Alex shrugged. “She’s beautiful, intelligent, and seems nice. I suppose I could get to like her.”

“Are you going to ask her out?”

Alex wondered if she would be asking if she knew the truth about Teren. “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“You said she’s beautiful and intelligent. What’s stopping you?”

“At the moment? You.” She grinned at Maggie, who swatted her arm.

“Alright, I’ll take the hint. Let’s go.”

Alex slid her coat on and followed Maggie to the front door.

“Thanks, Maggie,” Teren said as she took her coat. “I’m really glad you invited me. Dinner was great.”

“I’m glad you had a good time. You’ll come over again, won’t you?”

“Absolutely.”

It took a few more minutes to get out the door, with both Maggie and Sarah giving each woman a hug.. Alex could see that Teren was a little uncomfortable being touched, but was tolerating the physical affection with grace. Then, finally, the door closed, and Teren led the way to her car. She used her remote to unlock the doors, and Alex slid inside.

Teren waited until they were out of the drive before she opened the conversation.

“I like those two. They’re good people.”

“Yeah, they are. Course, I could do without their constant attempts at matchmaking.”

“What, you don’t like blind dates?”

“I think there’s a reason they’re called blind dates.”

“What’s that?”

“Cause sometimes they hit you like a train hitting a blind man.”

“Ouch. Are you talking about tonight?”

“No, no. Well, yeah, kind of.” She heard Teren chuckle.“How exactly did you meet Sarah and Maggie?”

” I volunteered to teach karate two nights a week at the women’s center. They signed up for my Wednesday night class.”

“I find it hard to believe that Maggie really wants to learn karate.”

“Well, it’s mainly self-defense, but I like to add some of the discipline of karate. I think it makes the students take it a little more seriously.”

“I see.” Alex turned to examine Teren’s profile. “Speaking of karate, did you have to beat up Mark yesterday?”

Teren glanced at her. “Who’s Mark?”

“Mark Garnett. He was in your class yesterday afternoon. It appears you used him for a punching bag.”

“Oh, him.” Teren’s voice expressed her distaste. “Yeah. I took offense at something he did in my class. He became a demonstration piece.”

“He says he didn’t do anything. First you asked him to work with a person, and the next thing he knew you were throwing him around the room.”

“And of course you believe him.”

Alex paused. There had been no inflection in Teren’s voice, and she knew that her reply would probably set the tone for their working relationship, if they were to have one.

“I saw you when you were using Tony Lewis to demonstrate a point,” she began. “I went to the academy with Tony. He had a tendency then to think he was better than everyone, and if he began to lose a fight, he’d lose his temper. You were right, if you do that, it can kill you. I thought the lesson you taught him was appropriate.”

Teren nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“When Mark told me he was in your class, I warned him. He likes to play around a lot, and I didn’t think you’d appreciate that, so I told him not to mess around. He told me he wouldn’t. And today, when I spoke to him, he said he didn’t.”

Alex turned back to Teren. “So, I guess I’m confused. I believe Mark in that he didn’t do his normal clown act. But, based on what I know about you, I don’t believe you’re the type to just pound on someone without a reason. So, I’m asking. What happened?”

Teren nodded again. “You know, if you ever get tired of the FBI the state department could probably use your diplomatic skills.”

Alex chuckled. “No thanks.”

Teren sighed. She took a breath and let it out before she started speaking.

“There’s this person I’ve been working with. She’s in the Records Department, and she wants to be a field agent.” She glanced at Alex. “I guess you know what that’s like, huh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, the only thing that’s really stopping her from even applying is that she has no defensive skills whatsoever. So, she asked me for help. I told her that I’d help her if she met some conditions. First, she had to show up at three classes a week. Second, she had to follow a nutritional and conditioning program. And third, she had to do everything I told her to. She agreed. We’ve been working together for nearly six weeks, and she’s getting better.”

She shrugged. “Yesterday, I paired her with your friend Mark because I thought he’d help her without getting too macho and really pounding on her. I was right, he worked well with her.”

“So what happened?”

“I told them I wanted to see them work on her attack. She’s a soft hearted person, and it’s hard for her to actively strike at someone. So, she was to attack, and he was to defend. They were to keep practicing until the end of class, or until she got a punch through his guard.”

She stopped talking for a moment. Alex waited.

“He dropped his guard.”

“What?”

“He dropped his guard. Purposefullly. She was getting a little tired, and so he thought he’d take pity on her and let her hit him. She was happy. I was furious.”

“Because he let her hit him.”

“Yes.”

They were both quiet for a few minutes.

“I don’t get it, Teren.”

“Don’t you? Look, Alex, if she’s on the street, there’s no way in hell her opponent is going to say, ‘Oh, you’re getting tired, so, here, I’ll just let you hit me.’ Instead, their going to take advantage of it, and kill her. It does her no good for someone to ‘let’ her hit them. It teaches her nothing, and gives her a false sense of her ability. It’s wrong, and no one in my class will do that again, or I’ll make an example of them as well.”

Alex was beginning to realize that, despite what she knew of Teren’s previous occupation, she was beginning to really like the dark haired woman. There was sense of honor about her that Alex would never have expected an assassin to have.

“I understand.” She paused. “So, what did you end up doing with your student after Mark headed for the ice bag?”

“I paired her with another student. They worked until the end of class, and then Melissa and I stayed there and worked some more. I told her she wasn’t leaving until she landed a blow. I meant it.”

Alex stared at her. “Melissa. You mean Melissa Hendricks?”

Teren grinned. “Yeah. I take it you know her?”

“We worked together in Research. Nobody could believe she even made it through the Academy.”

She paused. “So, how late did you keep her there?”

“‘Til she hit me.”

“You mean she actually got through your guard? Either you’re one hell of a teacher, or we’re not talking about the same person.”

“Yes, she hit me. She was exhausted, hot, sweaty, and she was sporting a fat lip from not ducking a counterpunch. But, out of desperation, she lunged forward after I threw a punch, and she clipped me on the side of the head. It wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t have much power behind it, but she did it. And that was the whole point.”

“And then you let her go home.”

“Yes.”

Alex shook her head. “Damn. I’m glad you were’t my instructor at the Academy.”

“Don’t be so happy. I probably will be the person you face in your test.”

“I know. I’d ask you to go easy, but you’d probably take it the wrong way, and I’d end up in the hospital.”

Even Teren chuckled at that.

Alex noticed they were just outside the DuPont neighborhood. It wouldn’t be long until they reached her home, and there were several things she still wanted to talk to Teren about.

“I don’t suppose you need my address, do you.”

Teren flashed her a smile. “No.”

Alex nodded. “Look, Teren. We need to talk.”

“I thought that’s what we’d been doing.”

“I mean about the case. I know you have information that can help me.”