Page 4 of So Silent

Outside, Michael leaned to Faith and said softly, “How did it go with West?”

“It went,” she said curtly. In a softer voice, she added, “It went about as well as I should have expected. He’s an asshole, and he acted like one. Gave me some bullshit about needing to break me even though I had arrested him or something like that. I’m going to say we keep the protection just in case, but I think he’s just blowing smoke.”

“That’s what Ellie thinks too.”

Ellie was Michael’s wife. More pertinently to this conversation, she was West’s ex-wife. Recently, she had been pressuring Michael to move to get away from Faith and by extension the risk that West’s obsession with Faith presented to them. With West in custody, Faith wondered if she would reverse her course or if she would still try to pull Michael away.

“Is she still thinking about moving?”

He chuckled. “I don’t know. It’s only been one day. It’s still not ‘real’ to her, you know? But it’s real to me, and I don’t really give a rat’s ass what bullshit he wants to say. He can talk all the way to the injection chamber for all I care.”

They reached Michael’s car, a 2023 Grand Wagoneer that was as ostentatious as it was enormous. Turk hopped into the second row and took his usual place in between the two bucket seats with his head in between Michael’s and Faith’s seats. Faith got into her seat and ruffled his fur. “How you holding up, bud? You have fun with David?”

Turk barked enthusiastically, and Faith laughed and pulled him close for a kiss.

“Gross,” Michael said. “No more PDA between you guys for the rest of the trip.”

Faith giggled. “You’re just jealous that he likes me more than you.”

“Gee,” he said drily, “Your dog likes you more than me. At least until I hand him this.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrapped sub. Turk immediately barked and began wagging his tail, which thumped against the second-row seats like a kick drum. Michael grinned at Faith as he unwrapped the sandwich. “Steak.”

He handed it to Turk, who wolfed it down in two bites, then pressed his head against Michael lovingly. Michael chuckled as he put the massive SUV into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

Faith rolled her eyes. “Cheater. But really, how do you think Ellie will feel about moving now that West is locked up?”

Michael chuckled. “Now who’s jealous?”

“I’m not jealous. I just… I don’t want you to leave. You’re my best friend. And nothing more.”

She and Michael had dated a few years ago, but it had ended mutually, and both of them were happy with their new partners now. Still, he was in many ways the most important person in her life, and even if she didn’t love him romantically anymore, she did love him, and the thought of them living thousands of miles apart worried her.

“I think she’ll want to move somewhere quieter,” he said, “but probably not too far. Malvern or Blue Bell.”

“First of all, yay, still in the city. Second of all, you guys can afford to live in Malvern?”

“Probably not,” he said, “but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” He turned to her. “Not to ape you, but first of all, geez, relax, be patient. You don’t need to plan the rest of everyone’s lives right away now that the Big Bad Wolf is in the pound. Second of all, weren’t you planning to move to Oklahoma or something once West was caught?”

She shrugged. “Well, I don’t know. We’ll see. If he’s really caught, then I might stick it out a few more years.”

“What do you mean if? He’s under more guard than the President. I’m pretty sure the Marine Corps could get him out if they wanted, but they’d lose a few tanks and a helicopter or two in the process.”

She managed a smile. She didn’t feel like sharing her worry about his threat to break her from the inside. Besides, it probably was just a last desperate attempt to avoid admitting that she had beat him. “Yeah, I know. I guess it still doesn’t seem real to me either.”

“It’s real,” he said in a serious tone. “He’s done. You got him. You’re safe.”

She nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. So about this case. You had a chance to look at the file. Any idea why we’re involved?”

"They think it's related to an old cold case where a violinist was murdered. She was stabbed in her throat, too. They found exactly no physical evidence. Officially, the case is still listed as active, but it's been thirteen months, and they have nothing, so it's only a matter of hitting their department's eighteen-month threshold before it gets put in a cardboard box and placed on a shelf in their records department. At least it was."

“That seems like a pretty thin connection.”

He shrugged. “Maybe they’ll have more information for us when we show up later.”

“So what do we know?”

"Not much. She owned the studio, and she didn't have security for the property, so at the moment, we don't know if it was normal for her to be there that late. I'm guessing yes, considering she was trying to break into the music industry, but that's based on absolutely no science. As far as relationships go, her family is from Virginia, and she's the only one who left the state. No boyfriends, at least none that show up on her social media."

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