“How did you discover the second body?”
Luke had to push the reality of it away and be analytical. He could do this. “Some of the body parts didn’t match. The forensic anthropologist got involved to sort it out, but there was a serial killer case she had to testify for, and the bodies sat for a weekbefore she got to work. A preliminary report indicated the body might be female, and then someone in the press reported that Thad had been with a prostitute.”
“I heard, but my understanding is that there’s no proof.”
“There isn’t any proof, and there won’t be because it isn’t true.”
“We know the other person in the car was female. How can you know for sure she wasn’t—”
“You wouldn’t have to ask if you’d known Thad.”
“And you did.” Her observation wasn’t dripping with sympathy for his loss, but it wasn’t sarcastic either. “Tell me about him.”
“Thad loved God, his wife, his kids, and his country, in that order. I don’t have to know the details to know that whatever was happening that night, there is a rational explanation that doesn’t involve him cheating on his wife.”
7
“HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THE FIRSTman to cheat on his wife and not try to hide it.” Despite her best efforts, the edge in Faith’s voice was sharp enough to slice through granite.
Luke contemplated her for a moment, and her stomach flipped. Yeah. He’d noticed.
“Some men are idiots,” Luke said.
True enough.
“Thad wasn’t.” Luke spoke with conviction, not defensiveness. “He was a gentleman, and I’d bet my last bullet he was giving that woman a ride because it was raining. He loved his wife. His kids were his whole world.”
Maybe.
“You don’t believe me.”
Faith stopped writing at Luke’s words, but she kept her eyes on her notes. “It’s not my job to believe you. It’s my job to find out what happened, which I intend to do without any preconceived notions.”
She couldn’t tell him that she had no doubt the investigation had been mishandled. Janice wasn’t a bad agent, but she had her biases. One of which was that all men were scum. At the first whiffof scandal surrounding Thad Baker, Janice would have gone with the assumption that either he was a traitor to his country or he’d cheated on his wife, and possibly had been guilty of both. And her investigation would have followed the path her assumptions led her. Given that she’d been unable to solve the case, it would seem her path had led her nowhere, which in a roundabout way gave credence to Luke’s theory that Thad Baker hadn’t done anything wrong.
Faith had more reasons than Janice to hate men—especially men who cheated on their spouse and forgot about their children. But she’d worked hard to keep her personal life and her professional life separate. And unlike Janice, who rejoiced when her harsh assumptions were proven accurate, Faith desperately hoped she would be proven wrong.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if there really were a few good men left in the world?
Luke remained silent, and Faith risked a glance. She expected him to be closed off, radiating hostility. Instead, she was caught in a gaze so tender that she couldn’t force herself to look away.
“Who hurt you?” Luke’s words were soft. The question contemplative.
Faith dropped her pencil. It bounced off her chair and rolled under the table. “I’m sorry. What?” She bent to retrieve the pencil, desperate for a few seconds to pull herself together. It had traveled farther than she’d expected, and a small groan escaped her lips. She slid from the chair and crawled under the table.
But Luke beat her to it. He knelt under the table, pencil in his hand. “I’m sorry.”
He meant for the pencil. Right? Or was he apologizing for asking the question? It had been wildly inappropriate after all. Her personal life was none of his concern.
But he was concerned. She could see it. Sense it as she took the pencil from his hand. Feel it as a tremor raced through her fingertips as they brushed his.
It was impossible to scoot from under the table in a dignified fashion. Not that she didn’t try. She pressed her hand on the tabletop and stood. Then she made a quick adjustment to the weapon at her waist and returned to her seat as Luke resettled into his.
A long silence fell. Faith finally broke it. “You have to have a theory about who killed Thad. My understanding is that the bomb was no hack job but also didn’t have a recognizable signature to anyone at ATF. Is that correct?”
“It is.” Luke didn’t elaborate.
She consulted her iPad. “It wasn’t in the news, but Thad had the lead on the Stevsky case...”
