“You’ve… always been the best, with this particular type of case,” he began, his voice gruff yet quiet. “Don’t think that I haven’t noticed your ability to deal with cases that aren’t the usual run of the mill serial killer. You’re good when things get strange. When we need to see things in a way that doesn’t conform to the box. Intelligent killers. People who think in different ways.”
Zoe thought that over. It was true, what he said. She just couldn’t decide whether she liked it. whether he was calling her odd. “I have worked on a number of cases like this,” she conceded, which wasn’t the same as admitting to anything or saying that she would take the case.
“I don’t want to push you, Agent,” Maitland said. “If you return to work and you’re not ready, things could go bad. For both of us. But I also think I know you well enough to see that you’re best when you have a puzzle in front of you to work on. I’ll be frank. I want you on this case. In fact, I don’t trust anyone else to get it done the same way that you will.”
Zoe waited, her thoughts tumbling over one another. It was hard enough to hear them under the numbers telling her the decibels and word length and syllables and the dimensions of the desk and everything on it, and when she did hear them, she wasn’t sure. It would be good to sink her teeth into something new, something that stopped the same old things from rattling around inside her skull. The numbers could be put to use for a change, like she did before, putting them to work on suspects and entry points and all of the rest.
It would be good to make a difference. Maybe save a life or two.
So long as she didn’t have to drag anyone else into danger with her.
“I will take it,” she said slowly. Maitland’s face lit up, if not into a smile then certainly into something more lively than his usual stone-faced expression. She plowed on, not wanting him to miss the most important part. “Alone. I do not want to be assigned another partner. I will go solo on this one.”
Maitland tilted his head at a further ten-degree angle than previously, and his eyes narrowed by fifteen percent. “You know I can’t do that, Agent.”
“I have worked alone before,” Zoe pointed out. It was true. Before Shelley, when she had been between partners because they couldn’t handle her oddness, she had seen plenty of cases where she’d been forced to go into the field alone. There wasn’t anyone who would partner up with her, until a new rookie came along. Then the cycle would repeat itself.
“Not on a case of this magnitude,” Maitland said. “Only on simpler crimes. And not right after the death of your former partner. I’m sorry, Zoe. I am not suggesting that Shelley is going to be replaced. That she ever could be. But you will need to work alongside another agent on this one.”
Zoe lowered her eyes to the floor, where there were fewer numbers. “I would really rather not work with someone new.”
“Well, I’m afraid I already have someone lined up. He’ll be perfect, I promise.” Maitland raised his voice to bellow in the direction of the door. “If you’re out there, Agent Flynn, come on in. It’s time for you two to meet.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Zoe’s head swiveled to the side in time to see the door open, as a younger man in a dark suit stepped through. He was six three, slim but with the suit tailored well to show that he had muscles underneath, dark hair swept up off his forehead, a clean Hollywood grin full of straight white teeth. Twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Zoe instantly disliked him.
“Agent Aiden Flynn,” he said, sticking out his hand in front of him, that grin still eating at his face.
Zoe took his hand and shook it dispassionately, taking in the measurements of his face and the angles of his high cheekbones. He looked like trouble, from head to toe. That suit was well fitted, outside of standard sizing; not off the rack, but custom tailored. He came from money. His hand was soft, and Zoe didn’t need the numbers to tell her that his shoes looked brand new.
Zoe swept an accusing eye to Maitland. “This is his first assignment,” she said.
“Fresh out of the Academy,” Maitland replied. He stretched, putting his