sat down in the chair in front of Zach’s desk. “You’re not in the middle of something, are you?”
“Nothing that can’t wait.”
“I’m following up some leads in the area and thought I’d stop in and give you an update on the case.”
“Ah. Great, yeah. I’d love to hear what you have so far.”
Reed updated Zach on the new information, their theories so far, and what the team was working on at the moment. Normally, he wouldn’t update a lieutenant in another district, but as he’d made Zach aware of the details of the case and asked him to do a profile, if there was anything that might allow him to update that original picture, or perhaps expand upon it, he wanted to make sure that happened.
They discussed the particulars for a little while, but mostly went around the same circles he and Ransom had. They needed more, plain and simple.
And that tore Reed up, because he knew very well that “more” might be the discovery of another corpse.
At the thought, Reed pictured Liza as she’d looked in the video after making her way up the stairs in the dark and laid eyes on her boss’s eyeless body.
Zach cleared his throat, bringing Reed from his wandering thoughts. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, I know how distracted I am when I’m working a case.” He gave Reed a long look, leaning back in his chair. “I get the feeling the case isn’t the only reason you’re here.” He raised one dark brow.
Reed smiled. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I know you and because you’re Josie’s son. You both do this thing when there’s something you’re not saying . . .” He waved his hand around the general eye area, indicating what, Reed wasn’t sure. “Must be genetic.”
Reed chuckled. “Shit. I have a tell?”
“Probably only to a handful of people.”
They shared a smile. Reed tilted his head, conceding. “Okay, yeah.”
The older man remained quiet, giving Reed room to compose his thoughts. After a minute, he looked up at Zach and asked, “When you first met Josie, she was still suffering from the trauma of what happened to her.” What my biological father did.
Zach studied Reed. “She was. It had been almost ten years though. She had a handle on it.”
Reed nodded, pressing his lips together. This was hard. They’d never discussed this before. “I assume though, that you had reservations? About getting involved with someone with her . . . issues.” A victim of untold abuse and pain.
Zach ran a finger over his bottom lip for a moment, considering Reed. “At first, yes. I was honest with myself about what I was getting into. But once I got to know her, once I had firsthand knowledge of her strength, I knew I’d be damn lucky if I got a front-row seat to experiencing it—experiencing her—every day for the rest of my life. I knew she’d bring that same fight to everything she did. Her marriage, her children, life. And she has. Your mother’s a born fighter, Reed. It just took a little while for her to see that in herself.”
Wow. Okay. He nodded, overcome, because he knew he’d been part of that fight too. She’d fought for him, and then she’d continued fighting for him . . . even if it had been from afar.
Zach looked out the small window, appearing thoughtful. “Throughout the most horrific moments of her life, she followed the instinct to love. To protect. To save.” He looked at Reed. “It kept her human. It anchored her heart, maybe even her mind, though I don’t pretend to understand how a mind is lost.”
Reed’s throat felt clogged, and he didn’t trust himself to speak.
“Some people are warriors,” Zach went on. “Soul warriors. There’s something stronger, less . . . breakable about them than others. You can knock them over, but they’ll just keep getting up. Again and again.” He looked back at Reed, his gaze intense. “I don’t know what that ingredient is exactly or why some have it and others do not. But I know I’ve seen it. And I’m sure you have too.”
Reed nodded. Yeah. Yeah, he had. He knew exactly what Zach was talking about. He knew victims. He worked with them every day. He saw the ones who were irreparably broken, and he saw the ones who were badly bent but still had fight in their eyes, dim though it may be.
He saw that same fight in Liza whether she recognized it about herself or not. Reed