CHAPTER ONE #2
“You said, ‘With everything going on right now.’ What does that mean?”
Kate folded her arms across her chest. She glanced at herself in the mirror behind Gabe’s desk, saw how petulant she looked, and unfolded her arms. “Why do you have this mirror and why is it behind your desk?”
“So that supplicants asking me for assistance with their papers and research assignments can see how pathetic they look.”
She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “Right. Um… Well, you know. Everything.”
Gabe unfolded his hands and sat up. He sipped his tea and looked pointedly at Kate until she did the same. The tea was indeed very aromatic, floral, fruity, and sweet. The flavor matched the aroma and the sweetness clarified into a surprisingly intense apricot note near the end.
When he still stared at her after she set her teacup down, she said, “Delicious.”
He smiled, pleased. Then, still smiling, he said, “Kate, you came here to talk to me, and now you’re not talking to me. I don’t feel right about pressuring you any more than I already have, but I also don’t feel right about allowing you to come all this way without at least giving you my thoughts.”
Kate nearly reminded him once more that she was already in town but just kept her mouth shut instead.
He set his teacup down, gave her a frank look, and said, “I believe you’re avoiding confronting your feelings regarding your relationship with your mother and your recent brush with fame after capturing Elijah Cox twice.
While I don’t believe you’re obsessing over Cox, I do know for a fact that you’re uncomfortable with attention and you’re worried that your recent revisitation of your father’s past has caused new tension between you and your mother. ”
Kate stared at Gabe in amazement. Gabe Levine was among the most brilliant men she’d ever met.
His understanding not only of language but of how language shaped human culture, development, and history was next to none.
His intuition regarding language as symbolism, particularly as it applied to the cases she investigated was similarly amazing.
And from time to time, he did have some very sharp insight into Kate’s own personal life.
So, to hear him say something so spectacularly wrong was a bit shocking to say the least.
She was too surprised to say anything before Gabe continued.
“I think you’re pouring your energy into the case rather than confronting these issues because you understand casework.
You even—forgive me for such a crude summary, but it works for this conversation—understand Cox.
But fame? You are an utter stranger. Your mother?
Not a stranger, but I know as well as anyone how difficult family can be.
I think you’re trying to pretend those things can wait because it’s easier to believe your time is better spent on the case than it is to confront the messy and confusing aspects of your ordinary life. ”
Kate sipped more of her tea, and tried to think of a response.
True, fame was uncomfortable, but it was already over for Kate.
No one stopped her in the grocery store.
No one wanted her autograph. She could go jogging in a comfortable tracksuit that hung a little loose and made her look skinnier than her already slender frame and no tabloids would snap a picture of her and print the headline, FBI WUNDERKIND’S POOR FASHION SENSE TURNS HEADS!
As for her mother? Well, complicated was the best word to describe their relationship, but it had actually gotten significantly less complicated since they both confronted the reality of her father’s murder nearly fourteen years ago.
Not all the wounds were healed, and some never would be, but they loved each other fiercely and they were both beginning to decide that it was okay if there were shadows in their shared past.
When she couldn’t come up with anything, she finally relented and said, “I see.”
“And you are still committed to not talking about it.” He sighed theatrically. “Well, I’m here for you if you need me. I do care for you, Kate.”
“I know. I care for you too.”
He sipped more of his tea, then said, “You know what this calls for?”
“Crumpets?”
“Cheeky,” he scolded, waggling his finger at her again. “The answer is cookies. There are wonderful biscottis in the lounge. I’ll bring us some.”
He left the room, walking—she didn’t want to think waddling—like a well-fed duck after a pleasant meal.
While he was gone, Kate thought about what Gabe had said.
Gabe wasn’t completely wrong, though. She was avoiding something.
Her phone buzzed. A text from the subject of the something she was avoiding. Hey, Kate. Need you to come to the office ASAP.
She blinked. Nothing else. No explanation. No additional information. No question about how she was doing after the review board cleared her to return to duty but left an inch-thick sheaf of formal reprimands in her file. Just come to the office.
She texted back. Everything okay?
A second later. Yep. See you soon.
Okay…
The door opened, and Gabe walked back in. “I swear, Kate, there are days when I despair utterly of humanity’s chance at a bright or even a decent future.”
“Someone ate your biscottis.”
“Must you pronounce it like that? So American? And yes, someone ate all of the biscottis.” He dropped into his chair and sighed heavily.
“Well, I can’t provide you the tea-drinking experience you deserve, but I can tell you that I’ve decided to stop lecturing you and remind you that while you almost constantly worry about your mental state, you have consistently overcome every challenge associated with it.
You’ve made a habit out of spitting in the Devil’s eye, and if you sense an allusion there, you should know it’s very intentional.
I am certain that you’ll navigate both this case and the twists and turns of your personal life with the tenacity and aplomb you’ve always shown. ”
Kate smiled. “If I had half the ability you had to form words, I would never have left academia.”
His smile faded, and grief washed over his features.
Kate winced. The real reason she left academia was that Gabe encouraged her to after her father’s death.
She was in the first year of her graduate studies in linguistics when her father was murdered.
Her aspirations switched from academia to solving crime.
Gabe sensed that and encouraged her to join the FBI.
That career had been the most fulfilling change of Kate’s life, but it had killed her chance at a normal life and exposed her to the interest and obsession of psychopaths like Robert Denton, the killer who had nearly murdered her ten years ago, and Elijah Cox, whose fixation on her was in a way even more disturbing since he sometimes suggested that the commandment killings were because of her.
Gabe still held himself at least partly responsible for those ill effects. Kate didn’t, but she knew as well as anyone that guilt cared little for the opinions of its object.
She tried to recover. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m grateful to you for advising me—”
“Nonsense,” Gabe said, flipping his hand. “Heaven knows we have no need to tread over that old ground. Just tell me what part of the conference you’re most excited for, and why exactly it’s my lecture on the influence of Ancient Near East pictographs on later alphabetic traditions?”
He grinned, the familiar twinkle back in his eye. Kate sighed. “I’m so sorry. Marcus just texted me.”
His grin vanished again. “Oh no. A murder?”
“He didn’t say. He said everything was okay, but he needs me to go in to the office.”
“Ah. Well, if it was a murder, he would say.” He sighed. “Very well. I’ll send you footage of the lecture. I’m sure you’ll find it riveting.”
“I can’t wait.” She got to her feet and flashed a sly smirk. “Tell Sally I said hi.”
“I will do no such thing,” he replied cheerfully.
Once more, Kate wasn’t sure if he was joking.
As she headed back to the office, Kate’s worries shifted from the more personal concern over her feelings for Marcus to a more immediate professional concern.
She had only recently been granted permission to continue working after a review board debated firing her for cutting off contact with Marcus and their boss and going off the reservation during her pursuit of Quinn Marsh, the most recent Commandment Killer.
Winters, once an ally of Kate, had made it no secret that she believed Kate had gone too far that time and needed at least a suspension to learn her lesson. Was she being summoned because Winters had gotten her way?
Or had another disciple of Cox’s reared their ugly head to poison the world with their “correction?”