Page 12 of So Smitten

“Wow,” Faith said, “I’m surprised to hear that.”

“I’m not,” Michael said grouchily. “She was married to that schmuck for twelve years, took two years to divorce him, and now her first year of true separation from him has been dominated by him and their relationship. She’s at the point now where I think she’d almost rather die than deal with it anymore.”

“What do you think?” Faith asked.

“I told Desrouleaux to watch the house anyway,” he said. “I gave him some places where agents could camp out that Ellie wouldn’t notice. I would rather she was in the loop on this, but she wouldn’t appreciate that. She doesn’t want to be constantly reminded of West.”

“Hmm,” Faith said, sipping her coffee. “Well, David wasn’t very happy about it either.”

“No?” Michael said, “they talked to him too?”

“I did,” she replied. “I asked him to leave, but he wouldn’t. I didn’t tell him about the surveillance.”

“Probably smart,” Michael opined. “Keep him as safe as you can.” He sighed and added, “It sucks because I understand where Elli’s coming from. If I were her, I’d probably feel the same way. But I’m not her, and I understand a lot more about this than she does. I just wish I could let her read my thoughts for a moment to know why it’s so important that they watch her.”

“Me too,” Faith said.

She smiled at Michael. It was nice to have the two of them on the same page again. “Well, with the Bureau watching them, they should be safe enough. West works alone, after all. A pair of armed agents shouldn’t have any trouble with him.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “Hope so.”

***

Grant Monroe—the Boss, as he was affectionately known to his agents—greeted Faith stiffly when she and Michael entered. Faith returned an equally awkward acknowledgment as she took her seat. Turk barked formally, and earned the closest thing to a respectful greeting the Boss was capable of.

Prior to her and Michael’s last case, the Boss had suspended her for continuing to pursue West, and she had essentially blackmailed him into letting her keep her job. He agreed with her reasons for staying—that West would escalate if it looked to him like Faith was giving up—but he still refused to allow her to participate actively in the case.

Now, someone else was dead, and Faith was sure it was to get her attention. She planned to ask Michael's help pursuing him, but she hadn't done so yet, knowing that when she did, it would probably be the end of her career and would put his own career at great risk.

Michael had taken it upon himself to keep Faith updated on the case as much as he could, but now that Faith was acknowledged to be the sun around which West orbited, there was no need. She would be kept abreast of it by necessity.

All of which no doubt only compounded the Boss’s frustration.

“The case is in Atlanta,” the Boss said without preamble when both were seated. “Two victims so far, both believed to be connected to the same criminal organization.”

“Who are the victims?” Faith asked.

"Victim one: Harvey Harris. He went by the name H-Bomb back in the days he was a small-time pusher. He’d moved up in the world by the time of his death. He was running his own crew and insisting that people called him by his first name or by Mr. Harris.”

“Guess someone took that the wrong way,” Michael quipped.

A glare from the Boss wiped away Michael’s smile.

“Victim two,” he continued. “Vincent Mariano. Used to be a soldier for the Franco Family in Jersey. He ended up disappearing when Tomasso Franco was arrested and his family broke up. I guess he ended up in Atlanta. Homeowner found him dead in their backyard when they returned home. The backyard fence had been cut. Looks like he was trying to steal from them and ended up dead.”

“We know that’s not the homeowner?” Michael asked.

“Homeowner has an ironclad alibi. He was at work, and three different security cameras confirmed he was there.”

“Got it.”

“What do we know?” Faith asked.

“I just told you,” the Boss replied. “The police are treating these like gangland killings, but the crew Harris was running is associated with the Georgia Syndicate.”

Michael whistled. The Georgia Syndicate was a loosely associated crime “family” believed to control over thirty percent of the distribution of cocaine in the United States. They were known to be unusually violent and were believed to be responsible for over fifty murders since their formation in the nineties.

That explained why the FBI was involved. If one of the cartels was in a dispute with the Syndicate, they could be looking at a lot more death soon. It was critical that Faith and Michael solve this case as quickly as possible.

---