“Worse,” he said. “I don’t trust her. The emotion didn’t reach her eyes. Every word, an Oscar-worthy performance.”
With his occupation, I suspected it had been baked into his training. “She just wants to keep her job. I mean, it looks pretty bad for her.”
“That doesn’t set off alarms?” I couldn’t tell if he genuinely wanted my opinion or if he meant it rhetorically. Seconds passed before I realized he was waiting for an answer.
I coughed, straightening my spine and broadening my shoulders. “My professional opinion… as a veteran sleuth? She wouldn’t help us if she had something to hide.” My words didn’t seem to ease the tension on his face. “So far, everything that has gone wrong over here has been the scientists’ fault.”
He exhaled and held it before breathing in. “You’re right.”
I was?
“I don’t like her. But that’s not what the evidence is telling us.” His return to procedure was more like the man I first met in the office waiting room. “Ready to interview some more mad scientists, partner?”
He held out his hand, palm down. I hesitated, and he finally covered his. “Go, team.” It wasn’t grand or shouting from the rooftops, but the crooked grin was better than any pep talk. Did it have anything to do with the wordpartner?
Maybe a little.
9
Orion: How’s ginger bear doing?
Wyatt: Friend Drew, how do you know he tastes like ginger?
Orion: Yeah, Drew. How do you know?
Janet: He had himself a bite of that man-sandwich.
Orion: I removed you from this group text!
Janet: I’m unremovable!
Connor: I added her back. Sorry.
Janet: Not sorry.
I satwith my head on the interview room table. We had gone through another dozen employees and exhausted Catherine’s “Most Likely a Crook” list. None had given Booker that special tingly feeling. He scanned his notes, carefully flipping the pages of his yellow legal pad. He might be handsome, even charming under the rightconditions, but was it worth this torture? The tedium had crept into my bones.
“Can we just pick one?”
“Pick one?”
“Employee #77329.” I sifted through the resumes, hunting for the woman. “She was wearing two different shoes. Seems diabolical to me.” As much as I tried to cheer him up, I wasn’t wrong. Mismatched cross trainers were the biggest offense we encountered. While Catherine might have let a spy or two in, she and the department leads had done an outstanding job of hiring Vanguard’s best and brightest.
“Isn't there something in living dangerously?”
Booker froze for a split second before glancing at me. Tomorrow, I’d bring baked goods, maybe memorize a joke or two. There had to be something that would poke at the government agent and turn him back into the man who nearly snorted water through his nose as we talked.
“There’s a great deal in it,” he said. “Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time.”
I lifted my head, surprised he recognized the quote. “You read it?”
“I did. Though I’m not sure it applies here.”
“Says the man who craves the pursuit more than the catch.”
He whistled as he pretended to read the report in hishand. His eyes continued glancing up until he broke. “Okay, junior detective in training. Read me.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to?—”
