Page 43 of A More Perfect Union

Rook put a hand onher leg. Zoey might be used to seeing the carnage of battle, but this death, soout of context, seemed to have taken her completely off guard. “You’ve suffereda bit of a shock. Let me take you back to my place and get you warmed up andthen we can sort out the best plan.”

“There is no bestplan. I need to prepare a report.” She gripped Rook’s hand. “Did you get a copyof the letter? They’re going to want to see it.”

Rook stared intoZoey’s eyes. She detected fear, but she also saw a strong sense ofdetermination. Zoey was driven by duty, but if she let a blind allegiance toauthority guide her, there was a strong likelihood she would place herself indanger. The backseat of the car was no place for this conversation, so sheneeded to stall. “The…uh, police need to catalog everything. I asked them tohurry. They should be finished soon so why don’t you wait with me? I need tocheck in with Julia and she’s probably going to want to talk to you too. We canmake the call from my place and then do whatever we need to do after together.Okay?”

Zoey seemed relievedat the suggestion she didn’t have to face whoever with whatever the lettermeant on her own. She nodded and sank back against the seat, pulling theblanket tight around her. In that moment, Rook was filled with a strong desireto protect Zoey from whatever came next, whether it was threats from Mitchellor repercussions for not reporting Mitchell’s death to her commanders. Rookonly hoped Zoey would forgive her when she learned their investigation hadturned in a whole new direction and Zoey was no longer in charge.

Chapter Fourteen

“Would you likeme to park the car and help you in?”

Rooklooked out the window at the sound of George’s soft-pitched question, surprisedto see they were already in front of her townhouse. She glanced over at Zoey.Her eyes were closed and her head was resting against her shoulder. She hatedto bother her, but they couldn’t just sit out in the car. “If you don’t mindgetting the front door, I think I can handle the rest.”

She kept an armaround Zoey until they were inside where she eased her onto the couch, theblanket still wrapped around her. Rook smoothed out the blanket and murmuredsoftly to ease her back to rest. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Zoey’s eyeswere closed again, and Rook dropped a quick kiss on her forehead before shestrode off toward her study.

She should make thiscall from the office where she knew the phones were secure, but she wasn’tabout to leave Zoey alone so she decided to risk it. Julia answered on the firstring.

“What the hell, Rook?I thought one of your signatures was discretion. What did you say to this guythat had him eating his own gun hours later? This isn’t going to stay quiet forlong.”

Rook took a deepbreath. Julia was right. No matter what steps they took, the human elementmeant someone was going to talk about what had happened tonight at theMitchells’ house. The wife, the kids, possibly a neighbor who’d overheard thesound of the shot that tore through Mitchell’s brain. Who would blab wasn’t theissue, but it was only a matter of time before someone burst from the strain ofkeeping a juicy secret. “You’re right. The story will break soon, so we need towork fast. He didn’t leave a suicide note per se, but he did leave a letter.It’s vague, but loaded with clues, and I’m working on it.”

“Clues? Are yousaying this wasn’t really a suicide?”

“Blake says there’sno question he fired the shot.”

“She should know,”Julia said, echoing Rook’s thoughts. Blake had seen enough brutal killings inher capacity as a CIA operative to know how to read a crime scene. “Okay,”Julia said. “So, this guy was on your witness list and he offed himself. Anychance he was depressed about something else? Wife? Girlfriend? Boyfriend?”

“Remember I mentionedthe clues?” Rook started at the sound of a loud clatter from the other room andshe rushed to get off the line. “I’ve said as much as I can say right now, butthere’s more to all of this than we originally thought. I’ll keep you posted.”She hung up before Julia could respond and dashed back toward the living room,but Zoey wasn’t there. She tried the kitchen next after matching the sound ofthe clatter with the sound of dishes and found Zoey standing by the sink.

“I’m sorry,” shesaid, her voice quiet and still. “I knocked over a plate when I was trying toget a glass out of the cabinet.” She held up a small blue melamine dish.“Luckily, not breakable.”

Her lopsided smiletore at Rook’s heart and she stepped closer until they were only inches apart.She placed her hand over Zoey’s, eased the dish from her hand, and placed it onthe counter. “Why don’t you go sit back down and I’ll get you something todrink?”

“I got it.”

“Seriously. It’s beena crazy long day. Let me help you out.”

“I don’t need yourhelp.”

The strain in hervoice belied the words and Rook reached for her arm. “Come on. I got this.”

Zoey jerked away. “Ican get my own damn drink.” She started pacing. “And I can make my owndecisions about who to call and what to report. I don’t appreciate you managingme. Is it because you hate the Army or is it just me you don’t trust?”

Warning bells soundedin Rook’s brain, and she cast about for ways to deescalate the situation. “Itrust you. If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have brought you to Mitchell’shouse tonight. For that matter, I wouldn’t have you here in my house.”

Zoey shook her head.“It’s not your call whether I get to go to the house of a fellow servicemember.” She ticked off her points. “He was onmywitness list.Iwas one of the last people he talked to. He left a note tome. He ismyresponsibility.”

Rook wished she couldturn back time and give Julia a big fat no instead of agreeing to work on thiscase. What in the hell had she been thinking? She had other clients, from largecorporations to well-heeled celebrities and politicians who provided a steadyrun of work. It could only be hubris that made her cast aside her disdain forthe military on an ask from the president. Did she honestly think gettinginvolved with a case from the White House was going to be the pinnacle of hercareer? All it was going to do was crater her practice and drive a wedgebetween her and Zoey.

That last realizationleft her a little stunned. Why did she care about distance between her andZoey? Zoey epitomized everything she didn’t like about the military from blindallegiance to orders to absolute faith in a system designed to fail from thesheer weight of covering its own tracks. Sure, Zoey had bucked the system a bitand become a whistleblower, but even that had been done through militarychannels. She wasn’t set up to see the bigger picture or relate to civilians inany way.

“Nothing about thisinvestigation is yours,” Rook said. She heard the growl of frustration in hervoice but didn’t care to hide it. “The military is an arm of the government,not the government itself. You don’t get to pick and choose who you investigateand who you don’t.” She stepped closer until they were inches apart. “You sayit’s not my call? Well, it’s not your call either.”

“Maybe you should dropthis case. Surely you have better things to do like prop up cheating husbandsand drunk drivers?”

The words stung. Rookbalked at Zoey’s barb, but she couldn’t deny the truth in her words. A largepart of what she did seemed frivolous to some. She’d rationalized her work wasimportant because she was there to help people in the midst of crisis when theywere most vulnerable, but was her role as a savior diminished if the crisis wasof their own doing? If so this case was no different. No one had made Bloomfield’sson risk his father’s future by purchasing the services of a call girl, butshe’d shown up to help just the same. If Zoey couldn’t see the similaritiesbetween the cases Rook usually handled and this one, then they would neverbridge the differences between them.

They stared at eachother for what seemed like forever until Zoey broke the silence. “I’m sorry. Ishouldn’t have…” Her face flushed and she rushed the words. “I shouldn’t havecome back here with you.”

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