“That’s because your coroner don’t have shit on my wife,” Malek smirked, giving the detective a proud look. “It’s pretty simple, detective. Bad guys broke in with ill intent, we cleaned house. Why the fuck are we here?”
I stretched my legs and leaned back against the wall. The cop crossed his arms, flashing a pretty badge that probly don’t even get him laid. “You’re here because no cop in the history of Castine has ever seen this kind of savagery…especially not in defense of a home invasion. Nobody blames you, but forgive me if I find it a little hard to believe that this whole thing isn’t bigger than it seems. Your friend was very helpful with most of it, and he’s more than credible with his service to our country, but I’m gonna make this as clear as I can manage without sounding insensitive.Don’t even think about leaving town. We’ll be by tomorrow to have extensive conversations with the wives. Thorough investigation is already underway, and your home is officially declared a crime scene, Mr. Grey. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
You know what else is inconvenient? There’s a little man living in the same small town that kills and eats people—and thisdetectivehas no fucking idea. How’s that for savagery? I’m about fed up. I have work to do.
“Right. So, can we go? While you’ve wasted time trying to build a case for pieces of shite you claim arevictims…the realones are sitting in ahospital…waiting on news and any small chance you’ll get your fucking priorities straight and focus on the right thing.” The malice dripping off every word tasted like honey coming out of my mouth. Only got sweeter with the look on this prick’s face.
Yeah, you’re a real asset to society, dickcheese.
“We’ll be in touch.”
We all rattled the bench, standing together and making threatening eyes at the detective while we stalked towards the door. Dan waited on the curb with his hands in the pockets of my hoodie. I went straight for him while Malek hung back, talking with Greg and Vern.
“You clean up nice, Dan the man.” I shook his hand and he smirked, turning his face from side to side to show me his fresh barbering. “Feel good to pop off at the enemy again, dude?”
“Very.” He shuffled his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. “Detective Dickhead doesn’t trust you, but I bullshit my way around the heavy stuff. Doesn’t mean he’ll forget what he saw, but his eyes are on the right people. Once they start bringing home missing little girls, I think this will blow over, at least on how the town looks at it.”
“You in trouble for helping us out?” I asked, genuinely concerned. It was never my intention to make this guy’s life more complicated.
“Yeah, about that…I’m afraid I haven’t been completely honest with you, man.”
Oh, here we fucking go.
Dan leaned back against a nice SUV, and it dawned on me…I’ve been played.
“You raised some flags in the work you do, Declan. You’re good, but…we’re better. The eagles are watching. I was undercover and imagine my surprise when one of the guys I’mhired to look into decides to show me he’s a stand-up guy…and point me in the direction of therealproblem.”
“So, you’re sayin’ I shoulda butchered your arse.” I couldn’t keep the bested smile off my face.Dan-1…Declan - 0.
“Maybe. But I like you. They’ve decided to look the other way. What I do on my own time is my fucking business. I wanna stay and help if you’ll let me.”
“Your name isn’t really Dan…is it?” I grinned. He grinned right back.
“It is this week,” he winked. Everybody approached and Dan introduced himself…as Dan…offering us a ride to the hospital to meet Maggie and Sev. Vernon didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go fellas. Chinese is on me.”
I laughed under my breath while Dan rounded the truck and hopped in the driver’s side.
Only my fucking life. I swear it.
Malek didn’t touch a single morsel of food. I couldn’t be helped while I, probably disrespectfully, stuffed my face with egg rolls and stared at their locked hands while Seven decided to eat black nail polish instead. Her leg bounced in impatience, and she didn’t take her eyes off the locked door to the hallway where we expected to see the doctor any second. Maggie rocked Vivian back and forth, but at this point, probably just to give her body something to do. Viv’s made an impressive drool spot over the shoulder of her blouse.
Every person in this room has somebody else’s blood caked to their hands.
“You alright, Sev?” I asked gently. All eyes went right to her, but she was laser-focused on that glass door.
“I’d feel better if you were in there, Mags.”
Maggie shrugged. “Hospital protocol. I’m too close to it. I told you though…from what I can tell, she should pull through just fine.”
“She didn’t deserve this.” That thumbnail doesn’t stand a chance. She’ll have a nub by the time the sun comes up, and I can’t blame her. “The slaughter in that house wasn’t enough. I wanna watch ‘em burn.”
“Beans…this isn’t like you.” Vernon leaned forward to get closer to her and Greg caught my eyes, worry and dread swimming all in them. “You’re not like those men. You’re not violent.”
“You’re not either, Dad. You still blew a hole through somebody.” She finally looked away from the door and Malek stiffened next to her.
“What happened to you? Tell me the truth. What did you mean when you said it wasn’t your first rodeo?”
There was a heavy silence that stretched out between us all and Maggie elbowed Greg, raising up from her chair. “Em…come on. Let’s go get some pudding.” Emmy glanced over at Seven, hesitating, and then stepped over to wrap her arms around her auntie. That shit even meltedme.
