“Right over there,” Roy, who had been quiet this whole time, said. The sheer normalness of his voice did a lot to settle the tension in the room. Or maybe just the tension in me.
Ryder walked around the front counter and back to where the coffee was set up.
I put my hands over my face for a moment.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Even behind my hands, I could feel Jean lean toward my ear. “So Cooper’s back in town. Are you okay?” Her breath still smelled like fake fruit.
I dropped my hands. Ryder was at the coffee table, his back toward us as he pulled Chinese food boxes out of the bag.
“I am now,” I whispered, even though I still felt a little feverish. “That was weird.”
“How weird?”
“Ordinary weird. Track Cooper’s blood heritage. Make sure we’re not missing something.”
That was all the whispering we had time for. She patted my shoulder, letting me know she would.
Roy shifted in his chair and it made a crunchy metal-on-metal noise. “You get me my salt and pepper squid?”
Ryder still hadn’t turned around from sorting containers. He held up a little white box and jiggled it.
I swallowed down my revulsion to all things tentacled and tried not to imagine Roy chewing through the deep-fried wriggly things.
“They threw in an order of pork fried rice.” Ryder turned.
“Well, don’t hold out on me, rookie.” Roy held up a hand and Ryder tossed the box, which Roy easily caught.
“No throwing food in the station.” Wow. Could I sound any more like a mother? Boss. I sounded like a boss.
Ryder gave me an apologetic new-guy-at-the-job shrug along with a small smile that about melted me into my boots. “Do you have time for lunch, Delaney?”
It was almost exactly what Cooper had asked me.
I eyed the boxes he’d opened in neat rows. “The last guy who asked me out for lunch almost left in handcuffs.”
“Then it’s a good thing I brought lunch in.” He looked relaxed, though his eyes still flickered with low-burning anger. Cooper Clark had made no friends today.
“I need to talk to Dan Perkin. So I’ll just take one to go.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jean said.
“You have other leads to check into,” I reminded her.
“I can come along,” Ryder said.
Jean and I exchanged a look. We couldn’t ditch Ryder. There wasn’t enough pre-rally stuff to throw at him yet today, and if we left him here, he’d probably end up listening to some god complaining about their cell phone roaming bill. Seriously. Get a data plan, Momus.
Temperamental gods were something I’d rather leave to Roy.
“Or,” he said casually, “I could do some filing. Familiarize myself with the records room, that sort of thing.”
I didn’t know why he willingly volunteered for the scut work, but it seemed mean to make him file all day.
“You brought me on to help,” he said. “Let me help. I can go talk to Dan if you want. But I’m just as happy to stay here and categorize the evidence room. Familiarize myself with things.”
It was tempting to send him out to get a statement from Dan. So tempting. Jean’s eyes lit up, practically begging me to say yes.
