CHAPTER ELEVEN
Faith could see by Cuthbert’s expression when he walked into the room that she was right. The detective gave her a wan smile. “Well, you were right,” he admitted. “Knights of Nature have never committed any violent act. Besides the animal skins thing, they’ve tied themselves to a couple of trees and poured water dyed with food coloring to represent blood on themselves to protest some land development in Bellevue. But no violence.
"As far as Alex Forrester, he's… well, like you said. So far, all bark and no bite. He's been questioned a couple of times, and each time, he's really meek and cooperative. He seems to be really passionate about his animal rights beliefs, but… yeah, those things about advocating all the garish slaughter of people and stuff did, in fact, come from an essay he wrote in college. He did send those threatening notes to Chen and Reeves, though. I don’t have enough to hold him right now, but he’s going to be watched, and we are going to keep looking at him. The no alibi thing still makes me wonder if maybe he’s getting braver. But… as of now, I’m inclined to agree with you.”
Faith sighed. “Can’t say I’m overjoyed but thank you for finding out for sure. Keep looking at him and look at the others in his group. Maybe someone else is braver.”
“Will do.”
He headed out, and Faith gave Michael a similarly wan smile. “Well, so much for that.”
“Yeah. Damn it.”
Faith shrugged. “At least we followed up.”
“Yeah, but we wasted time following up. We could have been out there looking for the real killer.”
“Well, let’s not give up on this yet. I’m only ninety-five percent sure Alex isn’t the killer.”
Michael glared at her. “That makes me feel much better.”
She tried to chuckle but only managed a half-smile. “Let’s get some rest. Cuthbert’s team will be looking into the other Knights of Nature kids through the night. We should recharge.”
“We can go back to the hotel and get some dinner and more coffee,” Michael said, “but I don’t think either of us are getting much sleep tonight.”
“No,” she agreed. “Probably not.”
***
It was nearly midnight when they arrived at their room. Turk yawned and trotted in between the beds, turning in a circle before falling instantly asleep.
Unfortunately for the human agents, Michael was right. They were exhausted, but Faith couldn’t shut her brain down, and it looked like Michael had the same problem.
The other problem was that there wasn't much to do about the case right now. Their one lead had evaporated almost completely. They were chasing the smoke, hoping to find another burning ember, but as it stood, the killer of Alison Chen and Marcus Reeves was still at large.
They ordered room service and ate in silence, then showered in equal silence, Faith first, then Michael. After they were clean, Michael made more coffee.
And finally, they ran out of things to occupy themselves and only sat there, unable to sleep.
Michael broke the silence. “How’s David handling the Allentown thing?”
Faith shrugged. “He’s handling it. He’s not happy, but he’s just as gung-ho about living with me as ever. This will all be over soon, and we’ll get to move in finally. He says it’s worth the wait.”
“At the risk of getting slapped, how are you handling the Allentown thing?”
“Why would I slap you for that?”
“I don’t know. You just get irritated anytime I ask you something you’re uncomfortable answering.”
“So do you.”
“Yes, but I’m a teddy bear.”
She chuckled softly. “You are a teddy bear,” she agreed. “I’m fine with Allentown. I don’t like the commute, but it is what it is. The killer hasn’t found me yet, or at least hasn’t killed anyone to get my attention since I moved. David sees me every Tuesday and Sunday, and I don’t mind that we’re not always around each other.”
He frowned a little. She gave him a warning glance. “Now you’re at the risk of getting slapped.”
“I know. But you’re my friend, and I need to say this. Please don’t string David along if you don’t want to live with him. It will only hurt you.”
She sighed. “Do we have to talk about this again?”
“No. I’m done. I said my piece.”
She sighed and rubbed her temples. “It’s just not that simple, Michael. I do love him. I just… Look, I’m not going to bring up old feelings again, but it matters to me that you’re the only person I can talk to about my job. I can’t go home to David feeling like… like this , knowing that all I’ll get from him is sympathy. I mean, doesn’t it bother you that you and Ellie can’t talk about work?”
“No. I prefer to keep my work life and my personal life separate. If I’m stressed, she’ll massage me and make me a nice dinner or something, but we don’t talk about it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You were the wrong person to ask.”
“I was. But look, just tell him how you feel.”
“I don’t want to lose him, though. It’s… After we talked in Alaska, I was going to break up with him, but when I saw him and spent the night with him and talked to him, I realized that I don’t want to lose him. I still love him, and I want to spend my life with him. I just need my space. I don’t always need to be around someone else. David, though, he needs to be around me. Maybe not needs, but the whole moving in thing…”
“Has nothing to do with David being needy and everything to do with you being afraid to adjust your life to another person.”
