“Sometimes people need a good kick in the pants. And you gave them one. So let it go. You’re human, and you got frustrated. I’m relieved to know there might be a tiny chink in your armor, because I was starting to suspect you were either part alien or part superhero.”
Faith could not stop from bristling at the idea of a chink in her armor any more than she could stop from congratulating herself on being thought of as part superhero. “Regardless, it won’t happen again. At least not in public.”
Dale rolled his eyes. “Fine. Where are we on the case?”
She sat straighter. “The only reason I can say we’ve made any progress at all is because we’ve eliminated a lot of things. We’ve ruled out all the Secret Service agents in the RAIC office here in Raleigh.”
“Shocking,” Dale deadpanned.
He wasn’t wrong to be underwhelmed by that statement, but she stood by it. “We had to be sure.”
“I don’t disagree, but I hope you have something better than that.”
Uh-oh. “Not anything I can prove.”
“How about you give me something you can’t prove?”
“I’d rather wait until I have proo—”
“I’d like to hear it now.” There was no budge in Dale’s demeanor, and Faith was reminded in painful clarity that for Dale, this was the hunt for his best friend’s killer.
He had a right to know where things stood, even if she didn’t have all the answers.Here goes nothing.“I think the same person is behind all the attacks. I think it’s one person, working mostly, if not entirely, alone. I think this person has military training. Possibly special forces. I think he is targeting the Secret Service office specifically and that Agents Powell, Thacker, and Dixon are still in danger, but I don’t think their families are. If the attacker is a special forces type, he’s likely operating with a high level of integrity.”
Dale bristled at her word choice.
“Integrity in his mind would be that he would only go afterthe people he deems responsible. Not their coworkers, not their families. Based on my observations, he doesn’t seem willing to harm innocent bystanders.”
Dale frowned but nodded.
“I’m speculating that this is directly related to the Thad Baker case, and I think we need to know more about the woman in the car before we will be able to solve this.” Faith stopped talking and took a deep breath while metaphorically holding her breath as she awaited Dale’s response.
For longer than was comfortable, Dale didn’t speak. He was staring at some point behind Faith, his eyes unfocused, lips in a tight line, head moving up and down in a tiny nod. “That,” he said, “was a lot of thinking.”
“You asked.” Faith didn’t quite keep the defiance out of her tone, and she knew Dale hadn’t missed it by the way his forehead crinkled.
“I did. But, wow. I’ll be better prepared next time.”
Next time? Did he mean he expected her to continue not to have any evidence? Or that he expected her to face more difficult cases in the future?
“Why don’t you think Jacob and, wait, what’s the new agent’s name?”
“Tessa Reed.”
“Right, Reed. Why don’t you think they’re being targeted but the other agents are?”
“I think there’s a good chance they’re not in the crosshairs because their Monday mornings looked like they have for the past three months.”
“I’m not following you.”
Faith took a sip of her Cherry Coke. “Tessa’s morning routine is straightforward. She gets up, does yoga at home, gets ready for theoffice, and stops at one of three coffee shops on her way in. She’s a coffee snob and won’t go just anywhere. She rotates them most of the time, but she always goes to the same one on Monday, because Mondays are the only day they serve her favorite lemon poppyseed muffin. She went there on Monday and drove in to the office. I triple-checked. If the shooter had wanted to, he could have added her to his route. She never would have made it to the coffee shop.”
She had Dale’s full attention now. “What about Jacob?”
“His Monday is set in stone during the school year. His wife goes to the gym, and he takes their youngest to school. He runs the carpool every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, unless he’s out of town. Same order of houses, same time of day.”
“And it would have fit on the route?”
Faith could picture it in her mind. “He was typically one of the last to arrive at the office because of the carpool. It would have been tight, but if he’d been targeted, he would have been the last one attacked—after he dropped the kids off but before he arrived at the office.”
