“They think they’re doing something good,” Jem said.“God.That’s messed up.”
“Yes, exactly, they think—” Tean hesitated.“They think it’s their mission.”
“We’ll take that into consideration,” Orsino said.“Now, I meant what I said: you two need to go home.We’ll be in touch again over the next few days.I’ll need you to give me the contact information for this man, Scott Taylor, and help us get in touch with Ms.Graham.Aside from that, though, you need to stay away from this investigation.”
“I think you’re trying to say thank you,” Jem said.“But it’s not coming through clearly.”
“If you continue to involve yourselves, I’ll arrest you and charge you with obstruction.”
“We’re doing your job for you,” Jem said.“Those assholes you put on this couldn’t find the tips of their dicks.We did all the work.We found Kai.”
“You bumbled through this investigation and screwed up everything you touched,” Orsino snapped.“Do you have any idea how difficult this is going to be to prosecute?You burned down a barn full of evidence.How do you think we explain that to a jury?”Orsino shook his head as he got to his feet.“Write down that contact information, and then I’ll have an officer escort you out.You’re done.”
21
To Tean’s surprise, the sun was going down when they got out of the station.He knew they’d been held for hours, but it still seemed strange for the day to have evaporated like that.Jem insisted on driving, so as they headed west across the basin, he called Daniel.
“Where are you?”the boy asked.“You’ve been gone all day.”
“We’re on our way home.I’m sorry; it wasn’t supposed to take that long.Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you eat something?”
The noise that came across the line was probably an affirmative.
“What about dinner?”
“Jem gave me enough money.We walked to Panda Express.”
“Is Scipio being good?”
“He takes up the whole couch.”
For some reason, that made Jem smile.
“We’ll be home in a couple of hours,” Tean said.“I’ll call your parents and let them know we’re going to be late getting you home.”
“It’s too late.Why can’t I go back tomorrow?”
“Because you shouldn’t miss school.”
“It’s fine.We’re not doing anything in my classes right now.And then it would be the weekend, and you can take me to gay prom, and then I’ll go back next week.”
“We can talk about it when we get home.”
“Oh my God, this is so fucking unfair!”
And before Tean could reply, Daniel disconnected.
“That sounded like it went well,” Jem said.
“He wants to stay another night.And through the weekend.”
“No way.I need that kid out of the house so we can go back to banging.”
“It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he stayed for a few more nights.”
