“But then there’s all this stuff with Christopher,” Paige said, because everything seemed to be tangled up together.
“This would be Agent Marriott? Are you two working together again?”
“We are,” Paige said. “And I thought that would be good, but…”
“But you find him attractive?”
Trust Prof. Thornton to cut to the heart of it like that.
“What? How did you know that?”
“I’ve seen you around him before, Paige,” the professor pointed out. “It wasn’t hard to spot, given how well I know you.”
“But nothing can happen,” Paige said. She had to stay determined about that. “We’re partners, and he’s married.”
“And has anything happened?”
“No!” Paige was horrified by the thought of slipping over into that kind of betrayal. “Of course not. It’s just… every time I look at him I remember that I shouldn’t be doing anything, and that makes it hard to relax around him even for a moment. I shouldn’t feel like this.”
“And do feelings do what we want them to?” the professor asked, in a patient tone.
“No,” Paige admitted. That part was so obvious when the professor said it. “It’s just another thing I can’t do anything about.”
“Paige, you’re being very hard on yourself,” Professor Thornton said. “And frankly, a little arrogant.”
“Arrogant?” Paige couldn’t help the note of surprise that crept into her voice then.
“You’re acting as if you ought to be in charge of everything around your life. As if you’re the only one who can find the killer who killed your father, and as if you should be in perfect control of your feelings. As I understand it, your one job is to find the killer in Las Vegas.”
“But I’m not exactly making headway with that,” Paige said.
“How long have you been working the case?”
“A day,” Paige replied, and felt a little embarrassed as she said it.
“Which is hardly any time at all,” Professor Thornton pointed out. “You need to be kinder to yourself, Paige. I’m sure you have all the skills you need to work on this case, or you wouldn’t be there, but you can’t expect yourself to be superhuman. Do you have ideas about where to look next?”
“I had this idea about failed magicians,” Paige said. “But I’m not sure how to go forward with it. And we never really looked into the client lists of the company that built the props used in the murders.”
“You see, you have options,” Professor Thornton said. “You can handle this, Paige. Just remember that to do it, you and Agent Marriott are going to have to work together.”