"Of course you do," Jules told him. "I bet that was your first thought when he mentioned fire hydrants." He didn't seem surprised to hear about his brother's writing. This might not be a revelation for him.
Boner spread his hands out to either side in a shrug. "Isn't that everyone's first thought when they think about a fire hydrant? I mean, they are famous for being pissed on by dogs. Am I right?"
He looked around at all of us.
"Yeah, you're right," I told him. "Cass might show us a new way to look at them. After all, they are useful for, you know, putting out fires."
Boner pretended to be shocked. "Is that what they're really for? I thought they were for dogs and street decoration."
Jules scooped up a spoon from beside his coffee cup and threw it in Boner's direction. It hit him on the chest, before bouncing off onto the floor. He grunted in annoyance. "I was aiming for his face."
"You missed." Boner smirked.
"No shit." If there was another spoon in front of him, Jules probably would have tried again. Instead, he finished his coffee and pushed his cup away, thankfully not using that as a projectile.
For one thing, it would hurt if it made contact with anyone, especially their face. For another thing, it might fall to the floor and break. I didn't think Archer would appreciate us breaking his cups without good reason.
What constituted a good reason? I could think of a few. Most involved Hypnos and Zeus.
"Now, where were we?" Boner pulled a chair out from the table, turned it around and sat on it backward.
"Snowman smut?" I suggested.
"No, before that." He scratched the side of his head. "Right, we were talking about Getzoff, and how suspiciously clean he is."
"What do you suggest we do about it? I asked. "We can't exactly stake out his place and wait for him to slip up. Thatwould be suspicious. Not to mention time consuming. We need to focus on something else. Hypnos and Zeus are still out there."
"Yes, they are, and they're waiting for us to find them," Boner said.
"Let's stop obsessing about Detective Getzoff and focus on finding them." I turned to Cass. "Have you found anything new?"
He let out a long sigh. "I've looked through Fairfield's financials, as well as Solomon Danforth's financials. If they had any business partners in common, I couldn't find it. They didn't even use the same bank."
"That sounds suspicious to me." Boner said. "They were careful to keep everything separate. That's what I would do if I was an asshole like them."
Jules opened his mouth.
Cass gave him a slap on the chest with the back of his hand.
He closed it again.
They exchanged glares, but neither said anything.
"It could be suspicious and we could be barking up the wrong tree," I said reluctantly.
"They've been doing this for a long time," Archer said. "They know how to cover their tracks. We've always found them before. We'll find them this time."
"I hope so," I said softly. Sooner or later, something would turn up. A sign to tell us where to find them.
"Solomon said they weren't in the city," Jules pointed out. "They could be anywhere on the face of the planet."
"They could," I agreed. "But I don't think so."
"What are you basing that on?" Jules asked. He sounded accusing, but it was a reasonable question.
"Instinct," I said. I relied on it for a long time and it never let me down. It wasn't going to let me down now.
"Harlow is right," Cass said. "I have the same feeling. They're here in the city somewhere."
