Page 17 of So Twisted

“Yes. Specifically, a militant animal rights activist. Someone who advocates violence to punish those cruel to animals.”

“And you want me to find out if Marcus Reeves and Alison Chen ever had a run-in with such a person or persons.”

“You read my mind.”

“I’m told I’m good at reading women’s minds.”

Faith smiled slightly. It seemed Cuthbert had taken a liking to her.

“Actually, I have some information for you,” Cuthbert said. “Not from the Chen connections but related to the case. The autopsy reports came in. Doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know, but I thought you might want to talk to the coroner yourself.”

“I would love to,” Faith replied. “Text me the address.”

“On its way to you. Hey, while I’m reading minds, I’m reading that you might want to grab dinner sometime.”

Her smile widened a little. “Sorry. I’m afraid I’m taken.”

“Ah. I was afraid of that. I saw the way you were looking at your partner.”

Faith glanced quickly at Michael and silently thanked herself for not putting the phone on speaker. She didn’t correct Cuthbert, though. That might give away the subject of their conversation. She only said, “Find me the info I need to solve this case, and I’ll give you a kiss on the cheek.”

“You torture me, Special Agent Bold. But I accept.”

He hung up, and Faith sighed with relief. Damn it. She didn’t feel that way about Michael anymore. She’d been through this already. It was just cold feet over David and the fact that Michael could talk to her about their job. So why were other people noticing that she was…

Her phone buzzed, and she shook her head. She could deal with all of that later. She had a job to do now. “Coroner’s report is in,” she said. “Cuthbert just sent me the address.”

“The coroner’s address or his address?” Michael teased.

“The coroner’s address,” Faith said with a glare. “You know I would never cheat on David.”

Michael tensed slightly, and heat climbed Faith’s cheeks. Only a few weeks ago, she had all but confessed that she was still in love with him. She wasn’t, and he’d helped her realize that, but maybe this wasn’t the time to be focused on her relationship. At least not around Michael.

“I’m sorry,” Michael said. “I shouldn’t have teased you. That was my bad.”

“Itwasyour bad,” Faith said, a little relieved that it was, in fact, Michael who had pushed the awkwardness this time. Also a little guilty that she felt relieved.

“So the address, please?”

“Oh, right.” She gave it to him and said, “He’s going to look for our activists.”

“Do we think that’s what it was?”

“We just talked about the fact that we like that angle.”

“Yeah. I know.”

She frowned at him. “Do you not like that angle?”

He sighed. “I don’t have a good reason not to like it. It just seems too obvious, and I’m always leery of things that are too good to be true.”

“Sometimes they’re true.”

“I know. Like I said, I don’t have a good reason not to like it. It’s not even a hunch. Just… forget it. It’s just me being unsure. We’ll follow up on the lead because it’s the logical thing to do, and we’re detectives, not clairvoyants.”

“God, it would be nice if we were clairvoyants.”

“It would be nice if Salma Hayek would be waiting for me at the hotel room, but we don’t always get what we want.”

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