“Not yet,” Javi said.“But the full force of the FBI is on—”
“Then what are you looking so fucking happy about?”Clyde demanded.
Javi felt the muscles around his mouth tighten.Somewhere in the back of his head the ghost of his grandmother hissed at him to “fix his face.”He supposed heshouldhave taken the time to school the satisfaction of being right off his face.
“I just—”
“Wait,” Clyde said, his eyes narrowing into a squint.He pointed at Javi.“You’re Merlo, right?”
“I…SA Javier Merlo,” Javi confirmed.He reached for his badge out of habit, but Clyde had already curled his lip in a sneer.
“That answers that question then, doesn’t it?”he said.“You didn’t want Tracy here, and now she isn’t.Looks like a good day to be you, huh?”
Yeah.This had gotten off to a good start.
Chapter Eight
Thevendingmachineinthe Youth Center lobby took credit.It also piddled out a crooked stream of beige liquid that accumulated in the thin plastic cup it dispensed.Javi pulled it out as it finished, the last drips of the stream hot on his knuckles, and took it with him to where Clyde sat in the small cafeteria on a thin plastic chair.
A by-the-books analysis of his body language would say he looked calm.His face was composed, his hands loose and relaxed on the cheap Formica table in front of him.Despite that, Javi could feel the frustration and anger that radiated off the man.It flushed the back of his neck red and showed in the tendons in his wrist that wanted to clench his hands into fists.
Javi pretended not to notice.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have coffee?”He put the cup down in front of Clyde and then pulled out the chair opposite him.“I don’t know if it would be any better, but it couldn’t be worse.”
Clyde’s lip twitched.“You’d be surprised.”He picked up the cup and took a drink.Despite the general appearance and smell of the tea, he still grimaced at the taste as if it wasn’t what he’d expected.“And I think I’ve had enough coffee today.”
Fair enough.Despite the decision, Clyde didn’t take another drink of the tea.He set it back down on the table and clenched his jaw.
“OK, let’s get this over with,” he said.“I want to get my kid, go home…go somewhere.So why don’t we speed-run this?You think I killed Tracy?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you do?”
Javi put his phone down on the table.He raised an eyebrow at Clyde as he hovered his thumb over the Rec button on the app.
“Do you mind?”he asked.Clyde shrugged and waved a hand dismissively.Javi started the audio file and leaned back in the chair.He laced his fingers together and rested them on his knee.“Right now?No, you’re not in the frame.But, statistically, it would be short-sighted of us not to check that line of inquiry.Just in case.”
“I have three ex-wives,” Clyde pointed out.“And I married them back when I had shit for them to get in the divorce.If I was going to kill anyone, I’d have started with them.”
Javi pursed his lips.“I’d have led with you being on a flight to Vancouver when she last made contact,” he said.“But point taken.”
Clyde sniffed and rubbed his thumb under his nose.“I could have hired someone,” he pointed out.“Come on, SA Merlo, don’t make me do your job for you.Tracy didn’t like you much, but she never mentioned you were incompetent.”
Javi smiled thinly.“Not anyone good,” he said.“Like you said, three ex-wives.”
Clyde acknowledged that with a tight twitch of a smile.He glanced at his watch and then back to Javi, raising an eyebrow.
“That covers the big ones,” he said.“What else is there…my kid has mental health problems, I’ve got legal problems with my ex, and I’m in peak shape for a midlife crisis?I miss anything?”
“Any of those why you were in couples therapy?”Javi asked.
“No,” Clyde said shortly.He took a deep breath, nostrils flared, and considered his answer for a moment before he grudged the words out.“Put it this way.I didn’t want to move, and she didn’t much care what I wanted.So…we’re working that out.”
Javi didn’t see how that tied to the mystery number, but it didn’t sound like Joel.She’d always been the sort to try and find consensus.Or at least the appearance of it.An ultimatum that disregarded her partner’s wishes suggested more than surface-level marital tension over how high to turn the toaster.Clyde looked as if he had been about as forthcoming as he was willing to be, though, so Javi put a pin in that for now.
He flicked his gaze down to the phone as a missed-call notification flashed on screen.It was Kincaid.He reached out and dismissed it with a casual swipe as he changed the direction of his questions.
