Michael Prescott - Mortal Faults

“Well, yes.”

Abby had finished her steak. She pushed a hunk of cornbread around the plate, mopping up the juice. “I’m guessing it was being watched already, or you wouldn’t have made your deus ex machina arrival. What was the lookout?”

“House next door.”

“The one that’s boarded up?”

Tess nodded. “It’s abandoned. The Bureau commandeered it early this morning.”

“When did you join the stakeout detail?”

“Midafternoon.”

“So you saw me walk up to Andrea’s door?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t FBI agents usually work in pairs?”

Tess saw where she was going. “I have a partner, but luckily for you, I had the eye at the time.”

“Had the eye? What is that, a magic amulet?”

“It’s an expression. It means I was watching. We trade off so we don’t get tired. It’s standard procedure.”

“So what was your partner doing while you had the eye?”

Crandall had been using the bathroom, but somehow Tess didn’t want to say that. It sounded unprofessional, and there was the Bureau’s reputation to consider. “Raiding the fridge.”

“You even stocked the fridge? Ritzy. You didn’t tell him you’d seen someone enter the house?”

“It didn’t come up.”

“And how would you have explained it when I walked out?”

“I figured I’d keep watching until you were gone. I was doing most of the work, anyway. He was keeping his distance.”

“Slacker, huh?”

“He’s just a little unhappy with me.” This, Tess thought, was putting it mildly. “He has a right to be.”

“So it’s your fault if your partner doesn’t pull his weight? Seriously, Tess, those nuns in parochial school did a number on you.”

“Let’s keep my educational background out of this,” Tess said.

“Whatever. Where was this antisocial partner of yours while you were inside Andrea’s house?”

“In the backyard, securing the scene.”

“That’s not so good. He should have been backing you up when you went housecleaning.”

“Of course he should have. But I couldn’t afford to let him see you. I told him to wait in the yard in case any more suspects tried to flee out the back. And I got thoroughly chewed out for it during the shooting review, by the way.”

Abby shrugged. Clearly she didn’t care about the shooting review. She didn’t appear to care about Tess at all. She hadn’t asked if the shootout in the backyard had put her in any danger. The issue apparently hadn’t occurred to her.

That was a bad sign. Abby was normally somewhat self-absorbed, but not to the point of indifference when a colleague had placed herself at risk.

“So this guy didn’t see me when I went out through the carport?” Abby asked.

“That’s right.”

“He’s Sergeant Schultz, then?”

“What?”

“Your partner. He knows nothing.”

Tess just barely got the reference. She had always been clueless when it came to popular culture. “As far as he’s concerned, Andrea acted alone.”

“Like Oswald. Cool. So are you going to tell me a bedtime story or not? I want to hear the one that begins, ‘Once upon a time there was a lovely but psychologically unstable princess named Bethany…’”

Tess sighed. “I’ll tell you. But I may regret it.”

“Think positive. You’re positively going to regret it.” Abby grinned, but it was a false grin, like the leer of a mask. She was trying hard to sound casual, and not quite succeeding. Maybe it had something to do with the nervous energy that was quaking in every inch of her body. “By the way,” she added, “I’m assuming the three musketeers are still at large?”

“Your assailants? I’m afraid so.”

“Thanks for coming to my rescue.” The words were perfunctory, but Tess had been waiting for them.

“You’re welcome.”

“Not that I needed rescuing, of course. I already had the situation pretty well handled.”

“It didn’t look that way to me.”

Abby pushed her plate aside. “Hey, I scared those bad boys into running away.”

“They weren’t running, they were regrouping. Planning another assault.”

“I wish they’d tried it.”

“Do you?”

“They wouldn’t have outflanked me a second time. I would’ve had plenty of opportunities to treat them to a little street justice.”

“What does that mean?” Tess asked carefully.

“They’re garbage. You know what you do with garbage? You put it in bags. Nice heavy-duty bags, with zippers and everything.”

“Suppose you were the one who ended up in a bag.”

“It’s a risk I’d be willing to take.”

“That’s what worries me.” Tess leaned forward. “We’re supposed to be on the same side, Abby. The side of law and order.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that.”

“Maybe you’re sorry I showed up. I robbed you of your vigilante moment.”

“I’ll have other moments.”

Tess stared at her. “What are you planning?”

“Who, me? A nice long soak in the tub, bottle of champagne, the soothing baritone of Jim Nabors on the CD player…” The smile on her face said that she wasn’t even trying to be taken seriously.

“Let the Bureau take care of this,” Tess said. “It’s our case now.”

“Oh, right. You’re from the government, and you’re here to help. By the way, since when does a home invasion fall under federal jurisdiction?”

“This was no home invasion. It was an attempted hit.”

“Still not a federal crime.”

“It is when a federal agent is involved. I was shot at during the performance of my official duties.”

“Fair enough. Except you still haven’t told me why your official duties required you to be watching Andrea’s house in the first place. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like you could tail her if she went for a drive. You’d need a minimum of three vehicles to do a tail job on a paranoid target in broad daylight, and there weren’t that many FBI agents around.”

“How do you know?”

“Because they would’ve come running, like you. So if you weren’t there to shadow the suspect… Oh, I get it.”

“Do you?”

“You were waiting for her to leave. Not so you could follow her, but so you could break into her domicile and-what? Do a little illegal search?”

“We weren’t doing anything illegal.”

“Planting a bug, then. Or should I say, bugs. Plural. You wanted to know what was going on inside her house.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I suppose you got the opportunity to plant all the surveillance devices you wanted, once the house became a crime scene.”

“I let an agent from the tech support squad handle it. We had a warrant,” she added defensively.

“I’m sure you did. Kind of ironic, though, isn’t it? Andrea’s paranoid, thinks people are after her-and guess what? They are.”

“We’re not after her. We’re trying to protect her.”

“No, I’m trying to protect her. You’re trying to convict her.”

Tess bit back a sharp reply. “The truth is, we’re not sure what to make of her. Whether she’s a suspect or a victim.”

“Maybe a little of both,” Abby suggested.

“Maybe.”

“So fill in the blanks for me, girlfriend. What do you know that I don’t?”

“We can get into that.” Tess lowered her voice. “First I want to be reassured that you’re not going to do anything drastic.”

“Like what?”

“Like hunting down the intruders on your own.”

Abby gave her an unblinking doe-eyed stare. “Tess, I would never do a thing like that. Why, it sounds downright dangerous.”

“You’re failing to convince me.”

She dropped the act. “Okay, let’s say I’d like to track those assholes to their lair and give them what-for. How am I supposed to do it? All I know is they were three guys in ski masks and dark clothes. I’m guessing they’ve ditched the outfits by now, which leaves just three guys. Last time I looked, there were a lot more than three guys in the greater Los Angeles area.”