I shove my hands in the pockets of my jacket. “Something like that.”
A few meters away Jude ducks out of the tent.
I stare at the white canvas, thinking of the woman inside. “Do you know when time of death was yet? Or why he targeted her?”
“I thought you were the one with all the answers?”
I look back at Agent Park, he raises a single eyebrow, and it should be condescending. Itiscondescending, but it’s also kind of hot. “Is it just me or do you not like anyone who knows more than you?”
Jude covers a laugh as he joins us. “If it were the latter, he wouldn’t be able to stand me.”
“Who says I can?”Agent Park quips.
Jude brings a hand to his chest like he’s mortally wounded.
“Aren’t geniuses supposed to be modest?” I ask him.
“Aren’t detectives supposed to follow the rules?”
I open my mouth but have nothing to say.
Jude grins and sticks his tongue out at me.
Agent Park sighs. “Why does he insist on behaving like an eight-year-old?”
Eli shrugs. “You coddle him.”
I know how to deal with eight-year-olds though. I slip my hair tie off my wrist and ping it at Jude.
“Oh good, there’s two of them,” Agent Park says, his voice drier than sawdust.
The way they talk with each other is fascinating. They seem more like brothers than partners and their familiarity tugs at me. I want that. But so long as my father goes free, I’ll never have it.
I won’t risk getting close to people when there’s a chance he’ll tear them away from me.
“Technically, this was my case first,” I say, trying to get back to the matter at hand. “I’ve already interviewed her sister, done the preliminary work.”
“All of which we’ll need to do again anyway,” Eli says.
Jude twirls my hairband round his finger. “I say we keep her.”
“Keep me? I’m not a dog.”
Eli eyes me up and down. “True, you’re more like a kitten. All ginger and feisty.”
I gape at him. “Do either of you have a professional bone in your body?”
Eli smirks. “Sure, I’ve got a bone. Do you want to taste it?”
Before I can respond to that atrocity Jude whacks Eli on the shoulder and Agent Park’s phone rings.
He puts it to his ear and tells the boys to behave before walking away.
I watch him go, a sinking feeling settling in my gut. I lost myself bickering with Jude. Our back and forth made me forget what happened tonight, what I was risking by coming here. I’d thought it was worth it but the way Agent Park’s shoulders tense before his sharp eyes land on me, makes me think I’ve just made a huge mistake.
CHAPTER SEVEN
River
