CHAPTER THREE
Jessica had a cup of coffee and a ham and cheese croissant waiting for Faith when she arrived at the diner. Faith smiled gratefully at her and took a long sip of the dark roast while Turk greeted Jessica with his usual enthusiasm before eagerly devouring his plate of eggs and roast beef.
“I called Arlington, P.D,” Jessica said.
“They gave Hozier some shit, but they’ve agreed to turn the case over to us.
The crime scene was already cleaned and re-opened to the public, but the cemetery’s closing soon, so we should be able to get a good look at it without getting in the way of anyone visiting. ”
Faith frowned. “Hozier went to bat for us?”
Markham Hozier was the SAC of the Washington Field Office.
He’d made it very clear that he wasn’t a fan of Faith and her penchant for bending and sometimes even breaking the rules.
He was very much not a fan of Torres, his most promising young agent, jeopardizing (in his view) her career by working with Faith.
Apparently, that hadn’t changed. “Oh no,” Jessica replied. “Hozier’s fuming. Director Smythe told him to open this case up for us, then called Arlington PD to let them know the FBI was usurping control of the investigation. They gave Hozier shit because you can’t give the Director of the FBI shit.”
Faith gave Jessica another grateful smile. “Thank you for handling that. It completely slipped my mind that I needed to actually get permission to do all of this.”
“No worries. You lost a friend. It’s okay if you’re not a hundred percent.
” She sighed and put on a professional look.
“However, I feel a need to point out that you’re not a hundred percent and ask if you’re certain you can handle this case.
Not just because you lost Hayes. There are other things getting in the way. ”
Faith regarded her young partner. Jessica was in her late twenties, about ten years younger than Faith. She looked it too with perfectly smooth youthful skin, baby blue eyes and natural blond hair that hung down to lithe shoulders atop an equally lithe body.
Faith knew better than to judge Jessica based on her appearance, though. Her partner had proven wise, mature, and brilliant many times over.
And loyal. When Faith told Jessica that David was mixed up in serious trouble, Jessica immediately promised to be there for both of them.
When they learned exactly how serious this trouble was, she still insisted on helping them in any way she could, including participating in the investigation against the 93rd Testing Brigade if it was necessary. Faith was lucky to have her.
And Jessica deserved an honest answer. The fact was, Faith had been off her game in their last investigation. There was no reason to believe that she was going to be back on her game this time.
Still, she believed she needed to be involved.
She made her case without shying away from the objections.
“I think I need to handle this case. I’m not a hundred percent, no, but I can investigate.
My weaknesses are going to show up in procedural areas like what you just handled tonight.
You might have to be the one to manage stakeouts, coordinate with the police, and file reports, but I can look at evidence and figure out what happened to my old comrade. ”
Jessica was quiet for a moment but eventually nodded slowly. “All right. I can handle the boring stuff.” She smiled. “But you owe me.”
“I owe you so much for so much more,” Faith agreed.
“I’ll add it to your tab.”
Jessica took a sip of her own coffee, something milky and sugary, and said, “So tell me about Hayes. What was your relationship like?”
Faith took a bite of her croissant and chewed thoughtfully. She didn’t think often about her time in the Corps. It was odd that she thought so little of it, but considering how dark and violent those memories were, it wasn’t that odd after all.
But not all of those memories were dark. Not all were violent.
“We were close.”
“Is that unusual?” Jessica asked.
“Yes. I mean, no one’s really close with the chaplain. Well, the more religious guys are, but most of us don’t want to be lectured about the evils of drugs, sex, and alcohol when we’re in the middle of a war.”
“Did Hayes lecture people a lot?”
“No, actually. He was focused on comfort, not judgment. We just felt guilty around him a lot. Stupid reasons, mostly. We were young. That’s the big thing that sticks with me from back then. We were so young.”
She took another bite of her food and tried to get her thoughts to come together.
“Hayes was always gentle with us. Always kind. Always ready with a prayer or a word of advice or encouragement. We liked him. I wasn’t religious, but I respected him a lot.
It’s very hard to stay grounded in the middle of a war, but he always was.
And when we’d come back after a firefight, limping, bleeding, playing the deaths of our comrades over and over in our mind, he was our rock. ”
“He sounds like a good man.”
“He was. He really was.”
Faith looked down at Turk, who watched her with kind, empathetic eyes. She recalled that look on Hayes’s face when she came home from a tough firefight that saw three of her squad members killed. She was shaking, crying, unable to even get words out.
