never been his strong suit but there was no doubt the need for it now.

Reaching for his cellphone and punching in the digits he memorized one time after he feigned interest in saving Mike’s cellphone a year ago, Jake paused and took another look at his phone. He cleared the number out from the screen and attempted to dal it again slowly and this time, paying absolute attention to his thumb pattern across the touch screen.

In gasp and widened eyes, he mumbled, “I’ll be damned!”

Looking around his house and suspecting the perpetrator might have hidden cameras to monitor his actions, he kept his thought to himself as he attempted the dial pattern over and over and again until it etched perfectly into his head that he was right. His photographic memory had picked up that same hand pattern sometime earlier in the day.

‘Sarah dialed this same number”, he thought.

He was certain of it and even went ahead to dial the digits so he could see it in entirety on his phone scree. It was without doubt a perfect match for Mike Rondon’s and it made him wonder if the two had something they were involved with or in that he wasn’t aware of. He had also heard her tell the caller she had things figured out while casting her gaze out the window and presumably towards the van he had noticed parked outside.

“What are you two doing?” he thought.

Falling back into his chair and rubbing his temple, he wondered if they were unto him as the possible killer they were looking for. He couldn’t understand why Sarah had chosen to bear an interest in him all of a sudden too and if they were indeed baiting him, it would leave him at a very bad disadvantage. Drained of any reasonable explanation, he closed his eyes and hoped for a brief nap before heading out again.

“Stay away from those two”, he thought. “At least, until you know what the hell they both are planning”, he added.

Nobody could be trusted currently and especially not after his house had become violated and lost its privacy.

***

Wearing the perfect poker face and stepping out of the elevator on the fifth floor where the forensic team had their base, Jake walked around unnoticed before arriving at the third door to his right and with the name “Felicia Shirk Chief Forensics” etched into it. Taking in deep breaths and exhaling nervously, he tapped on the door and reached for the handle before opening it.

“Jake”, the slender, spectacled lady behind the ebony colored desk rested her back into her seat and smirked. “Who would have thought I’d be receiving you as a guest today or even ever again?”

Jake chalked down some lumps of discomfort in his throat and nodded his head while gesticulating with his hands, “Felicia, before you say anything, I know I have wronged you and I messed up badly”.

Felicia with a raised brow snorted derisively before drawing closer to her desk so her cleavage could be partly visible to him.

“Allowing me book a flight to the Bahamas for both of us and only for the mighty Jake Sullivan to cancel and not even let me know about it”, Felicia raged on without showing any intent on forgiving him or letting the past be the past.

Jake cleared his throat nervously and cut right in, “Yes, you have every right to be angry with me, but right now the department is a mess and I’m hearing they are bringing in some hotshot from uptown to find the Captain’s killer because they feel we here are slacking”.

Felicia seemed to calm down a bit and sighed.

“Now, I found something in that house which I have a feeling might come to help me on this case and I had one of your men analyze it which is why I’m here”, he explained and pleaded to her reasonable side. “I need the results on that lipstick”.

Felicia mumbled incoherently and reached for her desk before pulling out a drawer and holding out a file which she handed to him.

“That is one expensive lipstick”, she noted.

Jake took a look at the brand and noted the words “Bel Air” printed underneath what the forensic team had found out about its make. He looked back up at Felicia who seemed interested in whatever he was getting from the report.

“Are you sure this is related to the Captain’s death, or this is just some cheap excuse to locate your rich girlfriend?” she asked.

“I promise you that women are the least of my worries right now”, he replied, looking sweaty but still good enough to hold his own.

He took another good look at the image of the lipstick taken from the crime scene and wondered about the lipstick cover he had noticed in Sarah’s house earlier. It was distinctive and had some sleek cure to it which he wasn’t familiar with on lipsticks.

“Can I use your laptop for a minute?” he asked Felicia.

She frowned and reluctantly turned the computer his way before watching him grab himself a couch and begin to search through the web for what he needed. it took no more than a minute to find his pick of lipstick from the name he had searched for and right there was the exact match to the lipstick cover and body he had seen in Sarah’s house earlier and which he held in his hand respectively.

“Shit!” he raged, ramming his fist hard into the table and getting up to begin to pace around the room.

He felt used and absolutely blindsided which wasn’t something his ego had ever been dealt.

“What do you know about Sarah Connell?” he turned to Felicia and asked.

Felicia shrugged and replied, “The same thing buzzing around the office that she’s one hotshot profiler and detective that always gets her man… someone recommended her in on the cop case”.

It was the same story he had heard and nothing else stood out as different. His insides felt mashed and his breathing changed in rhythm as

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