“I’ll give you that.” Andi’s voice was a bit muffled due to the towel.
“So, Paradise Home is still on our radar?”
George nodded. “It is. Though Andi is right. We might have to re-evaluate its significance. Maybe it’s not the home itself but the general area? Isabelle drove the bus that stopped there. Nothing more.”
“Which means we’re going back to square one, trying to find a literal needle in a haystack.” DeCapristo threw her hands up. “If it can be any person, where do we even start? I’m not a profiler!”
“Neither are we. And I’m not sure profiling would help a great deal here—the geschenk blurs everything.” Andi closed his eyes. “I think we should start at Paradise Home since it is our one connection and work outward. And with ‘we’ I mean our IT specialist.”
“You’re still not telling me who that is? I’m wounded.” DeCapristo pouted unconvincingly.
George and Andi shared a look. His partner’s eyes were still bloodshot, and the pupils a little too large for George’s liking. Though the message was clear. George turned to the agent.
“We’re not telling you who it is, which is a precaution for you as much as for her.”
DeCapristo tilted her head. “Thank you, I guess? And you think she can help us?”
“She’s going to curse our families to the ninth generation, but if anybody can shed some light on this, it’ll be her. I’m going to text her, and then I think it’s time to eat.” George looked at Andi, who was slumped against the headboard, the washcloth and towel once again firmly over his head. Yes, food, then sleep and hopefully Shireen wouldn’t kill them.
CHAPTER 24
FINDING ANSWERS IS NOT EASY
Agent DeCapristo ended up sleeping in a room close to theirs. Luckily, the hotel had some vacancies as it was the middle of the week. In the morning, they stopped at a café to get breakfast even though Andi’s headache was still too bad to really feel hungry. But to put George at ease, who was watching him with a now familiar worry in his eyes, Andi forced himself to eat half a plain bagel.
Everything was too loud and too bright and too raw, the blobs everywhere, taking up space, disturbing the air, the ground, sending out confusing pheromones, generally being a pain and making him wish he could retreat into the earth or fly away into the woods, where things were a little calmer. And of course he couldn’t do that because he didn’t have wings and he couldn’t really dig and he had blob things to do and Agent DeCapristo was in the car with them, her electric fields a little calmer now that they had reached some kind of truce. Andi didn’t really care at the moment, doubted he would if his headache got better and was just glad it eased George’s burden a bit.
Shireen had answered them during the night with a string of emojis Andi didn’t even know existed and then a very short consider it done. They would have to buy a lot of sweets to soothe the raging dragon. It would also take time for her to come up with anything useful, so they had decided to drive DeCapristo to her car. He and George would return to Charleston, and the agent would leave town until, hopefully, Shireen found something for them. Andi deemed it safer for the agent not to stay in Spartanburg while they were away, and she wholeheartedly agreed. It also appeared DeCapristo had other things to tend to as well. Luke and Chief Savalle were already informed, and their reactions had been indifferent. Andi was sure Savalle had put a mental tick behind the case after his detectives had been exonerated. For him, it had been about the precinct’s reputation all along, and maybe, if DeCapristo and they as well had seen it sooner, some of the unpleasantness of their encounters could have been avoided. Could have, should have.
Officer Kaustrowitz took the news of their temporary departure in stride, assuring them he’d be ready to spring back into action the moment they needed him.
There were a few moments of tension when the agent bid them goodbye and left for her car. Andi was almost sure the other person with the geschenk wouldn’t be able to strike so soon after having been immersed in an entire swarm of wasps, but for the sake of DeCapristo’s life, he wanted to err on the side of caution even though his nerve endings felt as if they’d been dipped in acid. As soon as DeCapristo’s car door closed, Andi slumped back in his seat and closed his eyes. George briefly put his hand on Andi’s thigh, squeezing lightly, and Andi put his own hand above his partner’s, just for a moment, to feel the warmth and strength George radiated.
Then his man had to concentrate on traffic and bringing them back to Charleston.
Andi napped for most of the trip, only waking up for one bathroom break and then when George parked in front of their house. The familiar impressions of the arthropods in the house like a blanket?—
Thump, thump, thump, the big blob was back, home, safe, warmth, the house was fine, no disturbances, a dead mouse in the back garden, full of maggots, soon it would only be a husk of dried fur, the bees were active, it was warm, so many blooms, hunger, his grans room, different now, the wooden crate in the living room, the clothes gone, open, fresh air, still so much dust, the bathroom, clean, thump, thump, thump, safe, home, the nest was unperturbed, cozy, theirs, perfect?—
“Andi? Are you awake?” George’s voice, soothing, worried, full of care.
“Hmm. Everything’s clear. We can go in.”
George chuckled. “No intruders?”
“No. Just us.” He sighed happily.
They left the car, got their bags, and entered the house. George gently led Andi to the couch and encouraged him to lie down. “You’re still exhausted. I’m going to wash our clothes and cook. Do you think you can stomach more than broth?”
Andi grunted in affirmation and snuggled his head into the plush sofa cushion with the bright yellow and turquoise stripes that George had bought in some hippie store a while ago. His man liked to switch cushions and color schemes, something the antique leather couch with its whiskey color was perfect for. Summer meant bright colors that sometimes clashed, on purpose, because as George had told him, this could be a deliberate fashion choice. Andi didn’t care as long as the cushions were soft.
He drifted on and off, listening to George putter around, following with his blob sense as well as through the silverfish and pill bugs and flies, getting a 3D picture that had everything except the visual his own eyes could provide. Soon delicious scents were wafting in from the kitchen, telling him George was making a vegetable stir-fry with brown rice—no white rice in this household, what with the shocking lack of vitamins—light on the stomach and yet filling. Andi vaguely wondered where the fresh vegetables had come from until he remembered a short stop at the grocery store before they reached the house. He’d been too tired to register George leaving the car to buy them. Then again, his nerves didn’t feel like they’d been dragged over a cheese grater anymore, so the nap/sleep must have helped.
After their meal, George cleaned the kitchen and then ushered Andi upstairs and under the shower before they both sat down on the sofa again, with cucumber water in tall glasses—it tasted better than Andi had feared but still worse than he would have liked. Unfortunately, traditional iced tea was not an item on his man’s list of healthy foods and beverages. Andi took a few sips to get his hydration up before he snuggled up to George and closed his eyes again. The sounds of a college football game washed over him while George gently stroked his face and side, lulling him to sleep again.
They spent the rest of Thursday and the entire day on Friday in a similar fashion, George taking care of everything and doing his sport program while Andi slipped in and out of sleep. It was wonderful, giving him the opportunity to recharge in a way he rarely could, and by Saturday morning he was rested enough to actively help with breakfast after George came back from his morning run.
Andi had just put a spoonful of plain yogurt with some honey into his mouth when George’s phone rang. He stared at the screen with wide eyes, and Andi felt a spike in his electric fields, declaring he wasn’t overly happy with who the caller was. Still, he accepted the call.