“He just sat next to me for an hour. Didn’t say anything. Just laid a hand on my shoulder and waited.”
“Hayes?”
Faith realized she’d said that thought out loud.
“Yeah.” She took a breath, then returned her gaze to Jessica.
“You know me as a mostly stoic, seasoned, desensitized veteran agent. I’ve been there, done that, seen it all, and I’m generally not deeply affected by the things I see.
I’m passionate about what I do, and I get emotional when I see the effects murder has on the bereaved, but I’m not going to have nightmares about a dead body. ”
Jessica, like Hayes, was a great listener. She nodded but said nothing, knowing that Faith needed to finish her thought first.
“When I was younger, it was a different story. I joined the Marines when I was eighteen. Fresh out of high school. A Marine recruiter came to our school, and I signed up immediately. As soon as I got my diploma, I drove to the office and signed the paperwork.”
“Wow. You were driven.”
Faith laughed. “I was eager to get out.”
“Rough home life?”
Faith shrugged. “Not really. Just a directionless home life. My parents wanted perfect children. They got my sister, who was everything they ever dreamed of, and me, who got bored easily and acted out each time.”
“You were a rebellious child? I don’t believe it.”
Faith rolled her eyes at the sarcasm. “Yeah, yeah. I never got into serious trouble. No police or firefighters. I was on a first-name basis with the principals of each school I went to, though.” She laughed.
“When I joined the Marines, my high school guidance counselor just nodded and said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably the best option available to you right now.’”
Jessica grimaced. “Eww.”
“Yeah, she was a bitch.” She laughed. “Damn. I haven’t thought about this in years. I’m sorry. I know I’m kind of jumping all over the place. It just kind of opened up a lot of memories for me.”
“You’re fine.”
Turk placed his head on Faith’s lap. She smiled down at him and began stroking his fur down his neck.
“The point is, I joined the Corps so I could stop being reminded of how disappointing I was and have a chance to do something meaningful while having adventures and making new friends who didn’t mind that I was a wild child. ”
“I imagine the reality was a little different from what you expected.”
“Oh yeah. Yeah, rebellion doesn’t survive boot camp.
” Her smile faded, and she looked past Jessica again.
“But it was the fighting that really shocked me. I had never seen anyone seriously hurt before Iraq. One of the kids in my class broke his arm, but I didn’t see it.
He just came to school with a cast the next day.
That’s the closest I ever came to seeing someone hurt.
Then my first day on deployment, I saw a man split in half by a roadside bomb. ”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. Bit of a shock.”
Flashes of the event flickered across Faith’s mind.
It was, ironically, less disturbing than many of the things she’d seen during her career with the FBI, but the emotions it stirred up were far more intense.
One thought remained seared into Faith’s memory.
This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.
And Hayes was there for her. When she came back to base, sneaked off to the “junkyard” where vehicles were repaired or, if irreparable, cannibalized for parts, he found her, sat next to her, and stayed there until the shakes faded and she could talk about what happened.
And now she could see horrific things, people mutilated, humiliated, arranged as mockeries to satisfy the vindictiveness of deranged killers and never bat an eye. It made her a good agent, but she wondered sometimes if it made her a worse person.
That way lies madness, the voice of Jack Preston, her old FBI mentor, warned.
She took a deep breath and said, “Anyway, the point is that Hayes was an island in the storm for a lot of scared kids who had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into and no idea how to handle it.”
Jessica nodded. “And did everyone feel this way?”
Faith grinned. “Are you asking if I know anyone who might want to kill Hayes?”
Jessica smiled slightly. “Well, if you do, I figure it’s worth following up on.”
Faith sighed. “Yeah, it would be. Unfortunately, no. I served with him from the age of eighteen to twenty-one, and then he was assigned to another unit. I haven’t spoken to him in over fifteen years. Everyone I knew loved and respected him.”
Jessica nodded again. “I figured. Just thought I’d ask.” She finished her coffee and got to her feet. “Well, the cemetery’s closed now. We should go take a look at the scene.”
Faith got to her feet, and she and Turk followed Jessica out of the café.
The late afternoon traffic was nightmarish as usual, but Faith didn’t mind.
Talking to Jessica had helped clear a lot of the cobwebs from her mind, but she still wasn’t looking forward to investigating the brutal death of a man who had taught her how to survive exposure to brutal death.
She would find him justice, though. She hadn’t been there for him in life, but she would be here for him now that he was gone. She owed him that much.