She glared at him. “Gee, thanks, Dad.”
“Insult me all you want. But it’s true. And it’s valid. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to do that. You’re a grown adult, and if you’re happier not living with someone else, you have every right to live alone. Plenty of people do it and live very happy lives.”
“But David won’t.”
“And you need to decide if you’re going to let him go or if you’re going to keep him. There’s no such thing as a perfect life, Faith. If you are happier with David than without him, talk to him. Who knows? Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe David will understand and be happy keeping things at arms’ length.”
She bit her lip. “Do you really think so?”
“Honestly? No. I think he needs someone he can marry one day. But I don’t know him that well. We’ve only seen each other a few times. I could be wrong. And so could you. I know it almost never happens to the Great and Glorious Faith the Bold, but almost isn’t always.”
She chuckled softly. “Yeah. You’re right.” She sighed. “But what if he breaks up with me?”
“You can lure me out into the wilderness and beat me up for making you do this.”
She giggled at that. Turk stirred and opened one eye, and she suppressed her laughter and said, “Sorry, boy.”
Turk snorted and closed his eye again. Faith grinned at Michael. “I really will.” Her smile faded. “I just don’t want to lose the best relationship I’ve had. I just wish that we could both be happy with what we have now and never need anything more—why are you smiling?”
“Because you said that David is the best relationship you’ve had. Which means you’re not mooning over me anymore.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, good for you. Now you don’t have to worry about me fighting Ellie to the death for your hand in marriage.”
Michael grimaced. “And we will now change the subject. I’ve been thinking about the case. I’m thinking we might be looking at the wrong angle for our killer.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, we’re looking at the victims’ behavior when I think we should be looking at their connections: friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and so forth.”
“We already looked into Alison Chen’s friends and family.”
“But we didn’t do the same for Marcus Reeves,” he pointed out. “We jumped right on the train of animal rights abuse and vengeance because it fit with her.”
“It fit with Marcus too. He ran a zoo that got shut down for poor care of their animals.”
“That’s true, and we’ve pulled that thread, as we should have. It hasn’t panned out yet, but we have the cops looking through the rest of that thread. If they find something, we’ll keep following it, but right now, we need to think of where to go next, and I’m thinking the where we go next should be Marcus Reeves’ personal life.”
Faith nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
“That was mighty enthusiastic of you, Faith,” Michael said drily. “So clearly, you see things differently. Let’s practice having uncomfortable conversations. You can tell me what you think I don’t want to hear, and when I don’t immediately end our friendship, you’ll know you can have uncomfortable conversations with him.”
She glared at him. “One, my relationship with David is very different from my relationship with you. Two, I don’t mind pissing you off. Three, we’re talking about the case, not our personal lives.”
“Yes, but now you’re mad at me, so you won’t mind letting me know that you disagree with me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Very clever of you, Special Agent Prince. You have helped me see the error of my ways.”
“Happy to help. So what’s the hangup? Why do you not want to look into his personal life?”
“I do. It’s standard procedure. I just feel like we’re missing something glaringly obvious.”
“You feel that way every case.”
“And it’s true every case.”
“It’s also true that we figure out what that glaringly obvious thing is by continuing to put work in. We chase leads, they don’t work out, we chase new leads… how many times have we had this conversation?”
She glared at him again. “Okay, I get it. You don’t need to be a jerk about it.”
"I wasn't. It just hit me. This is part of our process, too. One of us gets pessimistic or unsure, and the other person talks them down. Huh. We really do work well together."
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe, but you’re still annoying as hell.”
“Fair enough. So let’s start looking at Marcus Reeves, and if the glaringly obvious thing reveals itself, let me—”
Faith’s phone rang. Cuthbert. She lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe this is the glaringly obvious thing.”
“Stranger things have happened,” Michael said. “So often that they might not actually be that strange.”
Faith answered and put the phone on speaker. “Do you have something for us, Detective?”
Cuthbert’s reply brought to mind another common thread in all of their cases. The killer moving a step faster than the two of them moved. “We have another body. A vet at the Big Wilderness Zoo. She was killed an hour ago.”
Faith’s smile faded. “Is Alex Forrester still with you?”
“We released him three minutes ago. The Big Wilderness Zoo is sixteen minutes away if you hit every green light. It’s not him.”
Michael leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Their good mood from a moment ago was gone. “I understand,” Faith said. “We’re on our way.”
She hung up and sighed heavily. “Shit.”
“Yep. At least we know you were right about Alex.”
She looked out the window at the night beyond. “Sometimes, I really wish I was wrong more often.”