[Georgia 03] Fallen

lawyers are already on scene. These guys aren’t your everyday suspects.”
    “Is Amanda all right?” Faith shook her head at her stupidity. “Of course she’s all right.”
    “She got what she wanted. We get a back door into your mom’s case because of this.”
    The GBI had jurisdiction over all death investigations inside state prisons. “I guess that’s some kind of positive news.”
    Will was quiet. He didn’t ask her if she was doing okay, because he obviously knew the answer. Faith thought of the way he had held her hands that afternoon, making her pay attention as he coached her on what to say. His tenderness had been unexpected, and she’d had to bite the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood so that she wouldn’t break down and cry.
    Will said, “Do you know that I’ve never seen Amanda go to the bathroom?” He stopped himself. “Not in person, I mean, but when we left the prison, she pulled over at the gas station and went inside. I’ve never seen her take a break like that. Have you?”
    Faith was used to Will’s odd tangents. “I can’t say that I have.” Amanda had been at those family dinners and barbecues with Boyd Spivey. She had joked with him the way cops do—questioning his manhood, praising his progress on the force despite his lack of mental prowess. She wasn’t completely made of stone. Watching Boyd die would’ve taken something out of her.
    Will said, “It was very disconcerting.”
    “I can imagine.” Faith pictured Amanda at the gas station, going into the stall, shutting the door, and allowing herself two minutes to mourn a man who had once meant something to her. Then she’d probably checked her makeup, fixed her hair, and dropped the key back with the gas station attendant, asking him if they locked the bathroom door to keep someone from cleaning it.
    Will said, “She probably sees urinating as a weakness.”
    “Most people do.” Faith sat back on the couch. He had given her the best gift she could possibly receive right now: a moment of distraction. “Thank you.”
    “For what?”
    “For being there today. For getting Sara to come. For telling me what to—” She remembered that the phone was tapped. “For telling me that everything was going to be okay.”
    He cleared his throat. There was a short silence. He was awful at this sort of thing, almost as bad as she was. “Have you thought about what they were looking for?”
    “That’s all I can think about.” She heard the refrigerator door open and close. Zeke was probably making a list of foods she shouldn’t stock in the house. “What’s next?”
    He hesitated.
    “Tell me.”
    “Amanda and I are going down to Valdosta first thing.”
    Valdosta State Prison. Ben Humphrey and Adam Hopkins. They were talking to everyone from her mother’s old team. Faith should’ve expected this, but the news of Boyd’s death had thrown her off. She should’ve known that Will was going to reopen the case.
    Faith said, “I should keep this line open in case someone calls.”
    “All right.”
    She hung up the phone because there was nothing more to say. He still thought her mother was guilty. Even after working with Faith for almost two years, seeing that she did things the right way because that was the kind of cop her mother had raised her to be, Will still thought Evelyn Mitchell was dirty.
    Zeke loomed in the doorway. “Who was that?”
    “Work.” She stood up from the couch. “My partner.”
    “The asshole who tried to put Mom in prison?”
    “The very same.”
    “I still don’t know how you can work with that douche.”
    “I cleared it with Mom.”
    “You didn’t clear it with me.”
    “Should I have sent the request to Germany or Florida?” He stared at her.
    Faith wasn’t going to explain herself to her brother. It was Amanda who had asked her to partner with Will, and Evelyn had told Faith to do what was best for her career. She didn’t have to point out that it was not a bad idea to get out of the Atlanta Police Department, where Evelyn’s forced retirement was considered either a coast or a crime depending on whom you asked. “Did Mom ever talk to you about the investigation?”
    “Shouldn’t you ask your partner about that?”
    “I’m asking you,” Faith snapped. Evelyn had refused to discuss the case against her, and not just because Faith could’ve been called as a potential witness. “If she said something, even something that was a little off but you didn’t