“Understood. I will get rid of her, I promise.”
“I don’t need your promises, Luke. Just deliver.” George ended the call.
“What’s going on?” Andi stood at the top of the stairs, looking down on George with disheveled hair and dark circles George could see from where he was standing.
“Andi. You shouldn’t be up!”
“Sorry. You’re so agitated, my roommates threw a hissy fit.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Andi.”
“Don’t be. It’s fine. Now tell me why you are—” Andi hesitated a moment. “—angry, but also worried, paired with anxiety, the pheromones are never that high, adrenaline flaring, anger, anger, spiking, coming in waves, mounting up, so sweet, more, no, wrong, it hurts, not good, anger is bad, means bad things, what does bad mean? I don’t know, it’s so loud, too many vibrations, let me….” Andi shook his head as if he was waking from a bad dream. “Uh, all of that.”
“Do you want to know right now, or do you want to sleep a bit more? You have about thirty minutes until the casserole is done.”
“You made casserole?” Andi perked up visibly. As long as he could be bribed with food, things were… not good—they rarely were—but tolerable. At least he was in working condition.
“Yes, with potatoes and cauliflower and carrots. And four different cheeses.”
“I think I want to hear it now. Then I have something good to look forward to.”
“Okay, Gelman just phoned me. The chief has assigned us to the case.”
“What a bitch!” It was so heartfelt, George had to smile.
“Yeah, that’s what I told Gelman. I tried to keep us out of it, but apparently refusing to take the case could result in her having ammunition against us. Our hands are tied, so to speak.”
“A problem we wouldn’t have if Gelman had donehisjob.”
“I agree with you wholeheartedly. I managed to get his promise to get rid of her as soon as the case is closed.”
Andi groaned. “Probably the worst incentive to work on a case I ever had.” He closed his eyes. “But effective. With that carrot dangling before me, I think I can manage to power through.”
“I don’t like it, Andi. This time off was supposed to be a much-needed break for both of us and to give us time to experiment so I can help you better. Look at you. If you told me you’re an extra on theWalking Dead, I’d believe you without question. Please, you need to promise me, if things get too intense, if you can’t bear it anymore, you tell me, and I find a way to get us off the case. Your mental and physical health is much more important than solving this crime. Do you hear me?”
“I do. Thank you.” Andi started coming down the stairs. The gratitude in his eyes reminded George once again that his partner hadn’t had anybody in his corner since his grandmother died. It made the decision he’d been mulling over since the McHill/Portius/Miller case easy. He would stay in Charleston with Andi, taking care of him, watching his back, helping him adjust to the new intensity of hisgeschenk. He wouldn’t tell Andi, though, not before everything was sealed. His partner didn’t need to worry about George’s application going through on top of everything else he was dealing with.
Suddenly, George felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Yes, they were still facing a case that sounded like a nightmare; yes, they still had the chief breathing down their necks and making their lives hell; yes, thegeschenkwas still a threatening presence, which likely wouldn’t ever change, but the constant back and forth he’d been doing in his mind ever since he had realized how much Andi needed him and how much he needed Andi was finally gone. He would face the future with his partner, whatever it might throw at them.
5. Beast of Burden
THE PRECINCTwas buzzing like a hornets’ nest the next morning, making Andi wish he could go back to his bed. His nerves felt like they had been scrubbed with an iron brush; everything was too loud and too much, the chatter of the blobs adding another painful layer to the sensory input battering into him. The spiders in the building were especially agitated; all the hectic running around made them nervous, the pulses racing through their legs like tiny heartbeats on Andi’s mind, timed with the movements of his colleagues, telling him where people were going without him wanting to know it, and the hairs on his legs swayed as if in a breeze, but it was the stress, really, of dealing with the thrumming of the ground. He tried to put his sixth leg forward and would have fallen if George hadn’t caught him around the waist. His partner’s worried gaze forced Andi to get a grip on himself before George did something he couldn’t take back, like leaving the precinct and telling the chief to solve the case herself. Andi didn’t fully understand the political implications of backing out now—he didn’t have to, because George had taken things in hand—but he did understand the sharp tang of worry he had caught from George the day before when he told him about the chief’s latest foolery. It was a bad idea for him to be in the precinct and an even worse idea to take this case. Apparently, though, there was no getting out of it.
Gelman approached them, his whole-body language screaming how sorry he was. The nail polish he used to kill his foot fungus was as prominent in the air as it had been the first day they had met him, or perhaps it was just Andi associating him with it, recognizing him through it, just like he always knew George through scent and heartbeat and the calming flood of his pheromones.
“George, Andi, I’m—”
George shook his head. “Not now, Luke. We’re going down to Evangeline, see what she’s found out so far.” He gently guided Andi in the direction of the staircase, Gelman trailing behind them like a lost puppy. Andi was glad he could get out of the bullpen, the stares and the stomping, the whispers and the general agitation making him tense like a live wire. It was much better to go down to Evangeline in her much quieter kingdom, only today even there it was hectic, what with so many corpses and skeletons to be looked at and still so many to come. An assistant told them Evangeline was still in one of the autopsy rooms, working on the latest victim of the serial killer whose lair they had found.
She looked up from the partly decomposed flesh where bones were sticking out like branches from a dead tree in the swamp when they entered. As always when she was working on a body, her thick dark hair was tied in a tight bun at the top of her head, making her look even taller than her six feet. Her smile was tired and sad. “Talofa lava, gentlemen.”
“Good morning, Evangeline.” George made a step forward toward the slab with the remains. Evangeline didn’t like people coming too close to her charges without her permission, so he stopped when he was close enough to see all the details but still far enough away to not touch. Andi didn’t bother coming closer. He already knew a lot about the man lying on the cold steel, as well as about the others who had accompanied him in the soil. There was no need for him to confuse himself about this delicious source of nutrients just waiting to be consumed. Gelman stayed behind Andi, studiously not looking at what had once been a living, breathing person.
“You found something truly nasty this time.” Evangeline glanced in Andi’s direction, giving him an imperceptible nod before she focused back on George. Now that he had a partner, it was so much easier for Andi to leave most social interactions to him, even when it was with people he could tolerate or even liked. Evangeline was a smart woman. She understood how Andi worked, not the why but definitely the how, and had no problem accommodating him. “My colleague in the bunker has told me they have found six more skeletons since I left. They suspect even more because the soil is way too loose even in the deeper layers. And some of the bones they’ve found don’t match what they already have.” She sighed, glancing at Andi again. He nodded, indicating that, yes, she was right, there were more to come, which made Evangeline shudder.
“Naturally I can’t tell you much about the overall situation yet, except that you’re looking at the work of a serial killer, which you probably already guessed.”
“Not much room for speculation here.” George shrugged.
