Page 49 of So Twisted

But she’d never screwed up a case. Not once. Not even when she was at her worst.

“I think this is affecting you,” Faith said. “I think you were shocked by the conversation about my feelings, and that’s perfectly understandable. But you can’t tell me that you honestly think I’m not capable of doing my job right now. Can you?”

Michael didn’t answer right away. When he did, he sounded tired. “The one thing I’ve worried about since West was caught was how you would handle Turk’s retirement. It’s the last areain your work life where you can’t be objective. The rest doesn’t matter, I’ll admit that. I’m sorry for bringing it up. I do think that the new killer and the West trial and moving in with David and everything is affecting you, but I don’t think it’s affecting you to the point where you can’t do your job. But you can’t be objective about Turk. His sense of smell is compromised. It’s clear that it is. But you can’t even face the possibility that he might be too old to work with you, so you shut down anytime it’s brought up that he might be near the end of his working life.”

Faith swallowed the lump in her throat. “I told you. He’s going to be retested in a couple of weeks. If that test comes back bad, then I’ll retire him. It will hurt like a fucking bitch, but I’ll do it. What really hurts like a fucking bitch right now is that my best friend has already assumed that the worst is true and is now deciding that he would rather be rid of me than give me the benefit of the doubt, even after over eleven years of working together.”

Faith’s phone rang before Michael could reply. “It’s Cuthbert. I’ll put it on speaker. Go ahead, Detective.”

“Well, Bold,” Cuthbert said, sounding just as tired as Michael. “You were right. Reed isn’t our man.”

Michael flinched. “What? How do you know?”

"Because he's still in his house. Watching Old Yeller, according to Officer Chandragupta. That means he's not the person who less than an hour ago killed Dr. Sarah Clement in her own home."

Faith’s heart sank. A part of her wanted to feel some sort of triumph at this validation, but she wished it could have come any other way than by hearing that while they were chasing their tails, their wolf had taken yet another victim.

“Understood,” Michael said. “Send us the address. We’ll meet you there.”

Faith hung up, and Michael sighed. “Damn it. This sucks.”

“You can say that again.”

“I sure could. But I’m pretty damned sick of saying it at all.”

“We’ll get this guy,” Faith said. “This is just another setback. We’ll find our killer. He’s on borrowed time, and he knows it.”

“Yes, but how many other victims are on borrowed time because of him?”

Faith’s lips thinned. That was a question she didn’t want to answer, but one she feared would be answered for her whether she liked it or not.

Meanwhile, their killer was somewhere out there, blood dripping from his fangs, full from another meal taken at the expense of an innocent.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dr. Clement had lived in a spacious property dominated by an upscale mansion with a large yard covered with domed netting. Faith wondered at its purpose until she saw several birds of different species—some of them not native to America.

“An aviary,” she said aloud.

“That’s our connection to animals, I guess,” Michael said.

The two of them hadn’t spoken for the fifteen minutes it took them to drive here. The shock and disappointment of this latest murder left them too overwhelmed to address the argument they’d had. Anger and hurt floated around the back of Faith’s mind along with the beginnings of validation that after all of Michael’s rhetoric, she and Turk had been right.

But she didn’t focus on that right now. She had a job to do, and she would do it regardless of whether Michael thought she could or not.

Michael parked the car behind the police cruisers, just like he had before. There were four cruisers this time and no fewer than fourteen animal control vehicles. Apparently, the situation here was even more involved than at Alison Chen's house.

They met Detective Cuthbert in the living room of the property. The detective appeared to be somewhat more well-rested than the last time Faith saw him, but the blank look on his face told her that he was just as upset by this as she was. He greeted the agents with a nod.

“The body’s in the aviary. We’ll go look at it in a second, but Animal Control doesn’t want us there until they clear the larger birds. Some of the birds are dangerous.”

“That’s fine,” Faith replied. “Can I send Turk to sniff around?”

“They won’t let him in the aviary, but he can look around the house.”

Faith nodded. “Okay, go ahead Turk.”

Turk put his nose to the ground and began investigating. Faith noted with some satisfaction that he didn’t appear confused this time.

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