Conflict of Interest

Chapter Thirteen

Kim

"Carrie," I called after her, trying to be heard but not to cause a scene. "Carrie, wait. I didn't--"

"Don't," she said firmly, but still level-headedly, walking away from me and towards the door. "I knew coming in here that you wouldn't go for it. It was just fatuous to try."

"Can you just talk to me?" I pleaded.

She turned around then, pausing momentarily to look at me. Her eyes, to match her demeanor, were icy and intimidating. "I believe I just did."

There was little I could do to stop her then; she was gone just as soon as she'd finished her sentence.

"Was that a rejection I just heard?" Clapp wondered as I made my way back towards my desk.

"For all I know, that was a biology lesson. What does fatuous mean?"

"You're asking the wrong guy."

"What wouldn't you go for?" Oliver pried.

"Yeah," Clapp said. "And what did she try?"

"Minds out of the gutter, please, gentlemen? Nothing like that."

"You sure?" Clapp wondered.

"You did pick the interrogation room without a one-way," Bagley noted.

"Yes, I'm sure, and no, don't be stupid. Please, I feel like shit right now, okay?"

"Well what happened?"

"Carrie was being nice and I responded by being a total bitch. That's what happened."

"Don't lie to me," Clapp muttered.

"She didn't try to have sex with me!" I snapped.

"That's not what I meant," he assured me, laughing slightly at my outburst. "I meant, since when is Carrie being nice?"

"You guys are too hard on her," I reprimanded. "You've known her longer than I have, and you know how she is. It's not malice, it's simply reserve."

"So you're defending her, and now you're talking like her," Oliver noted.

I didn't have a good reply, and so I settled on a "Shut up."

"Okay, so what's the rest of the story?" Bagley wondered. "What do you mean she was being nice?"

I didn't really know how to phrase it, so I went for a crude summary. "She was just trying to tell me, you know, how, as a friend, she didn't want me investigating Grace's case because it...isn't safe."

"It isn't," Clapp shrugged. "And I agree. But what does she care?"

"She doesn't want me dead, I guess," I relayed her words.

"I don't know," he said skeptically. "There's nothing else there?"

"What?" I questioned. "What do you mean? What else?"

"I mean, her protesting you going. Don't you think it might be because..."

"Because she misses being in your pants," Oliver finished for him. "She used to be in your pants, and now she's in Jenn Carver's pants, and you're in Grace's pants, and--"

"Oliver, say pants one more time," I warned.

"What they're suggesting is that Carrie doesn't want you to go because she has feelings for you," Bagley stated simply.