It wasn’t the time for gentle parenting.Javi reached over and slapped his hand over the kid’s mouth.He held up a finger.
“I’m Special Agent Merlo,” he said.“You need to be quiet.”
The kid tried to bite him.That was fair enough.
Javi grabbed the collar of their sleep shirt and dragged them off the bed.He got them on their feet and pushed them toward Cloister.
“Get them outside,” he said.“I’ll finish clearing the house.”
Cloister looked reluctant, but nodded.He put his hand on the kid’s shoulder.
“We’re going to be quiet, and we’re going to be quick,” he said softly as he hunched over to meet the kid’s gaze.“You can do that.”
On a good day, Cloister looked like someone not to cross.It wasn’t just his height; it was the harsh bones of his face and the battered cant of his nose.Animals and kids loved him, though.
It turned out Joel’s stepkid was old enough that the usual magic didn’t kick in.They bolted for the door, tripped over Bourneville, and fell face-first into the hall.The impact knocked the breath out of them.
Before they could get it back, Cloister grabbed them, hoisted them up over his shoulder, and jogged away down the hall.Bourneville shot after him without even a glance back at Javi.
She might take his leftover eggs in the morning, but on the job, he didn’t exist.
While Cloister got the kid out of harm’s way, Javi drew his gun again to check the last room in the house.
What was a worse sign, he wondered as he opened the door to the master bedroom and checked through it quickly.That she’d left her phone, or that she’d left her kid?
Itwasn’tcold.
Tommy clutched the blanket around her shoulders anyhow.One hand held it bunched up in front of her throat.Shaggy purple-red hair fell over her face as she rubbed fingers stained the same color under her nose.That answered one question.
“I don’t know when she left,” she said.“I don’t talk to her if I can help it.Is that OK?”
She was perched in the passenger seat of one of the patrol cars that answered Javi’s call, her bare feet crossed over each other and braced on the door frame.Short nails picked fretfully at the nap of the blanket as she shifted uncomfortably.Behind, the sheriff’s department deputies crisscrossed the lawn as they secured the scene.
“I don’t know,” Javi said.“That depends on whether your family dynamics have anything to do with why SSA Joel is currently out of contact.”
Tommy twitched her lip in a sneer and started to roll her eyes.Only to stop halfway through and stare at Javi.
“What thewhat?”she said.“Nuh-uh.That’s nothing to do with me.”
“No?”
She straightened up from what looked like her habitual slouch.Red-rimmed blue eyes widened as she met Javi’s skeptical gaze.“Yeah, no,” she said.“I mean, I don’t like her, she’s my stepmom, who likes them, but not like…not likethat.Anyhow, it’s my dad I was fighting with last night.So if I was going to make anyone disappear…”
Her voice trailed off as she looked around suddenly, wide eyes scanning up and down the street.
“Wait, you know where my dad is?”she said, her face scrunched with worry.“Right?He’s, like, on his way?Right?”
Javi crouched down and picked up the bottle of water she’d turned down earlier.He offered it to her again.
“We’re trying to get in touch with him now,” he said.“I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can.”
This time Tommy took the bottle.She held it between her knees instead of opening it.
“He’s OK, though?”she pushed at Javi.Then she hunched her shoulders up and agitatedly scrubbed the back of her hand over her eyes.“And, I mean, Tracy too.I don’t want to live with her, but she makes my dad happy.I don’t want, like, anything tohappento her.”
Javi took the bottle from between her knees and twisted the cap off.“The last time you saw her was last night?”he checked.“When you were fighting with your dad about…?”
Tommy stared at him in confusion for a second before she remembered where they’d been in the conversation.
