Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [67]
She didn’t know how to describe her feelings for Caine. She watched the muscles across his back ripple as he tugged on his T-shirt. She’d barely recovered from that when he placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her into the elevator a few minutes later. The bottom line here was that Caine’s effect on Faith was ten times stronger than any Mounds martini could ever be, and she had no idea how to deal with that fact.
Faith was still trying to recover her equilibrium when she sat down in her cubicle. She had yet to decorate it. The space certainly had none of the tchotchkes of her previous one. There were no posters here. No Jane Austen mugs. No tiaras or magic wands or wings.
Instead, she had a Wild Words from Wild Women daily calendar, and that was about it as far as personal touches went. Faith dutifully turned the page to today’s quote by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, syndicated radio shrink. “If you stick your head in the sand, your butt is in the air.”
Faith was pondering the ways that applied to her life when Abs joined her in the cubicle. Being Abs, she got right to the point. “If you promise not to tell your father that I got you drunk, then I won’t tell him about Caine.”
“You didn’t get me drunk. I got myself drunk. Those martinis tasted so good, but I had no idea they were so potent.”
“Well, sure, if you drink four or five of them on an empty stomach.”
“I didn’t have five.”
“That’s irrelevant. The big question here is why was Caine listed as one of your ICE contacts?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Fair enough. But we’re agreed that you won’t tell your father, and I won’t tell your father, right?”
“Sounds good to me,” Faith said.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me. Are you and Caine working together on his dad’s closed case?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I can understand why. Your father would have a hissy fit if he knew.”
“You can’t tell him.”
“So now that’s two things I’m not supposed to tell him,” Abs said. “That you’re seeing Caine and working on his father’s closed case. You’d owe me big time for keeping those things silent.”
Faith didn’t like the sound of that.
“Why are you interested in the case anyway?” Abs said. “I mean, I can understand why Caine would find it hard to accept that his dad was guilty, but what’s up with you? You don’t think his dad was innocent, do you?”
“I don’t know.”
Abs shook her head. “I warned you about getting emotionally involved in a case.”
Faith didn’t waste her time denying her emotional state of mind. “Haven’t you heard of trusting your gut?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of it. I just don’t believe in it.”
“Come on. Surely you’ve had a case where you sensed something was wrong?”
“You mean like feminine intuition?” Abs scoffed.
“Intuition period.”
“Intuition is fine if you’re reading palms but not for investigative work. We have to discover the facts. Emotions weaken your objectivity and adversely affect your judgment. So much for you being tough.”
“Sometimes taking the easy way out is just that. Easy. It’s much tougher to question decisions.”
“Which just leaves you indecisive. The case is closed. There’s no bringing Caine’s father back from the dead. You should leave it alone.”
“Why are you so vehement about this? Do you know something?”
“Yes. I know you’re making a mistake in digging up the past.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think you’re tough enough to face what you might find out.”
“What do you think I’ll find?”
“My intuition tells me it won’t be something good,” Abs said in a mocking voice before walking away.
Which left Faith wondering what Abs was hiding and how it affected this case.
Caine called Faith three days later on Monday as she was walking home from work. The “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” ringtone had a new meaning for her now. It didn’t just apply to baseball but also to her convoluted feelings for Caine.
“Just a heads-up that I’m going to be doing a surveillance on Nolan Parker tonight,” he said. “So don’t mess it up.”
So much for Caine being nice to her. “I won’t mess it up. Thanks for inviting me to join you.”
“I’m not inviting