“But Dan. I dunno….” Jason looked up as he finished the crust, staring thoughtfully at the far wall. “I guess he didn’t date much in Michigan. He was just so in love with Frank. Like a puppy dog. Frank was all he fuckin’ talked about. I warned him shit would get bad if someone like Angela found out….” Jason smiled a little and finally looked at me.
I pushed my slice of pizza toward him. “What do you know about the work Daniel did at the Museum of Natural History?”
Jason again shook a mountain of peppers onto his pizza. “He helps Frank with exhibits. He wants—wantedto be a curator.”
“Did you intern there as well?”
“Nah.” Jason folded the slice. “I’m scheduled to go on a dig with Dr. Hart in a few months. I like playin’ in the dirt.” He took a bite and said around the mouthful, “Museums got too much politics. Dan liked it, though. Or liked it ’cuz Frank did. Whichever.” Jason looked down and dragged the slice through the blobs of grease drip-dropping onto his plate.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Jason continued.
“Dan thought Angela was gettin’ suspicious. I told him to drop the internship.”
“You seriously thought she would kill him?”
“Yeah! What’s that shit called—crime of passion or something? But Dan said no. He had to help Frank with some issue regardin’ an upcoming exhibit—”
“I heard,” I answered. “Dr. Thyne thought it was unnecessary to focus on Edward Drinker Cope more so than the fossils discovered during the Bone Wars.”
Jason didn’t seem convinced on the matter. “That’s what Thyne says. I think that buttoned-up fossil is full of shit. AMNH accused the University of Pennsylvania of sending a box with no skull inside. UPenn accused them of losing Cope’s skull. Dan said the drama’s been fuckin’ wild.” He finished the slice, downed the last of his soda, and wiped his mouth on a napkin. “Frank fired his own girlfriend. He thought she’d stolen the skull.”
“But the skull,” I continued quickly, “has it been found?”
Jason shrugged. “I dunno. And Dan told me Frank got a package at the museum—fuckin’ human toes or some shit. Frank got real squirrelly. Dan was scared. Last time I heard from him was Friday night.” Jason stopped, apologized under his breath, and wiped his face with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “He was cryin’, said Angela killed Frank—he was going back to Michigan. Never saw him again. I’ve gone by every day to check.” He tapped the tabletop with an index finger. “Thanks for dinner, man. I gotta go, though.”
“Sure.” I nodded. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
Jason’s mouth worked, but he shook his head and started for the door. “You know,” he said with a glance back at me, “if that cop had done his fuckin’ job, Dan might still be alive.”
I bristled a little. “What cop?” I couldn’t imagine a situation in which Calvin and Quinn would have met Jason, since he didn’t work with all the other monkeys at the circus.
“Dan said the new doc at the museum had a boyfriend on the force. Dan told the guy what was going on. Like I said, he was afraid.Andnaïve enough to think all cops are good cops.”
I scowled a little at that last comment. Sure, dirty cops were a thing, this much was true. But I didn’t like or appreciate the negative attitude on principle. This was news, though—so I reined myself in. Dr. Gould was new to the museum. And she knew and worked with Daniel the Intern. It didn’t seem too outrageous to suspect the poor kid had reached out to her Main Squeeze for help. Possibly with Gould none the wiser. If she’d known Daniel sought out help, I felt like that bubbly young woman would have been honest to a fault with me during our chat earlier.
“Did Daniel tell you the cop’s name?” I asked.
Jason ran a hand through his grubby hair. “He might’ve. I don’t remember. I got a Snapchat, though.”
“What’s a Snapchat?”
Jason gave me a skeptical look but kept talking. “Dan thought he was cute. I ain’t into dudes, but I’ve no problem appreciatin’ them.” Jason was digging his phone out of his jeans pocket.
I stepped away from the table and squinted at the screen he held out. It was a discreetly taken photo, like Daniel didn’t want to be caught creeping on a hottie. Some kind of text flashed over the picture, and little hearts bounced up and down, nearly distracting me from the face of Officer Nico Rossi waiting on the steps of the Museum of Natural History.
What a small world, after all.
Chapter Twelve
POP OPENEDhis apartment door. His face was solemn. “Kiddo.” He reached a hand out and pulled me inside.
I let my messenger bag slide off my shoulder and hit the floor with a loud thud, and I wrapped my arms around Pop’s neck. “Dad,” I choked out.
Pop hugged me hard, and that made it all the more difficult to keep from crying. It was after eight at night by the time I returned from the Daniel Debacle. And if there was ever a moment in my life that Ineededmy father, it was now. Now that my shoulder hurt, my face hurt, my soul hurt.
And he knew. He knew everything. I didn’t care how.
Pop patted my back firmly and stepped away. He reached under my sunglasses with his thumbs and discreetly wiped my face. “Neil told me,” he murmured.
