Page 38 of So Wicked

Foster whined once more. “Thenews?”

“Yep. Then you go to trial, and reporters write stories about you and talk all about your little drug dealing problem. Now, look,ifyou killed the three of them, now is the time to get a lawyer and grasp at any straw you can to keep yourself out of prison. If you didn’t, then now is the time to convince us of this, because we’reveryconvinced that you did.”

Foster sighed. “Okay. I was doing community service.”

If Faith were to list the top hundred answers she expected from Foster, that one wouldn’t have made the cut. “What?”

"I was caught with drugs before. Two counts of misdemeanor possession. They only found the yellow jackets—that's thepentobarbital. My lawyer managed to keep me out of prison and keep me from losing my license, but I was given a year of probation instead. As part of my probation, I was given two hundred hours of community service. It's damned hard to find time to do that when I work full-time and volunteer, so I've been working nights cleaning up streets in the city. I have three weeks left to complete twelve hours, and then I'm done. You can look up my record and confirm that."

Faith’s confidence began to dissipate. “Can your probation officer confirm that you were at community service?”

“Well, we’re supervised by PD officers, but if my probation officer finds out I was caught with drugs again, I’ll fail my probation and have to go to jail. I’ll lose my license, and my life will be ruined.”

“And that’s why you didn’t want to tell us,” Slade said.

“That’s why. Please—”

“Call the supervisor for those shifts and confirm that Foster was there,” Faith told Slade. “You can look up the number. I don’t feel like arguing with Dr. Foster anymore.”

“No! Please!”

“Enough. Three people are dead, and you’re whining because you might get caught dealing drugs? I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

Slade dialed the number while Foster buried her face in her hands and wept. Faith took deep breaths to stay calm. She was angrier at the situation than at Foster. Foster was a piece of work, no doubt, but what really angered Faith was the likelihood that their lead had taken them to another dead end.

Slade confirmed that outcome a moment later. “Damn it. All right, thank you, Sergeant.” He hung up and looked at Faith. “Sergeant York was the supervisor. He confirmed that Dr. Foster was present for her court-ordered community service each of the past five nights.”

Faith sighed. “All right.” She stood. “Okay, Dr. Foster. That’s it for us. Indianapolis P.D. is going to come talk to you about the drug charges.”

Foster’s head snapped up. “What? You’re still charging me?”

“I’m not, but Indianapolis sure is.”

“But… I helped you! I told you the truth!”

“If I were you,” Faith replied, “I’d start preparing for a career change.”

Foster’s complaints echoed as the three investigators left the room. “Oh,damnit! This isn’tfair!”

No,Faith agreed.It’s not. It’s not fair at all.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Michael hated lying. He didn’t mind the occasional fib every now and then when interrogating a suspect, but he hated lying to people he cared about, and he hated lying to his superiors.

He hadn’t really told an untruth, to be fair. He just hadn’t shared theentiretruth. He agreed that Faith needed to be kept off of the Messenger case. For the time being, at least. Eventually, she would have to take that case because there was no one as qualified as the two of them were to stop this killer. For now, though, she needed time to grieve the Boss.

What he hadn’t told her was that he’d asked for a transfer to administrative duty. His superiors hadn’t assigned him, they’d approved his temporary transfer. He told Faith it was because he needed time to grieve the Boss, and thatwasan untruth now that he thought about it. He’d told his superiors that he would be spending his time organizing the files at the office, and that wasdefinitelyan untruth. The Boss ran a tight ship, and there wasn’t a sheet out of place among the hundreds of thousands of them present at the Philadelphia Field Office Records Department.

He’d told his wife that he was taking a bit of a break from casework, and that was the lie that hurt most of all. Ellie trusted him. She believed every word he said was honest, and up until now it was.

But he’d lied to her.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. A soft hand caressed his shoulder. “Hey. Everything okay?”

He looked at his wife. She loved him so much. She was so good to him despite all of the stress he put her through. He wanted so badly to tell her the real reason for his behavior. In fact, he almost did.

Before the words came out, though, he thought of the possible consequences of bringing Ellie into this. He was already putting himself at risk. He couldn’t bear the thought of putting Ellie at risk.

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