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He poured her coffee as she sat down again. “Good morning, Lieutenant.”
“We’ll see about that.” She lifted the dome. “Oh hell yeah, it’s a good morning.”
“I thought, considering yesterday, you’d earned pancakes.”
She immediately drowned them in syrup.
&nbs
p; “They’re all apple and cinnamonny.”
“And deserve better than being a vehicle for syrup, but ah well.”
In any case, he loved watching her appreciation of food, especially since she so often forgot to eat it.
“I might need a bribe for Dickhead,” she said between bites. “Considering he’s had twenty-four hours, my wrath should be enough, but just in case.”
“Take him a bottle of unblended scotch,” Roarke suggested. “We’ve several already in gift bags. It’ll throw him off-balance straightaway if you offer him a holiday token.”
“It would, wouldn’t it? I really hate to go bearing gifts and all, but any lack of cooperation after that would make him an even bigger Dickhead than he is. It’s kind of win-win for me.”
“It’s the old catching more flies with sugar than vinegar.”
“Why would anyone want to catch flies? What you want is to make them go the hell away.”
“That’s a point, and now another classic adage bites the dust.” He patted her leg. “Breakfast with you is a continuing education.”
“I do what I can. If it turns out the vic’s blend of tea included a date-rape drug, I can use that to pry open more of his clients. Outrage tends to turn off filters.”
“You’ve never mentioned next of kin.”
“Only child, parents divorced when he was ten. Both remarried. He bounced between the mother in Tucson and the father in Atlanta until he was of age. Neither of them have seen him for more than six years. They were both shaken, but I didn’t get any sense of close family ties.”
“So no friends or family.”
“Not really. And from what I can tell, by his own choice. Friends and family take work.”
She thought of her forty-minute battle for sanity with Tiko and the bag people. Fucking A, it took work.
“All his work was focused on himself,” she added. “Speaking of family, I guess you got all the gifts off to Ireland.”
“I did, yes. You did some work there.”
“I didn’t shop.”
“You helped me decide on several things, and the Cops and Robbers comp game for young Sean was your idea.”
“He was an easy one. Peabody and McNab are doing an in-and-out shuttle for Christmas to her family. You don’t want to do something like that, do you?”
“We had Thanksgiving, and that worked well for me, having them all here. I like having our Christmas, you and I.”
“I do, too. And since I’d really like to get this case closed before that, I’d better get going. Good pancakes,” she said, leaned over and kissed him.
“I’ll see you tonight. We might talk about strategy for the deal you’ve made with Summerset.”
“I’m trying not to think about that.” She shoved up. “Where’s the hooch—for Dickhead?”
“Fourth-floor gift room.”
