"Of course."
The nearest one was off Jim's opulent and masculine bedroom. The bed was made with the same red and gold silk coverlet she remembered from last year. Nothing was out of place. Nothing had ever been out of place any of the times she had been here before. Jim must either be a neat freak or have a housekeeper. Cassidy's guess was both.
When she came out of the bathroom, Jim was waiting for her. He put his arms around her. His mouth was covering hers, his body insistent, his hands on either side of her head.
For a moment, Cassidy's body answered him. For a moment, her body betrayed her, as it had so many times before. And then she twisted her head and pushed on his chest.
She stepped back. The sound of their breathing hung in the otherwise silent room. "No, Jim. I can't do this again. Not now." She had always been a sucker for blue eyes and black hair. She had always been a sucker for pretty much anything in trousers.
"Can't you see? It's like yin and yang. You and me, we would fit together like puzzle pieces." For a second-he pulled her to him, demonstrating, and then slowly released her.
"That might be true. Maybe. But I don't think I want to go back there."
"Let's just leave that door open for a while, then, why don't we? We can be whatever kind of partners you like." He walked with her out into the foyer, helped her into her coat. It was funny to see him acting like such a gentleman now. Cassidy kind of liked that there were two sides to Jim, and he wasn't ashamed of either one.
His face turned serious. "Look. There's another reason I wanted to talk to you tonight?'
Cassidy wondered what it could be. He had already offered her a job and a place back in his bed--what else was there?
"If I remember correctly, you have friends in law enforcement."
She kept her face smooth. "I went to high school with Allison Pierce and Nicole Hedges. Allison is a federal prosecutor now, and Nicole is a special agent with the FBI."
"Can you give me their cell phone numbers? I'd like to get in touch with them."
"Why?"
Jim shook his head. "I'd rather not say."
"I'm not handing out their personal numbers if I don't know what it's for. They would kill me if they got a call from the show and ended up being broadcast."
"This doesn't have anything to do with the show. Well, it probably does, but not the way you're thinking. I don't want them as guests. I want their advice. I've been getting some threats."
"Don't you get a lot of threats? Whenever I turn on the program, you're handing out that NOD award."
"These are different," Jim said, and wouldn't elaborate much further.
Finally, Cassidy wrote down their numbers and gave him a kiss on the cheek before she left.
It was only later that she realized one of her earrings was missing.
Chapter 28
Portland Field Office, FBI
The cop sitting next to Allison in the FBI conference room had recently eaten onions. Raw ones, she guessed, as he exhaled again. Her stomach pressed up against the bottom of her throat. As if lost in thought, she cupped her hand over her mouth and tried to concentrate on the neutral smell of her own skin. In another ten days she would officially be in her second trimester, and Dr. Dubruski had said the bouts of nausea might fade away.
The task force had thinned considerably since sarin gas had been ruled out. Yesterday, the bigwigs had flown back to DC. Now it was down to local representatives.
"What have you learned about Jim McKissick?" Nicole asked Rod Emerick.
"Well, a lot more than about Jim Fate, that's for sure." Looking down, Rod began to read from his notes. "James Robert McKissick. Only child. Dad a drunk. Mom died in a car accident when he was nine. Dad was driving, but wasn't charged. It's not clear why. A few months after that, the state took custody after a teacher reported seeing welts on the kid's back. Dad died of liver failure about two years later. Meanwhile, the kid was bouncing from foster home to foster home. Reading between the lines, there may have been some physical abuse."
Allison imagined what it had been like. Jim must have envied his classmates their living mothers and sober fathers, their siblings, their certainty of their place in the world.
Rod continued, "Fate went to college on scholarship. He worked at three other radio stations, including one in college, before joining KNWS. He's been there for about twelve years. He had an excellent credit rating, no outstanding bills, and a nice-sized 401(k). He owned a BMW and a condo in Willamette Villas. There's been no unusual outgo of money in the last year, so it doesn't look like he was paying blackmail. His medical history was unremarkable--some trouble sleeping, and his cholesterol was a little high."
"How about his personal life?" Leif asked.