabinet of Heed, Flash Frontier, Ginosko, Short Édition, North Dakota Quarterly, Litro,Journal of Expressive Writing, Dead Mule School, Selkie, New Ulster, Lampeter, and Adelaide. He divides his time between Northern California and Western Kansas.
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