AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lovely. Now, even the slimmest chance that she would get out of this without trouble had disappeared. After receiving medical attention and adamantly and repeatedly refusing to be transported to the hospital for a more thorough examination, Faith was released from the scene.
She left with Turk, heading for home and trying to figure out what she was going to tell the Boss when the news inevitably got to him that she had once more defied his instructions and gone off on her own to catch the Copycat Killer.
She didn’t have long to wait. By the time she reached her car and pulled onto the highway, her phone rang.
The Boss.
She sighed and answered. “Hi, Boss.”
“Get over here,” he said simply. His normally gruff voice was subdued and almost defeated, which concerned Faith. She had seen him like that only twice before, once when he had nearly fired her and once more after Gordon’s death when he told her he was giving the case to the New York field office.
“On my way,” she said.
He hung up and she sighed and turned to Turk, who sat in the backseat, his expression glum. He sneezed and pawed at his nose absently, and she felt a stab of guilt for dragging him into this.
“I’m sorry, boy,” she said.
Turk met her eyes a moment, then lowered his head back to his paws.
***
The Boss met Faith in his office. He took one look at her and sighed, shoulders slumping. He looked every day of his sixty years of age as he sat behind his desk and shook his head. “Are you all right?” he asked her in a tone that suggested he knew very well that Faith would lie to him with her answer.
And she did.
“I’m fine. I look a lot worse than I feel.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” he said. “Is it worth my time to ask you what you were doing going after West by yourself?”
Probably a waste of both our time,she thought. She tried anyway. "I had a lead on him, but it was very time-sensitive. Turk and I were in the area, so we followed up and found him holing up in a cabin on the Titmouse River.”
“And did the thought of backup ever occur to you?” he asked. His tone once more made it clear that he knew what her answer would be.
“As I said, sir, the lead was very time sensitive.”
“What lead was this, exactly?”
Faith cast around in her mind for a convincing lie, but she couldn’t come up with one, so she told the truth. “I recalled a session where he mentioned that if he ever left therapy, he would retire to a cabin in the woods on the banks of a river. I narrowed it down to one of three local tributaries of the Schuylkill and found him on the Titmouse.”
"And what exactly about this was so time-sensitive that you had time to search for his cabin but not enough time to call for backup?”
Faith opened her mouth but closed it when she once more couldn’t find an answer.
“Bold, I get that this is personal for you. Believe me, I do. Gordon Clark was a friend and one of the finest agents I’ve ever known. I want this bastard dead as much as you do, but going out on your own and trying to take that matter into your own hands is foolish and dangerous.”
“I wasn’t going to—”
“Please,” he interrupted, his voice softening again as he rubbed his temples. “Please don’t lie to me again. Not right now.”
Faith lowered her eyes and kept her mouth shut.
The Boss took a deep breath and shook his head. “The New York office declined the case. They seem to feel that this is our mess, and we should be the ones to clean it up. I can’t say I hold that against them. I’m putting Chavez and Desrouleaux back on lead. They’ll be coordinating with the Marshals on the manhunt.”
“The Marshals?”
"Yes, Bold, the Marshals. They specialize in apprehending violent criminals, and they have resources we don't have. I made it clear to the Deputy Director that this Field Office is not up to the task of apprehending West on our own, and he agreed to ask the Marshals for assistance."
Shock and anger filled Faith. “When did this happen?”
