Jericho could tell something was up as soon as he stepped inside the sheriff’s building. Deputy Garron was at the front desk, as usual, and there was nothingobviouslywrong. But there were too many people in the front area, and they all seemed to be standing around, not doing anything.
Jericho gave Garron a questioning look, and Garron raised an eyebrow in return. “There’s someone here to talk to you about the Mackey case,” he said.
Jericho turned toward the plastic bench and plastic plants that made up the station’s waiting area, and saw Wade Granger rise gracefully to greet him. “Under-sheriff,” Wade said calmly, with no acknowledgment of the waiting crowd. No smirk to show he knew what a scene he was making, no frown at the thought of the many, many times he’d been taken through this space in handcuffs. “I came across some information I thought you might find helpful in regards to Lorraine Mackey. Is this a good time to share it?”
“Sure,” Jericho said, trying to match Wade’s casual tone and failing entirely. “Come on upstairs.”
“I’d prefer to avoid the interrogation rooms, if you don’t mind,” Wade said as he fell in beside Jericho. “I think I’ve spent enough time in those.”
“My office okay?”
“Sounds lovely,” Wade said.
“You don’t mind if we ask Kay to sit in? She’s working the case with me.” And it would seem a lot more professional if Jericho had a witness to the conversation.
For the first time, there was the tiniest hesitation from Wade, just the slightest hint that things weren’t going absolutely, positively according to his plan. But of course he recovered quickly. “Always lovely to visit with an old friend.”
Kayla’s door was open when Jericho reached it, and when he leaned in and said, “Can I borrow you for a couple minutes?” she stood up without asking why. Probably because she damn well knew why, but had been respectful enough to not join the crowd watching the spectacle downstairs.
“Kay, good to see you,” Wade said with exaggerated courtesy as she joined them. “You’re looking as lovely as always.”
“Don’t push it, Wade,” she warned, and he grinned.
Jericho got them into his office, shut the door, and then sat in his chair behind the desk, pulling a pad of paper over in front of him, ready to take notes. This was business. Just because he could smell Wade’s cologne, just because he knew what Wade’s skin tasted like and how the man would react if Jericho dragged his teeth across that patch of skin showing at the neck of his shirt—none of that mattered. Wade was here on business. “You have something to tell us about the Mackey case?” he asked, his voice only a little tighter than usual.
“No time for small talk with an old friend and, now, valued source of information?”
“Hey, Wade, how’ve you been?”Did Kay’s dad tell you the feds have a tail on you? Is that why you’re here instead of coming to my apartment? Or have you known about the tail all along, and just didn’t bother to tell me?“I saw your mother the other day. She’s looking well.”
“Funny you should mention her. She’s actually why I’m here.”
“Is that right?”
“It is.” Wade leaned back in his chair, giving the impression of a pompous professor about to deliver a lecture to an ignorant but knowledge-hungry undergrad. There was absolutely no reason for it to be turning Jericho on. No reason other than Wade. “She told me about the questions you asked her, and I sensed that she might not have been quite as forthcoming as you could have wished.”
“If you mean she told me to ‘fuck off,’ then—”
“Now, Jay. She told me she gave you some good information. She said she told you almost everything she knew about the situation.”
“Almosteverything?” Kayla asked.
Wade raised his eyebrows at her, clearly expressing his displeasure at her interjection into a conversation that had been going so smoothly without her. “Wade,” Jericho said. “Seriously, don’t push it. What extra information did your mother have?”
And that was another thing that shouldn’t have been sexy: Wade’s mock prissy face. The pinched-in mouth, the eyes opened overly wide—they should have made Jericho think of someone’s annoying great-aunt. But, somehow, on Wade, the effect was— Oh, it was hopeless. There was nothing Wade could do that would make Jericho not want him.
So maybe Jericho was a bit more aggressive than the situation warranted when he said, “Fuck you, Wade, I’m not going to beg you. You came all the way here to tell me something, so tell me without the games. Okay?”
Wade turned to Kayla. “Do you allow your staff to swear at members of the public?”
“In some cases I encourage it.”
“Wade,” Jericho said. It was strangely gratifying to see Wade’s grimace as he turned his head toward Jericho as if compelled by the same absurd attraction that made Wade’s own requests so hard for Jericho to ignore. And as if Wade found that compulsion just as frustrating as Jericho did. “What did your mother tell you?” Jericho asked, and he kept his voice gentle out of compassion for himself, as much as Wade. They were both stuck in this obsession together, so they might as well try to be pleasant.
“She told me Will Archerwasone of Lorraine’s johns,” Wade said reluctantly. “She said Lorraine told her he was sweet. Got too excited sometimes, but overall sweet. He’d bring her presents, apparently. Flowers—like, handpicked, not bought—and weird things like a kid would give you. A shiny rock, or a feather, or something. My mom said the cat was dead? Somebody killed it?”
“Not completely positive, but, yeah, it seems likely.”
“My mom said Lorraine told her Will loved that cat. Brought it treats every time he visited, played with it, snuggled it—whatever. He was at the house for pussy, in every possible way.”
