So long as she didn’t have to draganyone 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 morelively than his usual stone-faced expression. She plowed on, not wanting him tomiss the most important part. “Alone. I do not want to be assigned anotherpartner. I will go solo on this one.”
Maitland tilted his head at a furtherten-degree angle than previously, and his eyes narrowed by fifteen percent. “Youknow I can’t do that, Agent.”
“I have worked alone before,” Zoepointed out. It was true. Before Shelley, when she had been between partnersbecause they couldn’t handle her oddness, she had seen plenty of cases whereshe’d been forced to go into the field alone. There wasn’t anyone who wouldpartner up with her, until a new rookie came along. Then the cycle would repeatitself.
“Not on a case of this magnitude,”Maitland said. “Only on simpler crimes. And not right after the death of yourformer partner. I’m sorry, Zoe. I am not suggesting that Shelley is going to bereplaced. That she ever could be. But you will need to work alongside another agenton this one.”
Zoe lowered her eyes to the floor,where there were fewer numbers. “I would really rather not work with someonenew.”
“Well, I’m afraid I already havesomeone lined up. He’ll be perfect, I promise.” Maitland raised his voice tobellow in the direction of the door. “If you’re out there, Agent Flynn, come onin. It’s time for you two to meet.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Zoe’s head swiveled to the side intime to see the door open, as a younger man in a dark suit stepped through. Hewas six three, slim but with the suit tailored well to show that he had musclesunderneath, dark hair swept up off his forehead, a clean Hollywood grin full ofstraight white teeth. Twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Zoe instantlydisliked 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 itdispassionately, taking in the measurements of his face and the angles of hishigh cheekbones. He looked like trouble, from head to toe. That suit was wellfitted, outside of standard sizing; not off the rack, but custom tailored. Hecame from money. His hand was soft, and Zoe didn’t need the numbers to tell herthat his shoes looked brand new.
Zoe swept an accusing eye toMaitland. “This is his first assignment,” she said.
“Fresh out of the Academy,”Maitland replied. He stretched, putting his arms behind his head as he leanedback in his chair. His back remained perfectly straight, only the degree of theangle at his hips changing.
“I do not want to babysit,” Zoesnapped, perhaps more harshly than she had meant to. Maitland could stilldecide not to give her the case. “This is a serious killer. He needs to becaught quickly.”
“I can keep up,” Agent Flynn cutin quickly. “I was top of my class. I can hit the ground running, easy.”
“How old are you?” Zoe asked. “Twenty-three?”
“Yeah,” Agent Flynn replied, hisvoice quizzical. “How did you—”
“He is a baby,” Zoe said, turningback to Maitland.
The corners of Maitland’s mouthhad twisted up, raising by half a centimeter and changing the angles of hisface. “Agent Prime, I’m giving you two options,” he said. “You either work withAgent Flynn on this case, or you don’t work on this case. What’s it going tobe?”
Zoe looked over at Flynn, numbersswarming her eyes. He was too new. There was too much to see. He was all acuteangles, his bones strong and sharp, his suit cut just so. At least with thepeople she knew well, she could tune out the numbers that were all the same.Working with him would be impossible.
And yet, she had never told anyoneat work—except Shelley—about the numbers. They already looked at her like shewas a freak, and she didn’t want to give them more of a reason to think it. Allof which meant that she couldn’t use them as an excuse now. Couldn’t tellMaitland that all she could see were numbers everywhere, crowding the surfaceof his desk, and that was distraction enough.
Zoe was self-aware enough to knowthat such an admission would not only make her look like a freak, but alsoprobably force Maitland to put her on sick leave and require her to attendsessions with a mental health professional provided by the agency—maybe evenhave her sectioned. She wasn’t going to risk that.
“You are not giving me any choice?”she said, instead, wanting to know if there was any remote possibility that shecould get around this new partner.
“Of course, there’s a choice,”Maitland said. “You get on the plane, or you go home. I can have you out therein a matter of hours. What’s it to be?”
Zoe sighed. It was obvious whatthe answer had to be. She couldn’t work with this new idiot, with his shinyshoes and his rich-boy smile. And yet, there was no way she could go back homenow, not to just sit on the couch with her cats, staring into the distance,stalking Shelley’s family by night. She had a duty, not just to her deadpartner but to the victims who needed justice. The victims who would die overthe next days and weeks if the killer wasn’t caught.
The cats would be fine withouther. Her slow-release feeding system would take care of them. And there was noone else in the whole world that needed her. Not like this case did.
She was going to have to swallowdown the objections that clogged her throat and push through it. She knew thatit was what Shelley would have wanted her to do.
She opened her mouth to tell them,begrudging every word.
***
Zoe glanced over the files again,familiarizing herself with the case. It was a short flight, but she had enoughtime to memorize the details and start to think about the next steps to takewhen they landed. They would want to see the latest crime scene and bothbodies, for a start.
“Can you read it out to me?”Flynn, sitting next to her, had been trying to peer over at the paper the wholetime she had been
