“Tessa was assigned to Zane when she came on board last year. Zane’s headed to Phase Two within the next few months. She was supposed to be his replacement.” Gil scanned the hall. “I hope this doesn’t mean a delay on his transition to Phase Two. That would be a real kick in the pants.”
“Well”—Faith looked around—“is there a conference room I can borrow? I’d say we need to figure out who’s trying to kill y’all. If we don’t, no one will accept an assignment here, and poor Zane will never get away.”
Much to Luke’s frustration, his mental approval rating for Faith kept going up. Even though she had to have overheard them talking about her, she hadn’t gotten her shorts in a wad over it, so she wasn’t too sensitive to be tolerated. She was very sensitive to their losses and hadn’t asked for any of the obviously available cubicles all around them but instead requested a neutral space none of them would have an attachment to. He couldn’t help but respect that.
And she had a bit of a dark sense of humor. He liked it.
He liked her more all the time. And he didn’t like that at all.
6
FAITH FOLLOWED LUKEto the conference room and paused inside the door. The table seated twelve. Wall-mounted televisions occupied both of the side walls, while photographs of the president, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and the director of the Secret Service were scattered across the remaining wall space. “Will this work?” Luke was all kindness and civility. He probably suspected she’d overheard most of the conversation about her age and qualifications. She wanted to be ticked off, but the truth was, it was exactly what they would have done at the FBI if the roles had been reversed.
“This will be great. Thanks.”
“Can I get you anything? We don’t have Cherry Coke in the machine, but Tessa’s supposed to be bringing coffee in a little while.” He pulled out his phone. “Want me to have her bring you something?”
“No. Thank you. I mainly stopped by today to touch base with Jacob Turner and to make a few arrangements.” And to see what happened if she showed up unannounced. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning, if that’s okay.”
“That’s fine. I’ll take you to see Jacob.”
“Thank you.”
Before they could leave the room, Jacob entered. “Faith, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Everything going okay?”
“Yes, sir.” She took the seat Jacob indicated. Luke settled into the chair beside her. Jacob didn’t question his presence.
Jacob took a seat at the head of the table and leaned back in his chair. “Faith, I’ve assigned Luke to be your liaison with our office. I think it should go without saying, but if at any time you feel that he or any member of our team is stonewalling you, please bring it to my attention.”
Faith murmured, “Yes, sir,” but there was no time for her to say anything else because Jacob stood and paced.
“Someone killed my people, Faith. We’re a small office here, and we don’t always see eye to eye or get along perfectly, but we’re a family. We still don’t have any answers about Thad Baker, and I’ll be—”
He cut himself off and took a deep breath, and Faith had a flash of insight. Jacob Turner was coiled tight.
Why?
The obvious answer was grief. Shock. Anger.
But she couldn’t rule out the possibility that there was more to it. Three agents had died. Two others could have died. But he was still alive. Was that a coincidence, or was that because he was behind it? Was he trying to cover something up? Protect someone from prosecution or discovery? She didn’t really think it was possible that Jacob was responsible for these deaths, but at this point everyone was a suspect.
Jacob ran a hand over his bald head and returned to his seat. “There’s no nice way to say this. You have two weeks. If you can’t figure out what’s going on, I’ll be going over your head, and over Dale’s head, and I’ll be requesting we create a task force. We’vewaited almost three months for answers regarding Thad Baker’s death, and the agent who’s responsible for the case has been less than forthcoming. I’m tired of waiting. I want answers, and I want them yesterday.”
Faith kept her breathing steady and refused to break eye contact. She wouldn’t be bullied by this man. She knew how to do her job, and she knew that short of a miracle, two weeks wasn’t enough time to do much of anything. Dale would back her up, and he’d probably be able to talk Jacob out of doing anything drastic.
“I’ve already talked to Dale.” Jacob pointed to the phone. “We’ve agreed that the Thad Baker case needs to be included in this one. He’s going to talk to the agent, and he said she would be available to provide you with all the information you need on this case by tomorrow.”
Do not grin. Faith gave Jacob a curt nod. “I’ll talk to her in the morning before I come here.” Janice had been noticeably absent from the office last night and again today, but she couldn’t stay away forever.
All the things Faith suspected Janice of doing flooded her mind, and the urge to smile fled. The way notes had disappeared from her desk, phone numbers jotted down on sticky notes had been changed, even an entire file had gone missing. Janice was already out to get her.
Would this drive Janice to extremes?
Faith shoved all her worries about Janice out of her mind. “If possible, I’d like to interview everyone tomorrow.” She hoped her tone conveyed that she wasn’t really asking but was trying to be sensitive.
“Everyone but Zane will be available,” Jacob said.
Luke fake coughed and Faith heard, “Yeah right.”
