Page 13 of So Insane

He answered, and the first thing he heard was Turk’s enthusiastic bark. A wave of relief washed over him. She was just calling so she and Turk could say hi. She wasn’t going to ask him for anything.

“Hey, Michael!” she said after a moment. “Turk just wanted to say hi.”

He was so relieved that he actually smiled. “Hi, Turk. How’s your neurotic basket-case of a mother doing?”

Faith laughed. Then she shattered Michael’s hope. “Actually, not so good.”

His smile vanished. He managed by some miracle to keep his tone lighthearted when he said, “What is it? What do you need?”

“I need a partner,” she said.

The corners of his lips turned down. “A partner for what?”

“A case.”

His lips stretched into a complete frown. “The Boss reversed your suspension?”

“Conditionally on your agreeing to work with me, yes,” she said.

Her voice was tense, and Michael wondered if the Boss had told her what he had said the last time they talked about Faith.

“What are your thoughts on Bold, Prince? Is she salvageable?”

Michae’s heart broke, but he had to say it. “Honestly, sir… no. I don’t think so. She left too much of herself in that barn where Trammell hurt her. She held on as long as she could. I think if West hadn’t come into the picture, she would have been all right, but—” he lifted his hands and let them drop into his lap.

The Boss nodded and sat down. He scratched his chin and stared pensively over Michael’s shoulder. After a moment, he said, “What if we give her the case?”

Michael blinked in surprise. “Sir?”

“The West case. What if we give it to her.”

Michael stared in shock. “Sir, you can’t be serious. He nearly killed her twice!”

“Yes, but she was acting on her own then. If she were on the case, that would mean you were on the case. That would mean she wouldn’t go after her on her own and not even just the two of you and her K9. You’d have the National Guard surrounding him if you needed to.”

“Sir, this is…” Michael didn’t finish the sentence. He was fairly sure that the Boss would take the words insane, stupid, foolhardy and irresponsible poorly, and Michael couldn’t come up with any other words at the moment.

“The thing is, she’s right,” the Boss added.

“Right? For God’s—” Michael took a breath and said, “Look, I love Faith more than anyone, but are you serious, sir? Everything she’s done related to that case has been bass-ackwards.”

“But she’s right,” he insisted. “At the very least, she’s not wrong. She was the one to determine that West was the killer.”

“Yeah, after spilling state secrets to him for nine months.”

“Still, it was her deduction that led to the Copycat Killer’s identification. If nothing else, the fact that she’s forced him into hiding has likely saved lives. And on that note, she has also found him twice.”

“And then nearly gotten herself murdered.”

“A problem we won’t have with you reining her in.”

“Boss…” Michael paused. He had nearly said what he was about to say dozens of times over the past year or so, but each time he had stopped himself.

This time, he didn’t.

“Boss… I think it would be best if you assigned me a different partner.”

The Boss’s eyes widened. He sat up straight and regarded Michael gravely. “It’s gotten that bad between you two, huh?”

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