George had to take this at face value. He didn’t have much of a choice, which made it easier. “Andi has a connection to all arthropods in his vicinity. It’s what saved us from those wasps earlier in the alley. It’s also the reason he’s so sick now. A rushed intervention like he did just then is always the worst.”
“Oookay.” DeCapristo gave a curious look. “You’re telling me Detective Hayes is like Aquaman? Only talking to insects instead of fish?”
“Basically. Though I do like to point out that, first of all, Aquaman talks to all sea life, which contains a lot more than just fish, just like Andi talks to all arthropods, which isn’t just insects. For example, crustaceans are also arthropods, which would mean Andi is a bit like Aquaman.”
“Oh. And second?”
“Second what?”
“You said first of all. I’m assuming there’s a second?”
George went through what he’d just said. “Uh, second, Andi is real and Aquaman isn’t.” He frowned. “You seem oddly calm for somebody who just found out about something that shouldn’t be possible.”
DeCapristo shrugged. “As you said before, the truth isn’t as outlandish as what I’ve been spinning in my head, and believe me, I’ve got a lot of interesting theories. Also, even though I’m no longer doing the crazy high-profile cases I used to do, I can tell you talking to bugs is downright tame compared to some of the things I’ve seen.” She looked a little sad but only for a moment before her mask slipped back into place.
George realized he wasn’t as annoyed with her as he had been this morning. “Who did you piss off?”
DeCapristo’s head came up abruptly. “What do you mean?”
George simply shrugged.
She huffed. “Fine. There may have been a case when I was told to stop digging and keep my opinions to myself. It could have been that I didn’t listen and was right about everything but made the whole situation worse than it had been before. A higher-up was less than pleased, and since then they’re trying to get rid of me by sending me after cases like this one. They’re hoping to discredit me, so they have a reason to fire my ass.”
“That’s why you’re investigating a case the FBI wouldn’t normally look into.”
“That, and I’m also getting cases where a solve seems unlikely. So far, I haven’t had to admit defeat, which makes said higher-up even crankier.”
“Any chance to get rid of them?” George couldn’t imagine DeCapristo just rolling over and taking the hits.
“I’m working on it.” The smile briefly lighting her face wasn’t too friendly. In that moment, she reminded George of a shark that had just found a seal swimming blissfully ignorant at the surface of the ocean. “Anyway, the more pressing problem is, why did those wasps attack us?”
George rubbed both hands over his face. “I’d say it is because we’re getting somewhere with this case, also, I can’t, for the life of me, imagine where. Plus, were the wasps attacking all of us or one person specifically?”
DeCapristo’s eyes narrowed. “You’re right. We haven’t interacted that much until today. And definitely not on the case. So, was it me or you?”
“Have you talked to people not on the list we gave you and Chief Savalle?”
The agent shook her head. “No. I was planning to sniff around Paradise Home a little more, though I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
George nodded. “That means it’s rather safe to assume that whoever we startled has to come from the pool of people we interviewed regarding the case.”
“If any of them were like Detective Hayes, would he be able to tell?”
When George stared at her with widened eyes, DeCapristo shrugged. “What? It makes sense. I assume the only reason you decided there was a case at all is because your partner could somehow sense it with his ability. And since all these deaths were crawler-related, it’s not a huge leap to think it’s someone like him.”
“You’re right with most of it. Yes, Andi did sense that the arthropods had been influenced. That’s how we knew it was murder. The thing is, Andi is pretty unique. The chances of somebody like him being out there and the two of them meeting—they are microscopic. I’d say even smaller than buying a lottery ticket.”
“And yet, every year people win the lottery.”
“Yeah. I guess they do. And Andi can’t sense them. Or, more accurately, he didn’t sense anything from the people we talked to. We honestly have no idea if he could somehow tell if somebody was like him.”
“But he did feel the other person in the bugs’ minds?” The way DeCapristo stressed the last word showed how much she was struggling with the right terminology.
“Minds is as good a word as any. According to Andi, nothing arthropods experience is directly translatable to our reality. He’s had this ability all his life and still sometimes struggles with naming things or translating them correctly. It’s all a bit hit and miss.”
They both looked in the direction of the bed where his partner was doing a great impersonation of a puppet with its strings cut.
“How long will it take till he’s better?”
