It registered that Faith had called her Marty earlier, and neither then nor now did Marty complain. Faith was working her magic on more than just him.
FAITH STAREDat the small paper napkin and the smudge of chocolate begging for her to find a way to get it into her mouth that didn’t involve licking the napkin.
“Want another slice?” Luke hovered the knife over the cake, a smirk on his face. “I promise it would taste better than the napkin.”
How did he know? “No. Maybe later.” Definitely later.
He packed up the cake and cleaned the mess around it. He was meticulous, wiping crumbs and even wetting a napkin to tackle a sticky spot on the table. He tossed the napkin into the trash can and declared it to be a three-point shot before settling into a chair and pulling a stapled stack of papers from a folder. “I had a productive day yesterday.”
“Let’s hear it. I’m ready for something we can sink our teeth into.” Faith needed good news. Direction for the case. Anything that didn’t contribute to the growing, gnawing certainty that she was a failure.
“We may know who the woman was in the car and why Thad was meeting her.”
“What? How? Who? When?”
Luke filled her in on his trip to see Rose Baker, the DNA results, the fact that Park Mi Cha was Thad Baker’s distant cousin, and his phone call to Sabrina Campbell.
“Sabrina got back to me last night after you left. Still no hard evidence to prove she was with Thad that night, but Sabrina was able to tell me that Park Mi Cha was supposed to be on a red-eye the night of Thad’s death. She didn’t get on that plane, and unless she’s traveling under an assumed identity, she has not left the States despite the fact that her visa has expired.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Faith said.
“Agreed. Sabrina gave me the name of Mi Cha’s employer and one known associate. We have a meeting at ten a.m. with Ivy Collins,the CEO of Hedera, Inc., the company Mi Cha was working for as an intern.”
“This is fantastic!” Faith caught the tenor of Luke’s enthusiasm. “I know you guys are good at investigating foreign nationals, but if there’s anything the FBI can do...”
“There may be.”
Wow. Luke was full of surprises today. “Shoot.”
“Sabrina says the known associate is an accountant named David Lee, and she thinks he’s in the DC area. She sent photos. He has a distinctive tattoo on his neck. We’re working on tracking him down, but he hasn’t left the footprint Mi Cha did. The problem is, our DC-area agents are swamped thanks to a state visit from the president of France. And it’s not like I can drive up there and knock on doors in my current condition. But your people could.”
“I’ll get on it. This is great news.” She made a few notes on her iPad. “It’s strange that no one has come forward looking for this woman, Park Mi Cha. How much thought has been given to the idea that the other person in the car was the target, and not Thad?”
“We considered it over here, but you’d have to ask Agent Estes how much credence she gave to the idea.” Luke’s dislike for Janice was on full display. “She doesn’t like to share information, and she seemed convinced Thad was with a prostitute. As such, she most likely wouldn’t have been the target. And there is the sticky point that it was Thad’s car, not hers, that was rigged to blow.”
Faith processed the information about Park Mi Cha and David Lee. It didn’t answer all their questions, but at least it was a solid lead. Finally.
Luke tilted his head to the side. “I have a question.”
Something about the way he spoke sent a quiver of apprehension through her, and she braced herself for whatever was coming. “Okay.”
“Why didn’t you get Thad’s case in the first place?”
“What?”
“If they trusted you with this one, why do you know so little about Thad’s case? Why weren’t you working it?”
“Hope had been sick. She’s super independent. Totally capable of handling most aspects of her life, but when she’s sick, things can get complicated fast. She got dehydrated and had a nasty case of pneumonia and wound up in the hospital for a couple of days. When the case broke, I wasn’t even in the office.” Why was she telling him all this? And why couldn’t she stop herself? “I don’t talk about Hope in the office, so most people assumed I was on vacation.”
“Why not talk about Hope?”
“For one, she’s a person, not a statistic and not a pity party waiting to happen. She has her life, and she doesn’t need my coworkers asking me about her health. You’d be amazed at the things people assume it’s appropriate to ask just because someone’s in a wheelchair. And also because she’s a lawyer, and sometimes FBI agents aren’t all that thrilled with lawyers.”
“Your boss knows though, right?”
“Dale knows all about Hope, but I don’t—”
“You don’t want anyone at work to judge you on anything other than your work.” Luke didn’t ask it. He stated it.
