Andre chuckled. “Hey, Danny,” he said as he set the bag of evidence aside. “Got the results on that fiber for you.”
It was nearly the end of the day and they weren’t short on cases in Olympus City, but Andre was one of the best at what he did and the heat was on now that Ludgate had upped his game to murder. Outsiders might have thought it was cold that Andre could joke with evidence from a case like that, but Danny understood. They dealt with the worst of the worst every day. If they didn’t make light sometimes, they’d go crazy. Dannyhadbeen going crazy. Andre was better at compartmentalizing, just like Lynn.
The lab was quiet aside from Andre and Ryan, which made it easier to have this discussion upstairs for once instead of down in the morgue. Besides, half of Danny’s work was still done as a normal detective.
The room was large enough for four main desks and a few additional lab stations. Danny had always thought the desks looked more like art tables since they sat up so high. “So,” he said, leaning against Andre’s desk when he reached him, “what do we know?”
“Milliskin matte fabric,” Andre held up the bag with the fiber inside, “in a shade of silver no Olympus City suppliers carry. Which means Ludgate either ordered the fabric online or he got it from somewhere outside the city.”
“That’s it?” It didn’t point fingers at Cho, but it didn’t point any at Ludgate either. “We don’t have anything else?”
“Can’t even say for sure if it was Ludgate, other than…assumption,” Andre said with a glance at Ryan, who didn’t seem to be paying them much attention. “No fingerprints on any of the glass, but if there was…” he let his words trail.
They would have been from Cho, since he was the only one who hadn’t been wearing gloves.
“Thanks, Andre. Can’t do more than our jobs, right?”
“Sorry, Danny. You uhh…doing anything else tonight?” He bobbed his eyebrows.
Danny had no intention of patrolling. “Just going home. It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, man, you should take it easy. All thisstellarevidence will still be here in the morning.”
Evidence. Right. Danny considered telling Andre about Cho’s comms, but he couldn’t risk it with Ryan in earshot. He decided that the best way to get the comms out of the precinct would be to wait, lightning jump back in during the night as Zeus, faster than anyone could track or trace, then deliver them to Cho when he was ready to see him again. Trying to smuggle them out as Danny Grant would likely blow up in his face.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Andre.”
“And Danny? About thatotherthing we were talking about before?” Andre smiled crookedly, which somehow said it perfectly that he meant Cho. “If you want my advice…”
Danny wasn’t sure he did.
“…don’t make any rash decisions, okay? Give yourself some time to breathe, then figure out what you really want.”
The various text messages from Cho were still sitting on Danny’s phone, waiting for a real answer. For now, maybe he needed to listen to Andre’s counsel. He didn’t have to make any decisions tonight. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”
R
Taking the extra pill in the afternoon had helped, but the lightness in Danny’s chest couldn’t last. He didn’t remember until he got home that they were having family dinner early this week as part of moving Joey into his new bedroom.
“Hey,” he said, carrying a box as he was about to head upstairs. He’d originally taken Stella’s old room on the main floor, but now he’d be getting the attic all to himself.
“Hey, Joey. Tonight’s the night, huh? I’ll help out in a sec.”
“Great. Yeah. That would begreat.” Joey almost tripped up the first step as he shuffled backwards, a blinding wide smile on full display.
For the man Joey thought of as his hero. Even though Danny had practically screamed at him and hadn’t been able to save either of their mothers from Thanatos. Instead, Danny had failed and become the same type of cold murderer as his villain, taking out his vengeance until Thanatos was nothing but a smoldering husk.
The second Joey dashed upstairs, the smile Danny had mustered dropped. Someone else was dead now because of him—the guard from the museum. A dangerous Elemental was on the loose too,because of him. He shouldn’t be anyone’s role model right now.
Part of Danny wished he could escape. Usually, he’d escape to Cho or with another pill, but he had to learn to face these moments without running. John and Stella didn’t know the full extent of what had happened at the museum, only that Ludgate had been behind the heist. Danny needed to tell them the truth, but he couldn’t tell them everythingwithout coming clean about Cho, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. After he ended things, it would be easier to explain.
“Hey, Danny,” Stella said as she came downstairs to grab one of the other boxes already piled up by the landing. “Anything in particular you want on your pizza? I was just about to order. And hey, for once you don’t have to eat an extra one by yourself in the kitchen to get your daily Zeus calories.”
The pain of faking a smile at his sister like he’d faked one for Joey was more than Danny could handle today. She’d told him he didn’t have to do that. That he never had to do that. So he kept his face neutral and simply looked at her.
“Danny?” Leaving the box behind, she rushed over immediately and hugged him. “Are you okay?”
He took two deep breaths before answering, “No.”
