Kate sat down.She stared at Gabe, who had raised his voice on exactly one occasion in Kate’s memory when giving a lecture about how volume is used to emphasize meaning in differing ways depending on the language being spoken.He hadn’t exactly raised his voice this time, but it still stunned her to hear him speak with authority.
He popped up and clapped his hands, beaming.He looked every bit like the Pixie Marcus still called him, though her partner would never say that to Gabe’s face.“This calls for tea!”
“Forwhat?”
“Tea, dear!The second-most widely consumed drink on Earth after water!It’s delicious, and I’ve become fond of it recently.It’s possible to discover new things even at the age of seventy-five.”
It was also possible to stall while you work up the courage to face something unpleasant.Heaven knew Kate had more than enough experience where that was concerned.
“Now, my dear,” Gabe said, pouring a bottle of water into an electric kettle and switching it on, “tell me what’s troubling you.”
“I didn’t say anything was troubling me.”
“Oh, please,” he scoffed.“You want to meet here instead of our usual spot.You react with shock at my choice to drink tea instead of coffee.You nearly leave your seat and throw the entire conversation away in favor of an afternoon of trading frivolities at the aforementioned usual spot—this after driving all the way down here from Portland—”
“Actually, I was already in town.”He blinked at her.“For the cryptanalysis conference?”
“Oh.Right, right, right, the conference.”The kettle squealed, and he gave a little jump.“Oh!Youmusttry the Darjeeling I’ve selected.Its perfume is absolutely heavenly.”
Kate was beginning to get an idea of why Gabe might be nervous."Am I interrupting something?"she asked, "Preparation, maybe, for a lecture?"
He scoffed.“My dear, it’s been considerably longer than your lifetime since I’ve needed to ‘prepare’ for a lecture.Any research I do in advance is purely for my own interest.”
“So, you’re not worried about the keynote speech you’re going to make in twenty-one hours?”
"Of course, no!"he said too brightly.
He hummed as he brought their tea to the large, ornately carved wooden desk.It appeared to be crafted from a single piece of some dark, reddish wood, possibly mahogany, and sported the heads of what could be eagles or vultures on either side.The rest of the office was equally eclectic.The chair was as ornately carved as the desk but in lighter wood and upholstered with crimson fabric that clashed awfully with his current outfit.A houseplant trimmed to look like a head of broccoli—probably not intentional, but with Gabe, you never knew.A glass case that contained fragments of different manuscripts: a section of scroll with what appeared to be Aramaic written in brush strokes on one side, a fragment of a stone tablet with Akkadian inscriptions, a First Edition quarto of a Gutenberg Bible, which really should be kept under lock and key in a museum.A grandfather clock, but a lot smaller, maybe three feet tall instead of seven or eight or however tall grandfather clocks usually were.And the tea kettle, bright, shiny, plastic, utterly out of place, and almost certainly not purchased by Gabe himself.
She smiled slightly.“Is Sally going to be at the conference?”
The mysterious Sally had only been referred to once by Gabe as the provider of the wonderful marijuana brownies he’d tried.Kate still didn’t know if Sally was Gabe’s sister, friend, colleague, or lover.He was on the old side to have a girlfriend, but as spry as he was, she didn’t have a hard time imagining—
Yep.Yep, she did.Time to not imagine that, never imagine it again, and forget she ever imagined it in the first place.
“My dear, you’re stalling,” Gabe said, giving her a kindly smile and wagging a finger.
Kate wondered if she should tell him he looked like her mother when she did that and decided against it.Well, she was here now.She might as well get it off her chest.
“Winters mentioned the possibility of assigning someone else to the Lawgiver cases again.”
“Ah,” Gabe replied, carefully removing two wire mesh spoons from the tea and setting them to the side.“And you disagree with her, of course.”
Kate took a deep breath.“Well…”
Gabe lifted his eyes to hers again.“Ah.Now I see why you’re troubled.”
“I’ve just been thinking.With everything going on right now, I just… Maybe…”
She fell silent, unsure how to put her feelings into words.The small grandfather clock ticked softly from its place next to the case of linguistic mementos.Three minutes passed before Gabe gently prodded, “You’ll have to finish a sentence if you want me to help you.”
She took another deep breath and said, "I'm beginning to think that maybe they're right.Maybe this thing with Cox really is an obsession.Maybe it's really going to take a toll on me, and I'm going to regret not letting it go to someone who isn't personally attached."
“Who is right?”
“Everyone.Marcus, Winters, Mom, my therapist, Poppy.”
“Poppy’s commented on your mental health?”
