appropriate. As special agent in charge of the Denver office, she really was his boss. He reported to her daily in the role of ASAC-assistant special agent in charge. “I work under you,” he not infrequently pointed out.
She’d been seeing Josh Green for more than a year, but their affair remained secret-or undercover, another of Josh’s cheerful euphemisms. The Bureau disapproved of sexual relationships between agents of different rank, especially when one agent was the other’s immediate subordinate. They could both be disciplined if they were found out. But clandestine activity was what feds were supposed to be good at, and besides, the lure of the forbidden added an extra zing to their liaisons.
“Someday your sense of humor is going to land you in trouble,” she warned.
“It already did. That punch hurt.”
She laughed, and then somewhere in the dark a phone was ringing.
“Who would call at midnight?” she asked.
“Somebody official, is my guess. It’s a cell phone.”
“I know. But is it mine or yours?”
“Can’t tell.”
“We really need to get different ring tones. One of these days you’re going to answer my phone or I’m going to answer yours…”
“And the cat will be out of the proverbial bag. I think it’s your phone,” Josh added. “It has that cheap, tinny sound.”
“Thanks a lot.” Unfortunately he was right.
Tess got out of bed and crossed her bedroom to the dresser. Her groping hand found her cell and flipped it open. Caller ID showed a 310 area code. Los Angeles. She didn’t recognize the number.
“McCallum,” she answered.
“Hey, Tess. How’s tricks?”
“Oh, Christ.” She shut her eyes, feeling the sudden onset of a migraine.
Abby’s voice teased her through the receiver. “Is that any way to greet an old pal?”
Tess glanced at Josh, then carried the phone into the living room, where she hoped her end of the conversation would be out of earshot. “Sorry,” she said. “But-well, actually I’m not sorry.”
“You sound kind of conflicted about this.”
“No, not really. Truth is, I’m remarkably sure of things. I’ve had a lot of time to think, Abby.” She kept her voice low. “To think about the Rain Man case.”
“Living in the past? Not a good idea.”
Tess plowed ahead. “It was a mistake. I never should have hooked up with you. I regret it now.”
“If we hadn’t hooked up, another two or three women might have drowned. We saved lives, soul sister.”
“I’m not your sister. What we did was wrong. I knew it at the time. I was never comfortable with it. I can’t operate like you.”
“Don’t feel bad. We can’t all be superstars. As they say at the beach, they also surf who only stand and wade.”
Tess massaged her forehead. “Will you listen to me? I’m telling you that I cannot be dealing with you again, Abby. Not in any way, shape, or form. We can’t even be having this conversation.”
“And yet we are. It’s just one of those paradoxes.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“No, you aren’t.” Abby’s tone hardened. “You can’t act like we don’t know each other. You owe me, Tess.”
“For what?”
“A little thing called saving your butt, if you recall.”
“That debt goes both ways-if you recall.”
“I was hoping you’d forgotten that part.”
“I haven’t. We don’t owe each other anything. We’re even.”
“No, we’re connected. We’re like two paired electrons that continue to influence each other over vast distances.”
Tess was losing the thread of the discussion, not an uncommon occurrence when speaking with Abby. “What are you talking about?”
“Quantum entanglement. Or loyalty. Take your pick.”
“It’s not an issue of loyalty.”
“Sure it is. Didn’t you ever read about Androcles and the lion? Androcles took a thorn out of the lion’s paw. Years later he was thrown to the lions in the Colosseum. And one of those lions was the very same one he’d helped. And the lion didn’t care, and ate Androcles anyway.”
“That isn’t how the story goes.”
“I saw the director’s cut. Point is, that mangy lion showed no loyalty. Do you want to be a mangy lion, Tess?”
Tess had forgotten how truly irritating Abby could be. “You’re not going to manipulate me into getting involved in another one of your cases.”
“No involvement. You’re in Denver, I’m in L.A. How can there be involvement?”
“Well, you didn’t call just to chat.”
“I need only one tiny favor.”
“I can’t do favors for you.”
“Tess, I pulled a thorn out of your paw. That has to count for something. Anyway, it’s not a big deal. I just need to know if a given individual is enrolled in the witness protection program.”
“The U.S. Marshals run that program, not the FBI.”
“Yeah, like you don’t have access to their databases?”
She did, of course, and Abby, of course, knew it. “I’m not going to help you,” Tess said. Somehow the living room of her apartment, which had always seemed big enough until now, was suddenly too small, the walls closing in like the jaws of the trap.
“It’s not a big deal, Tess. Just a little tidbit of info that no one will ever miss.”
She felt her resolve failing. “I can’t do it,” she said again.
“You can if you believe you can. Some Zen wisdom there. How about it, Grasshopper?”
Tess lowered her head. The phone was hot in her hand, or maybe it was her hand that was hot. She knew she should refuse. Should end the call. But Abby was right. There was a debt, and a connection.
“If I try,” she heard herself say tonelessly, “will you promise to leave me alone after this?”
“Sure. Until the next time I need a favor.”
“Abby…”
“You know, for a lion who got relief from a painful foot injury, you sure are grouchy.”
“That’s what happens when people call me at midnight.”
“Did I wake you?”
“Uh, no. Just… reading.”
“Reading in bed?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
Tess blinked. “I didn’t say-”
“You didn’t have to. I actually heard your face go red with a demure Catholic-schoolgirl blush. So is it serious? You two going steady?”
“I… it’s somebody I… never mind.”
“You’re not giving me the good dish, Tess. Is he married?”
“Of course not.”
“Just asking. Younger than you?”
Tess had to smile. “Are you saying I’m old?”
“Not at all. I’m only wondering if you’re robbing the cradle. You know, women reach their sexual peek at forty. Men, at eighteen. Something to think about.”
“I’m not forty.”
