Aaron nodded.“Yeah.I guess you’re right.It’s just hard to think that way right now.”
Faith and Turk shared a grim look.That was another way they could relate to their victims.Grief lingered.It softened, but it didn’t disappear.The scars left on Faith’s mind by Jethro Trammell and Franklin West had faded to the point where they were barely visible, but they were still there.Every so often, like today, Faith would feel a twinge of pain at the sight of those scars and remember the pain she felt when they were inflicted.
“Thank you,” Aaron said.“For being a good person.”
He smiled at Faith, and Faith managed one in return.She squeezed his shoulder a final time, then let her arm fall to her side.Meyers smiled wanly at her, then led the grieving son and his new dog away.Luna looked over her shoulder at Turk and barked once, a soft, dejected sound that brought a fresh lump to Faith’s throat.
Turk moaned softly as the trio walked away.Faith watched them leave, sharing in their grief, until David put a hand on her shoulder.“Come on.Let’s go home.”
Anger flashed through her at his touch.She remembered why she was mad at him now.She shrugged free and marched past him, taking the long way around to the parking lot where her Crown Victoria waited.
David followed her, frowning in hurt and confusion.She offered him no explanation at first, but she knew from personal experience that shutting him out wouldn’t solve anything, so after a minute, she said, “Hey, I know I’ve told you about Trammell and Jack a bunch of times already, but if I’m opening up about something important to me, can you please not tune me out?”
David blinked.Then he flushed red and looked down at his feet.“Yeah.I’m sorry.You’re right, that was messed up.”
“Yeah, just a little.”
She was glad she’d gotten that out of her system.Her anger was softening already.“What’s going on with you anyway?”she asked.“You’ve been distracted ever since we boarded the flight back home.”
He sighed heavily.“It’s nothing.You’ve got enough on your mind.It’s just work.”
Faith had a suspicion that David wasn’t telling the whole truth, but she kept it to herself.She really did have a lot on her mind.David would have to work through his own emotions just like she was.
She looked over her shoulder when they turned onto the path that would loop back to the parking lot.Aaron, Luna, and Sergeant Meyers were gone.Iris was gone even further away.The case was now firmly behind her.
Somehow, she doubted it would stay there.
CHAPTER FOUR
David finished his coffee and frowned at the empty cup before tossing it in the wastebasket at the front of the FBI Academy’s veterinary office.He used to drink one cup a day, but since joining the FBI’s K9 team, he added a second.Over the past month, that had crept up to three and sometimes four per day.
Cup one was down the hatch before he even finished his walk from the food court to the small veterinary office where David examined the FBI’s K9 units and a small collection of other dogs.This was definitely going to be a four-cup day.
“Good morning, Doctor Friedman.”
David smiled at Mary and tried to project more energy than he felt.“Good morning, Mary.”
It didn’t work.“Wow.You look terrible.Late night with the missus?”
“You could say that.”
Mary smiled knowingly.“You’re a lucky man having all that energy waiting for you to come home.My poor Henry has to deal with the occasional ten minutes when the kids are at school, and even then, he’s got to do all the work.”
David returned another smile but didn’t bother to answer.Mary’s laughter followed him into his office.
I’ve got to talk to her about workplace appropriate conversations,he thought drily.
In any case, it wasn’t Faith that had kept him up all night.Whatever plans she might have had for their night were pretty much ruined by the discovery of a dead body on their walk through the dog park.The fact that he’d somehow managed to tune her out when she was talking about how the event made her feel certainly didn’t help.
You’ve got to let this go.
He settled into his chair and stared at the blank computer screen.He wouldn’t let it go, of course.If he was going to let it go, he would have.Hell, receiving a death threat should have been more than enough to convince him, yet here he was, opening his desktop and navigating to a file buried in the Misc.folder labeled an indecipherable string of random letters, numbers, and symbols.
He opened the file and folded his hands in front of him on the desk, but before he could start reading, the door burst open.He flinched and quickly closed the file, staring in shock at the intruder.
Gary stepped back with a wince.“Oh, sorry.”He held up a mug with a cartoon man in a lab coat grinning evilly.“Mary said you looked tired.I thought I’d bring you some coffee.”
“What does that mug say?”David asked his youngest staff member.
