Page 29 of So Twisted

“Well, we’re looking at the victims’ behavior when I think we should be looking at their connections: friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and so forth.”

“We already looked into Alison Chen’s friends and family.”

“But we didn’t do the same for Marcus Reeves,” he pointed out. “We jumped right on the train of animal rights abuse and vengeance because it fit with her.”

“It fit with Marcus too. He ran a zoo that got shut down for poor care of their animals.”

“That’s true, and we’ve pulled that thread, as we should have. It hasn’t panned out yet, but we have the cops looking through the rest of that thread. If they find something, we’ll keep following it, but right now, we need to think of where to go next, and I’m thinking the where we go next should be Marcus Reeves’ personal life.”

Faith nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

“That was mighty enthusiastic of you, Faith,” Michael said drily. “So clearly, you see things differently. Let’s practice having uncomfortable conversations. You can tell me what youthink I don’t want to hear, and when I don’t immediately end our friendship, you’ll know you can have uncomfortable conversations with him.”

She glared at him. “One, my relationship with David is very different from my relationship with you. Two, I don’t mind pissing you off. Three, we’re talking about the case, not our personal lives.”

“Yes, but now you’re mad at me, so you won’t mind letting me know that you disagree with me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Very clever of you, Special Agent Prince. You have helped me see the error of my ways.”

“Happy to help. So what’s the hangup? Why do you not want to look into his personal life?”

“I do. It’s standard procedure. I just feel like we’re missing something glaringly obvious.”

“You feel that way every case.”

“And it’s true every case.”

“It’s also true that we figure out what that glaringly obvious thing is by continuing to put work in. We chase leads, they don’t work out, we chase new leads… how many times have we had this conversation?”

She glared at him again. “Okay, I get it. You don’t need to be a jerk about it.”

"I wasn't. It just hit me. This is part of our process, too. One of us gets pessimistic or unsure, and the other person talks them down. Huh. We really do work well together."

She rolled her eyes. “Maybe, but you’re still annoying as hell.”

“Fair enough. So let’s start looking at Marcus Reeves, and if the glaringly obvious thing reveals itself, let me—”

Faith’s phone rang. Cuthbert. She lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe this is the glaringly obvious thing.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Michael said. “So often that they might not actually be that strange.”

Faith answered and put the phone on speaker. “Do you have something for us, Detective?”

Cuthbert’s reply brought to mind another common thread in all of their cases. The killer moving a step faster than the two of them moved. “We have another body. A vet at the Big Wilderness Zoo. She was killed an hour ago.”

Faith’s smile faded. “Is Alex Forrester still with you?”

“We released him three minutes ago. The Big Wilderness Zoo is sixteen minutes away if you hit every green light. It’s not him.”

Michael leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes in frustration. Their good mood from a moment ago was gone. “I understand,” Faith said. “We’re on our way.”

She hung up and sighed heavily. “Shit.”

“Yep. At least we know you were right about Alex.”

She looked out the window at the night beyond. “Sometimes, I really wish I was wrong more often.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

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