Frome nodded and settled back in the chair.It creaked under him as he picked up a pen from the desk and fiddled with it.He studied Cloister briefly and then glanced toward the door.
“I take it you have a fairly good idea where this came from?”he said.
Cloister considered the ground around the question.It didn’t seem to be a trap, but then the best ones never did.After a moment, he just nodded.
“I can hazard a pretty good guess,” he said.
“Good,” Frome said.“Then you know that, even though I have confidence in your work, this is going to be a fucking mess.Your professionalandpersonal life is going to be fair game.It doesn’t matter if it has anything to do with the investigation.If these…parties…think it will throw you off your game, that’s reason enough to dig it up and throw it at the wall to see if something sticks.You need to be ready for that.”
“I’ve nothing to hide,” Cloister said.
Frome snorted and pointed at him with the pen.“It would be nice if that mattered,” he said.“You know better.Innocence doesn’t make having your life upended and shaken down for change in public any less damaging.Don’t try and tough this out.When you get out of here, call your union rep.”
It wasn’t really funny, but the corner of Cloister’s mouth tilted anyhow.If nothing else, his childhoodhadprepared him for this.After his brother had disappeared, he’d gotten used to anything in his private life—in his head, his drawers, or his pants—being dug up to be used against him.Even during the periods his mom accepted that he didn’t remember anything about that, it only made her more convinced therewassomething to find.
He’d learned not to place any value on privacy.Andthat he shouldn’t let pride get in his way…not that he always heeded that bit.Still…
“It’s Tancredi,” he said.“I’ll talk to her.”
Frome looked satisfied.He clicked the pen twice and then tossed it down on the table.
“Good.Good.And just remember that, right now, I can’t afford to be on your side,” he said.“But that doesn’t make me your enemy.”
Cloister lifted his hand off Bourneville’s neck and stood up.He brushed fur off on his thigh as he considered Frome across the desk.At his feet, Bon scrambled up and pressed her shoulder against his knee.
“People keep telling me that lately,” Cloister noted.“Not sure how many of them I should believe.”
Chapter Seven
Itwasn’tathoughtthat Javi planned to share with Cloister, but there were times when he could see the upside of insomnia.
At 2:00 a.m., with breath that tasted like stale coffee and stomach acid, the inability to sleep seemed like a superpower.Insomniacs just didn’t get to appreciate that from the inside.
Javi thumbed a mint out of the paper tube and tossed the chalky disc into his mouth.The sharp toothpaste-adjacent taste of wintergreen flooded his mouth with the tingling fake promise that it was doing more than briefly masking the sourness in the back of his throat.He crunched it between his teeth as he rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes.
“Flagging already, Merlo?”Kincaid asked as he glanced up from his assessment of Joel’s open cases.A sandy brow twitched up toward a floppy fringe that belonged on a boat somewhere.“You used to have more stamina.”
Taken on the surface, the comment was unobjectionable.It was a mistake to take anything Kincaid said or did at a surface level.
“I’m fine,” Javi said.“Just getting my second wind.”
Kincaid leaned back in Joel’s chair and reached up to rub his neck.
“You sure?”he asked.“I know you got an early start today.You were…”
He trailed off as he glanced at Joel’s computer, his eyes flicking from side to side as they tracked down the screen.
“…setting up the stall at the fair?”he finished.“Community outreach.Hmm.Not enough of our agents understand how important that is.All they care about are the big-ticket cases: trafficking, murder, drug lords.It’s good to see that isn’t how this office is run.”
One of the techs who’d come down with Kincaid from LA snorted to herself from the corner of the room.Javi ignored that.
“Oh, Plenty has had its share of that too,” he said with a thin smile that he couldfeelagainst his teeth.“In fact, that might be one avenue to chase up.We cracked the Corpse Brothers MC drug ring last year.There’s been a few different organizations that have tried to fill the gap—”
Kincaid held up his hand to stop Javi.“We’re already on top of that,” he said.“The Morelia Cartel already has enough on their plate back home, and I’ve got the sheriff’s department looking for the Saints.I appreciate your concern about SSA Joel—the last thing you need is to step into another dead agent’s shoes—but we know what we’re doing.”
Before Javi could try and navigate his way through that load of bullshit, the tech at the other desk looked up.
“Sir?”she said.“I’ve got access to SSA Joel’s bank accounts.Do you want…?”
