"He's back."Hjalmar beamed, fucking beamed."I ran into him the other day.We've kept in contact, but it's grown more and more sporadic over the years, then a few months ago, he dropped out altogether.Turns out he's switched jobs and moved back here."
The happiness was palpable, and Frode wanted to groan but kept quiet.
"We're meeting up for beers tonight.You want to come?"
Frode snorted before he could stop himself."Pass."
"Oh, come on.A beer or two would do you good."
"I'm not, not ever, setting foot in the same establishment as Nesterova."
Hjalmar gave him an odd look.He might not know his once best friend was an asshole, but Frode would never forget.He had a hard time stopping a blush of past humiliation spreading on his cheeks.
He'd been a weird kid.There was no way around it, and it was a bad idea to put a weird kid and one of the kings of the school corridors in each other's vicinity.Frode had no doubt he'd been spared a lot simply by being Hjalmar's brother, but not everything.
At some point someone had decided Frode was a filthy fagot--which...yeah, but there was no way they could've known sincehe'd hardly figured it out by then.
If it was a bet or something he'd done for the fun of it, Frode didn't know, but Nikolai had spent a day being kind to him.Every time they'd met in the corridor,he'd talked to Frode.In the canteen, he'd sat next to him, and Frode hadn't known what to do.He was sure it was because he was Hjalmar's friend, and maybe Hjalmar had asked Nikolai to protect him or something.
They'd talked, laughed, and then Nikolai had pressed him against the lockers.He'd leaned in close, his breath tickling Frode's cheek, and his pulse had skyrocketed.Heat had surged through him, and he might have whimpered.Nikolai had leaned in closer still, Frode had closed his eyes, sure Nikolai would kiss him, then there had been laughter as half the football team had materialized in the corridor.They'd cackled, high-fived Nikolai, and gifted Frode with a wide variation of homophobic slurs.
He didn't think Hjalmar knew.Hehadn't been there, and to this day, Frode had never mentioned it, but he would go nowhere near Nikolai fucking Nesterova.
* * * *
Nikolai snarled at the files spread out in front of him.There were three almost identical murders--or the reports on the most recent one hadn't come in yet, but from what he could tell, it matched the previous two.
Lieutenant Medlin frowned."I didn't know."
"How could you not know?"Nikolai hadn't meant to raise his voice, but what the fuck?How could a lieutenant not know?Wasn't it his job to keep track of what they all were working on, give them their cases, organize, and report to the higher-ups?He believed it was what a lieutenant did.
"Bedell ran his own cases.He came to me if he needed me to contact someone or demand something he didn't have authority to demand, but for the most part, he worked on his own."
On his own?The first speech Medlin had given him when he came here was about how they worked in pairs, both to give all detectives someone to bounce ideas with, lessen the burden of the case, and to make sure no details were missed or forgotten.Two brains, two pairs of eyes were better than one, et cetera.
"He worked alone?"
Medlin nodded."One of our best detectives but not much of a team player."
Nikolaididn't care other than not liking to learn the rules that applied to him might not apply to others.He glanced at Isaac.Hedidn't dislike him, but if he'd been allowed to work alone, he'd have preferred to.
"Okay."Medlin clapped Nikolai's shoulder."Not much we can do before the reports come in.Go home, and we'll start anew tomorrow."
Not much they could do?They had two previous murders they could focus on.They were still ongoing investigations.
"What about the previous two?"Isaac was frowning at a photo of the first victim sprawled on a rug soaked in blood."We have to start somewhere."
Maybe it was good to have a partner.
"They'll still be here tomorrow.Their families have waited for half a year, one more day won't make a difference."
Nikolai did nothing to hide the distaste overtaking his face."All the more reason to--"
"You do as you wish.I have a date, so I'm leaving.See you boys tomorrow."He left the small conference room, and Nikolai looked over at Isaac.
"What do you want to do?"He glanced at his watch.He was to meet Hjalmar for a beer in about an hour, but he could reschedule.A strange sense of belonging had settled over him when he'd heard his name called in the street, and he wanted to catch up, wanted to reconnect, to feel like maybe he wasn't alone in this world, but their plans could be changed.
"Read."Isaac gestured at the folders.
