“At least now you know which museum employee was involved,” Bryn said.
“Indeed.Thank you both for your assistance.”
“Don’t forget the favor you owe me,” Bryn added.“I plan to collect at the most inconvenient moment possible.”
Giles gave a pained sigh, which put a smile on Bryn’s face as he and Gunnar headed back to the apartment.“Not quite the art heist thriller I was expecting,” Bryn commented.
“No.I still wonder about Giles’ interest in this.There’s something else going on here, I can smell it.”
“You do have a powerful snoot.”
“Hmm, I’m going to choose to take that as a compliment rather than a dig at the size of my nose.You okay?Three reads in a row can take a lot out of you.”
“I’m fine.Slight headache is all.Redman was the only real challenge.Fear and deception are hard to untangle sometimes.”Bryn sighed.“But I’m glad we did this.At least now the cops can focus on finding who was really behind the theft.”
“It was also good to get back to something different rather than focusing on one case.I like variety,” Gunnar admitted.
“Yeah.Does that make us weird?”
“Probably, but now we can go back to our recovery time.I believe we should plan to do nothing productive for the rest of the day.”
“Sounds like an excellent plan.Come to think of it, Iama little tired.We should get horizontal.You know, for recovery purposes.”
“Oh, is that what it’s called?”Gunnar grinned.
“It is now.”
Chapter Seventeen
“If I have to read one more file, I’m going to gouge my eyes out with this pencil,” Bryn announced, tossing said pencil across the room where it bounced off the wall.It was the day after he’d read the museum staff.He shifted positions on his beanbag, which made a soft whooshing sound as he sank deeper into it, stretching his arms overhead with a dramatic groan.“I swear they multiply overnight.”He reached to grab another folder from the stacks he’d arranged in a semicircle around him.“Remind me again why we came back to work early?”
Gunnar didn’t look up from his computer, but the corner of his mouth twitched.“Because you were, and I quote, ‘climbing the walls’ in the apartment.Warden got worried about the potential renovation bill.”
“Right.”Bryn changed his position again, which required a series of wiggles and an undignified flailing of limbs.His laptop was balanced on his knees, the screen filled with dense text that made his eyes hurt.“But now I’m climbing the walls while doing paperwork, which is worse.”
“It was a compromise, and Warden didn’t give us much choice now, did he?I’m sure Giles would find you something more interesting to do if you asked him.”
“I’d rather eat glass,” Bryn replied, letting his head fall back against the beanbag.“He’d just lecture me about ‘proper recuperation’ and ‘resetting my energy levels’ again.”He mimicked Giles’ clipped British accent.
“Which you ignored,” Gunnar pointed out, gesturing to the bandage still visible beneath the sleeve of Bryn’s faded Iron Maiden T-shirt.“That cut hasn’t fully healed yet.”
“It’s a scratch,” Bryn protested.“I can’t help it if I don’t have lupine super-healing.Watching daytime TV was making me lose brain cells by the minute and sadly we can’t spend every minute getting down and dirty in bed.At least here I can be…productive and uncomfortable.”As if to demonstrate his point, he shifted yet again, causing several files to slide off his lap and scatter across the floor.“Dammit.”
“That thing was a terrible idea,” Gunnar remarked, watching with obvious amusement as Bryn struggled to collect the fallen papers without getting up.
“It’s ergonomic,” Bryn said, stretching as far as he could to reach a wayward piece of paper.“Almost…got it…”
“Very dignified,” Gunnar commented.
Bryn shot him a look.“We can’t all be perfect specimens of professionalism and I’m not the one using my trash can as a basketball hoop.”He finally gave up and rolled off the beanbag onto his hands and knees to gather the scattered reports.“Though I have to say, the view from your desk must be spectacular right now.”
“Improving by the second.”
Bryn wiggled his ass then glanced at the clock on the wall.“Where’s Emmett?He’s thirty minutes late, which is approximately twenty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds longer than he’s ever been late before.”
“Maybe he realized that trying to organize the two of us is a lost cause and ran away.”
Bryn was about to retort when the door to their shared office opened.Emmett appeared, looking disheveled.His normally immaculate shirt was rumpled, and his bow tie was askew.He stopped short in the doorway, taking in the sight of Bryn on his hands and knees surrounded by a sea of papers.
