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Faith’s heart sank a little further. “I’m going to,” she said, “The Boss just needed me to work on this first.”
“Then what,” David said, no longer even attempting to hide his anger. “He’ll just give you open-ended leave to go snooping around the case? You’re not even assigned to this case anymore, are you?”
Faith ran her hands through her hair and took several deep breaths to calm herself. The worst part was that she sympathized with David’s position. She had to look completely insane right now. She had no strong evidence that the Copycat Killer was after them. Or rather, she had strong evidence, but only to herself because only she knew the significance of the killer’s note. To everyone else, she just looked paranoid again.
“David, please,” she said. “I know this seems crazy to you.”
“That’s putting it lightly, Faith. I…” he paused a moment. “Faith, I’m concerned about you. Have you been talking to Dr. West about this?”
“Yes, David, I am, but I’m not just being paranoid. You have to trust me on this. Please don’t come home. Not until I tell you it’s safe.”
David was silent for a while. Faith held her breath and prayed silently that he would do the right thing. Finally, he sighed and said, “All right. I can stay here for ten more days. I already rescheduled my appointments anyway.”
She sighed with relief. “Thank you, David. Thank you so much. I love you, okay?”
“I love you too, Faith,” he said, “but look, ten days from now, I’m coming home, no matter what, and as soon as you get back here, we’re having a serious talk. We need to lay some ground rules going forward if this is going to work.”
Faith slumped as though the wind was knocked out of her when he said that. She hated this. God, she hated this so much. When she found that damned copycat killer, she would—
You will remain perfectly professional,she told herself.You willnotlet him destroy you.
She took a deep breath. “All right. I understand. I really love you, David.”
“I really love you too,” David said, the frustration gone, leaving behind only mild exasperation. “You neurotic, anxious worrywart, you.”
“Hey!” Faith protested. “That’s mean!”
She grinned as she said it, though. If he was still teasing her, then he still loved her, and they would still be okay. She had no idea if that made any logical sense, but it felt good to her, so she went with it.
“Well, I’ve just been told I need to spend ten days watching old people play slots in Not-Vegas, Nevada,” he groused, “so I’ll be mean if I want to.”
She giggled and said, “Believe me, David, I will make it up to you so well when we both get home, you’ll be begging for a chance to do it all over again.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said.
“You’ll like the feel of it even better,” she promised.
The door to the restaurant opened, and Michael and Turk walked out and started toward her. "Gotta go,” she said. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you too.”
She hung up just as the other two arrived. “Everything okay?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, fine,” she said. “Are you ready to head back?”
“Sure,” Michael said. “You sure everything’s all right?”
“Right as rain,” she said with a grin.
An indecipherable look passed over his face for a moment. Then he nodded and said, “All right. Let’s not keep the good deputy waiting then.”
Faith managed to keep her demeanor upbeat, but her heart felt like a stone.
What if David went home after all? What if the case kept her away from him too long to stop him getting killed? Would she be returning home to another body after this case was finished?
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Merrill.”
