“You should get him apuppy.”
Gideon shook his head.“Not until we know he’ll laugh,” he told Joey soberly.“It’s important.”
Joey sighed and nodded.“I’m done with weapons training.What else?”
Gideonlongedto go back to his file, because the reading had been fascinating.People had been disappearing around Burlington, Camden, and Ocean counties—all of which were in proximity to New Jersey’s famous Pine Barrens.
Kathy Novacek, the profiler who’d started to build the case, had been sure the people had something else in common.They’d all lost—or gained—significant money in the stock market recently.Two of themwerestockbrokers, which would make them guilty of insider trading, but she was having trouble pinning down the firm.Kathy didn’t follow the market, and while Gideon wasn’t obsessive, his fatherwas, so Gideon could talk financial planning like the best of them.
The finances Kathy had sent over were a tangle, and Gideon should have given up and asked to show them to his father two hours ago, but God, he hated to cry uncle.
But Carlyle was important too.He had responsibilities to this kid.
“Where’s Crosby and Pearson?”he asked.
“Tracking down a drug addict who killed his dealer, but not for the reasons you’d think.”
Gideon cocked his head.“Really?”
“Yeah, Pearson knew the guy, said he wouldn’t hurt a fly.But the dealer was doing that free candy thing.”
“Oh God—grade school?”
“Middle school.The addict made six calls to the cops, but they ignored him.He took matters into his own hands, there’s a manhunt, and they’re off trying to keep the police from gunning him down.”
Gideon grimaced.“Well, that’s gawdawful and depressing.”
“But also they don’t need help,” Carlyle said.
“No, they do not.Too many of us looks like we’re taking over turf, and that’s not what we want.Okay.So how about you go get your computer setup from Kylie.She’s—”
“Over there.”He nodded to a closed door from which emanated Pearl Jam at top volume, which indicated Kylie was doing silent overwatch for Pearson and Crosby and a lot of research for Natalia and Harding.“In the SCIF.”
Gideon nodded, impressed yet again.“Yeah—it’s not, like,presidentiallysecure—we’re not even supposed tohavea Secure Communications Facility.But Kylie encrypted a lot in there for when we need it.”He shrugged.“Eighty-five percent of the time, we run overwatch from a laptop and a tablet out here or from Harding’s office.We’re a small unit—everybody does double duty.”
Carlyle nodded.“I would beterribleat that,” he announced, surprising the hell out of Gideon.“And please don’t think that means I wouldn’t like to do it.Do you know how ADHD works?”
Gideon blinked.It hadn’t been in the kid’s file.“You can’t concentrate on anything because you’re concentrating oneverything?”he hazarded.
“Yes,” Carlyle said.“Or you can’t concentrate on anything because you’ve locked on tothat one goddamned thing.So you have enough brain cells to keep you alive while you’re tracking the mastodon by tracking the saber-toothed tiger on your ass.”
And Gideon got it.“But not always enough bandwidth to see the big picture when you’re running hot.I get it.”
Carlyle appeared relieved.“I would need training,” he said frankly.
“Everybody does,” Gideon told him.“We’re big-picture people.When you’re ready, tell us.”
“Thank you.”Again that puzzled blink.“So after I check out my laptop and set up my desk?”
He glanced around, and Gideon nodded to the desk across from his.“It doesn’t mean we’re partners—don’t panic.It just means the last guy sat there.”
“Washeyour partner?”Carlyle asked.
“No, he was sort of pro tem.Until now, we’ve been switching off, except for Harding and Tal, because they’ve got that FBI dynamic that you can’t lose.”
“Sleeping together?”Carlyle asked clinically—not lasciviously, Gideon thought, but once again, as though scenting his territory.
“Dear God no.”Gideon shook his head.“Natalia’s married to a lovely woman who just had their second child.”
