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"Because it's a ghost."
She growled under her breath.
"It's a real ghost," he said. "Yes, I know I told Gabriel it was. But I was... Well, I lied. I'm a bocan. We do that."
"You lied about--?"
"You were right. I wanted an excuse to get to know him better. I brought him this case because I knew it would interest him, and I thought we could work together on it."
"Didn't quite turn out that way, did it?"
Patrick sighed. "No."
"Because Gabriel doesn't work with anybody. Which you'd realize if you knew him."
"He works with you. He trusts you, and you have his best interests at heart, which is why I'm opening up here and confessing that, yes, I tried to get to know my son better, and if that's a crime--"
"It should be."
He gave her a look, but she said, "I'm serious. I think there should be a statute of limitations for absentee parents. Once the kid hits eighteen and no longer needs you, you are forbidden from making contact and fucking up his life."
"Fucking up? I know you're angry, Liv, but I have done nothing of the sort."
"No? Bringing him a fake story just to get his attention? Leading him on a wild goose chase with it? And then, once he's intrigued, telling me to stop him. Because Gabriel and I are on such good terms right now. There's no way that could possibly blow up in my face."
"I'm just worried--"
"About this ghost. Why? What's dangerous about ghosts?"
"I don't know. Which is why they're dangerous."
She made that noise again, the one that warned this conversation better improve or he'd find himself flying out of a moving vehicle.
"I don't know anything about ghosts, Olivia," he said. "That is troubling enough. And this one gives me a bad feeling. A very bad feeling."
"Then tell him that."
"He'll think I have an ulterior motive."
"Wow. Really. I don't know why." She pulled up in front of Gabriel's office greystone and tapped the horn. "I'm not quitting this case, Patrick. I can't--not without Gabriel thinking I'm being petty and bratty, still upset over what he did."
"You are still upset over what he did."
"No, I'm resigned. This is what I get with Gabriel. This is what I will always get. I'm the idiot who keeps doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I've finally learned my lesson. That doesn't mean I'm abandoning him. I'm just easing away."
"He doesn't want you to ease away, Liv."
"Don't."
"I just--"
"You do have an ulterior motive here. Gwynn is the Tylwyth Teg champion. You're Tylwyth Teg. So don't even go there. My point is only that I don't want to make things worse between Gabriel and me, which I will if I drop this case. If you want it dropped"--she put down the window--"tell Gabriel yourself."
A shadow stretched through the driver's window. "Tell me what?"
Liv got out of the car, and Gabriel said, "You can drive."
"No, she's yours."
