So…
Javi stopped himself and leaned back.He tapped the pen absently against the edge of the desk as he tried to decide if what he had was enough to finish that thought.If he did, he’d not be able to keep it to himself.Like it or not, he’d need to read Kincaid in.
“Shit,” he muttered as he came to a conclusion.
He pushed himself back from the desk and stood up in one smooth motion.The chair went rattling over the room to bang against a grimy white wall, while Javi went to find Kincaid.
“It’snotconnectedtoanything,” Kincaid confided in Javi.He was sitting on the table with the end of a pencil in his mouth as he stared through the one-way glass at Fowler.The man was conscious now, but still propped up on the makeshift stretcher as he thumbed a red call button desperately.“You’d think our sovereign citizen in there would appreciate us not interfering in his medical care, but apparently conviction and a partially degloved forearm do not mix well.”
Javi was briefly distracted from what he’d been about to say as he looked at Fowler.He didn’t have much sympathy for the man—he could still feel the pulpy, aliengiveat the back of Joel’s head as he lowered her to the ground—but the extent of the damage gave him pause.Fowler was greasy-pale and beaded with sweat, the fingers that stuck out of the end of the tube of gauze and tape swollen and lividly colored.It was strange to think that damage was done by a dog he let sit on his couch.
“Maybe I should make her eggs more,” he muttered.
Kincaid stopped mid-chew, incisors dug into the wood of the pencil, and gave Javi a puzzled look.
“What?”
“I…nothing,” Javi said.“Can I have a minute?”
Kincaid raised both eyebrows at that.He glanced at his watch, shrugged, and swiveled around to face Javi, one leg hitched up onto the table under him.
“OK,” he said.“Don’t waste it.”
“Is Deputy Gardner in your pocket?”
Kincaid mugged confusion and patted at his hips and chest with both hands.“Not right now,” he said.“Unless I left him in my jacket?”
“I know he’s IA.”
Kincaid rolled his eyes and spat the nub of the pencil out.“Well, if you ‘know’,” he said.“Why ask?”
He wasn’t Cloister.
Javi took a deep breath and let it out.He’d gotten used to having a straightforward sounding board that didn’t treat every conversation like a competition.Cloister didn’t play games.Kincaid did, even when it wasn’t in his best interests.
“It’s rumored he’s IA,” Javi corrected himself.
Kincaid's expression sharpened with satisfaction.“Oh,” he said.“You should know better than to listen to rumors, Javier.It can be very destabilizing to introduce that sort of divisive speculation to an otherwise cohesive team.”
The trick was not to listen to what Kincaid said; it was to remember what he wanted.
“You started the rumor?”
Kincaid scoffed as he pointed a finger at his chest.“Me?”he said.“Please, that’s amateur hour.No, it was an invasive rumor that had already established itself.I just replanted it locally.A few years back, Gardner was part of a task force that fucked up badly.The rest of the team went all in on a cover-up, but he sold them out to IA in return for a slap on the wrist and a clean record.The idea he’d actually been working for IA all the time was just gossip inflation, but it made him useful when I was looking to bring some new blood in here.Why?”
He was an asshole.
That wasn’t news.It still stuck in Javi’s craw.
“All of that just to fuck with me?”he asked.
Kincaid gave a splutter of amusement.“No,” he said.“That was to protect my stake in the Horvats investigation, Javier.You’re just collateral damage.”
“And Deputy Witte?”
“He’s not on me,” Kincaid said.He pointed the nub of the pen at Javi.“You’re the one who fell for a man with the sort of damage that made him a problem.I just had to navigate it.And, yeah, Gardner was useful, but he’s kudzu, not my dog.Why?”
The answer stuck in Javi’s throat.He wanted to tell Kincaid to stuff it and go find Cloister.It felt cleaner working with him.But if he did, he’d be cut out of Kincaid’s investigation.If they found Eric, alive or dead, he’d never know.
