Page 64 of The Grave Between Us
“Agent Downing is not a part of this investigation.”
“I need a local’s input on the search—”
“Not his!” Michael snapped. “Downing, get out.”
Noah’s frigid stare could put out a fire. He glared at Michael, then turned back to Cole. He leaned down and kissed Cole. “Your lists look great, hon. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thanks, babe,” Cole called after him. They didn’t usually use sugary nicknames. But when Noah called Cole “hon,” Michael’s jaws seemed to scrape together, and Cole’s response nearly made steam come out of his ears.
Michael slammed the conference room door behind Noah. The windows, both those overlooking the parking lot and the ones out into the office hallway, rattled.
“What’s your problem with Noah?”
“You may love the man, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him.” Michael paced away, glaring at the map of the US marked with Ian’s possible victim pools over the past eight years. There were pushpins in every state.
“I’d think you’d be polite to him, at least.”
“I don’t have to be that, either. All I need from Downing is his cooperation as we run this investigation. Is that so much to ask?”
“You’re a miserable asshole at the best of times, but this is pushing it.” Cole leaned back, glaring at Michael. “This is personal to you, but I don’t understand why. You’ve never met Noah before. You’ve never worked in Des Moines before two weeks ago. How could Noah possibly have pissed you off when he was unconscious in his hospital bed?”
“He pissed me off way before that—”
“How?” Cole cried, throwing his hands wide. “You’ve never met the man—”
“Because he took you away! Because Noah Downing took you away from me and from the BAU. How the hell was I supposed to know that sending you here last summer was going to change everything? If I had known, I would have sent someone else.Anyoneelse!”
Cole’s jaw dropped.
“I was going to give you the BAU.” Michael’s voice dropped. Instead of shouting, he sounded resigned. Wistful, even. “I don’t want to do this very much longer. My time is almost up. Hell, maybe it’s already up. I’m retiring in a few years, and I wanted to give you the BAU. You were going to be Assistant Director Kennedy. I had it all planned out for you. That’s what wassupposedto happen.” Michael shoved the chair he’d dropped his jacket on.
“You know Director Harper would never have allowed that,” Cole breathed. “He’d never have let you promote me or let me take over the unit.”
“Harper’s term is almost up. He was new when the Ingram case exploded, and now he’s on his way out. There’s going to be a new FBI director soon, and he wouldn’t have known the first thing about you other than that you’re the best Goddamn profiler we have and that there are over a hundred criminals behind bars now who wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for you and your work.”
Cole said nothing.
“Now, instead of preparing to take over the unit, you’re here.” Michael’s lip curled as he shook his head. “You’re a junior investigative agent in an RA where we send agents who graduated in the bottom half of their class at the academy. You don’t belong here. You’re wasting your talents.”
“I do belong here,” Cole said. “I belong with the man I love, and our family.”
Michael shook his head. “Are you really happy? What impact can you make in this flyover state?”
“I’m very happy. And I’ll be even happier when we find Ian and put him away, and you can fuck off back to Quantico and leave me and Noah the hell alone.” He threw his pen down on the table. “I’m not going back. Ever.”
Michael’s jaw clenched. He glared at the map, at the thousands of pushpins. His hand gripped the chair back, squeezing the stuffing until the leather squeaked. “Where are we on the Kerrigan investigation? How far did you get searching area parks and waterways?”
“I’ve got a list of places to start searching,” Cole said, sliding the lists down the table. “If you ask nicely, the locals can lend us some search teams. Noah might have a softer touch—”
“I’ll handle it,” Michael growled. He flipped through the pages, eyeing the headers Cole had scribbled along the top, matching them to grid coordinates on the map of Iowa taped to the wall. “Looks like we can divide the searches up geographically.”
“That was the idea.”
“Then let’s get going.”
* * *
Cole and Michaeltook the southern wedge of parks to search, dividing the northern and two western sections among the rest of Michael’s team of assistants. Michael allowed Cole to request local assistance searching the eastern section, and Noah reached out to the area sheriff’s departments. He and Cole texted for an hour as Noah drove out with Sophie to join the search efforts for a little while.
