George felt a broad smile tugging on his lips. Whatever the future might bring, now, at this very moment, they had a comfy sofa, some gripping college sport on TV, and each other. Life could be a lot worse.
IT WASthe afternoon of their second day at home after Tyler had been found. The boy had briefly called and talked to Andi on the phone, telling him that from now on he would see every creepy crawler as a tiny hero and that he was trying to talk his parents into getting him bees. Andi was on the sofa, dozing while watching the history channel, some documentary about the Celts, while George was busy preparing their dinner. Kneading the dough for rigatoni left his mind free to ponder everything that had happened the past two days. He still didn’t know how Luke had managed to get them four days of leave, and he had the strong suspicion it was to show them how well the Office would take care of them should they decide to work for them. It also meant George and Andi had gotten a first taste of how long the Office’s arm was, even if it was in a small way. As Andi had accurately pointed out, working with the Office was inevitable. All they had to do was make sure it happened on their terms. Even though they were both curious concerning the details of their case—Geena had apparently led the raid of Zane Werner’s house, one of the two new suspects Shireen had dug up before everything went sideways, and had found plenty of evidence there—they had asked to be left alone until they returned to the precinct. Because the killer was dead, getting their reports done wasn’t as pressing as with other cases, which allowed them to get the rest they so desperately needed. Work would wait.
When the doorbell rang, George put the dough on a plate to rest. They weren’t expecting anybody, and Andi was still a bit woozy, so whoever it was wouldn’t make it across the threshold. Or so he thought until he saw Chief Norris standing there, her face a forced mask of indifference, her eyes displaying so many emotions George didn’t even try to decipher them.
“Chief Norris.”
“Detective Donovan. May I come in?”
George hesitated. Like with Gelman, the talk with Norris had to happen and soon, but George wasn’t keen on it being at this very moment. The chief had obviously picked up on his inner conflict because she held up one hand.
“I’m not here to make a scene or anything. We need to talk, and there’s a few things I have to say to both of you. Please?”
George stepped back to let her inside. “Come in.”
He led the chief to the living room, where Andi was now sitting upright, the TV switched off.
“Chief Norris.”
“Detective Hayes. I hope you’re feeling better?”
It was literally the first time the chief had ever inquired about their well-being. Hearing the words was a little shock for George. The chief must have seen something in his expression because a wry smile flickered over her face. “I am capable of being civil, Detective Donovan.”
“I never doubted it.”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them, Andi on the couch, the chief and George standing a few feet apart, like a triangle of doom. George cleared his throat. “May I offer you something to drink? Tea, perhaps? I still have some chamomile left, or I could brew you something spicier, with cinnamon and cardamom?”
“No, thank you. As I said, there are some things I have to say, and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to get it over with.”
“Fair enough.” Andi leaned back on the pillows, the bags under his eyes not as bad as they had been in the morning. “Begin.”
Chief Norris started pacing in front of them, her hands clasped behind her back. “First of all, I want to thank you for saving Tyler. Both of you. I know he would be dead if it weren’t for you.”
George nodded. “It’s our job, and Tyler is a wonderful boy. You’re lucky to have such a great son.”
“I know. I’m just afraid I don’t show him how much I love him nearly often enough.”
“He knows you love him. What he needs is for you to accept him the way he his.” Andi’s tone was soft, contradicting the sharp meaning of his words.
Norris made a strange sound between a laugh and a sob. Her eyes were glistening. “That’s the other thing I need you to understand, though Agent Gelman has hinted you know already. My father—he was like Tyler. Like you, Detective Hayes. In fact, the reason I’ve been making your life hell is because you remind me of him. Every time I look at you, I see the grumpy man who had no love for anybody, who kept to himself, was always right and acted as if the world owed him something. The way you shut others out, ignore authority, and just generally do whatever you want, it’s like he’s back, haunting me.”
George looked at Andi, who didn’t seem surprised by this outburst. His partner just sighed. “Let me guess. He never let you close, never told you he loved you, just wanted you to function and not make any hassle because he was always busy, always preoccupied with things you couldn’t grasp? It’s a shitty thing to do to a kid. And I’m not going to tell you what he did was right, because it wasn’t. All I can say to you is that he was even more miserable than you. Gelman told us that he was born with his talent, just like Tyler, and that these things get stronger with the years. If Tyler is any indication, your father must have lived with thousands of ghosts constantly vying for his attention. Being dragged in so many different directions, something has to give. Being sociable takes the most effort and energy, so it goes first. Simple math.”
Norris’s shoulders sagged. “Is it like that for you? I don’t even know what exactly your… talent is.”
Andi looked at George, silently asking him for advice. George shrugged. The chief already knew something, and with a son who talked to ghosts, they might as well tell her what Andi could do. A smile flitted over Andi’s lips. George basked in the knowledge how much his partner, his lover, trusted him.
“I refer to my talent asgeschenk, that’s what myOmacalled it. I have it from her. As for what I can do, I’m connected to all the arthropods within a half-mile radius, and I can expand that radius if I wish so. I can’t stop it. The images are always there, which is the main reason I come across as grumpy. Balancing the different ways I sense the world takes up so much energy, I have none left for politeness. Some days, I don’t even have enough to feed myself.”
Chief Norris wiped her eyes. “Sounds a lot like my father. He was always… somewhere else. And knowing there were others in the room with us, even if I couldn’t see them, even if they weren’t a threat to me…. It was creepy and hurtful because these other people seemed to be so much more important than me.”
“They weren’t. They were just more persistent. I honestly don’t know how it is with ghosts, though from what I’ve learned from Tyler they show varying degrees of understanding, just like living people, which means your father was probably never able to get a moment of silence. And from painful experience I can tell you that’s bound to make you—unlovable.”
George stepped to Andi to put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not unlovable. You do your best.”
Andi looked up at George with a weak smile. “I wasn’t talking about myself. I meant myOma.” He turned his gaze back to Chief Norris. “MyOmahad it too, thegeschenk. We’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but she wouldn’t mind, because she never minded anything in her life. She was a nasty old bitch who took pleasure in other people’s misery because she herself was miserable all the time. Not that it stopped her from using hergeschenkin any way she saw fit. I hate her to this day, though I have to admit I’m beginning to understand how a great deal of her unpleasantness was coping mechanisms. I’m not so different from her, and I’m not saying it’s okay. All I’m saying is that the human mind can bear only so much till it fractures. Friendliness and morals are fragile things. They tend to break first.”
The chief stared at Andi with her mouth hanging open. “That’s actually the most accurate description of my father I’ve ever heard.” She slumped down on the armchair next to her. For a moment, silence reigned, not yet uncomfortable but on the way. Before George could no longer suppress the need to lighten the mood, the chief started talking again. “I’m going to be honest with you, Hayes, Donovan. I have no idea how I’m going to be able to cope with all this madness. Actually talking to you, knowing what’s going on, helps me to understand better, but years of ingrained hatred are hard to shake, as you can imagine.” When George opened his mouth to answer, she held up her hand. “As I said, Gelman has already talked to me about you and Tyler, and he has made it very clear who is expendable and who is not. He has offered me another precinct, and I seriously considered it.”
