“Display-case lot.”
Darlene inhales sharply, and I can picture her behind the counter, cigarette behind one ear, eyes narrowing at the universe. “Damn it.”
“I know.”
“You need me to come down there?”
“No. Stay with the bakery.”
“The bakery is locked. Renn’s cousin is sitting outside pretending he isn’t guarding the place with a pipe wrench.”
“That’s weirdly sweet.”
“That’s Halo. We either protect each other or get eaten in alphabetical order.” Her voice lowers. “How’s he look?”
“Kauss?”
“No, the drunk cousin. Yes, Kauss.”
“Hurt, but not badly. Ashamed, mostly.”
“Good. Shame might keep him from remodeling another landmark with gang faces.”
I rub my forehead. “He kept his promise. Nobody died.”
“That is a low bar, but I’ll take it.”
“I’m angry at him.”
“You should be.”
“I’m also relieved.”
“You should be that too.”
“I’m also…” I stop because the precinct is too bright and too public for words that soft.
Darlene does not need me to finish. “Yeah. I know.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Honey, nobody does. Some people just wear better shoes while guessing.”
I look down at my scuffed boots, still muddy from the walk. “My shoes are terrible.”
“Then don’t marry anybody tonight.”
“I’m not marrying anybody tonight.”
“With you, I like clarification.”
The release door opens before I can answer, and every thought I have scatters like startled birds.
Kauss steps out between two officers.
The precinct was not built with him in mind. The doorframe clears his head by inches. His shoulders make the officers beside him look underdeveloped by comparison. His coat is torn at one shoulder, dirty with rain and streaked with dried blood. A fresh cut runs across his cheek, already closing but still dark against the black scales and old scar tissue. His wrists are free now, though faint cuff marks circle them where the restraints bit hard enough to irritate even his skin.
He sees me.
