“You are chasing your own shadow now,” Roderick continued. “Every lead feels urgent because you need it to be.”
James’s jaw tightened. “What would you have me do.”
“Pause,” Roderick said. “Step back. Reenter society. Observe instead of interrogate.”
James laughed without humor. “You want me to attend dinners.”
“I want you to breathe,” Roderick replied. “And to stop frightening everyone around you.”
James looked away.
Roderick added quietly, “Including your wife.”
The words struck deeper than any accusation.
James said nothing.
Roderick gathered the papers. “We take a break.”
James watched him. “And if the trail goes cold.”
“It already has,” Roderick said. “That is why we change tactics.”
James clenched his fists. He hated the idea. Hated the stillness it implied.
But deep down, he knew Roderick was right.
He knew they were no longer chasing the villain.
He knew they were chasing exhaustion.
“No.”
The word left James before he could temper it.
Roderick paused with a stack of papers in his hands, one brow lifting. “No?”
“No,” James repeated, sharper this time. “We do not take a break.”
Roderick set the papers down with deliberate calm. “James, you have not slept in three nights. You are chasing whatever glitters.”
“I am chasing the man who murdered my parents,” James snapped. “And you are standing in my study telling me to breathe. We are running out of time!”
Roderick’s expression tightened. “I know that, very well, James, but I am telling you to think.”
“I am thinking,” James said, though the words tasted like ash.
Roderick stepped closer, voice steady. “You are not. You are reacting. There is a difference.”
James turned away, pacing the length of the room. The fire had burned low. Even the house felt tired, as if it had grown weary of being dragged along with him.
“You do not understand,” James said.
“I understand more than you want,” Roderick replied.
James stopped near the window, staring out at Blackmere’s grounds, at the bare trees and the long drive that felt like a path leading nowhere. “I will not go home.”
Roderick’s voice softened, but it did not yield. “You are home.”
