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“That’s what we do,” Gary told her with a hopefully reassuring smile. He removed a card from his wallet and handed it to her. “This is my phone number. You can reach me at any time.” He waited until she was no longer in sight, then came back into the room.
“Why the frown?” Dan asked.
“You’re not from Boston, so you’ve probably never heard of the DFF group. Not a good company to be associated with.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
Gary leaned against the table. “Let’s see. Dodgy deals, bad press, scandal, corruption…. And all the companies are under the control of one family—the DiFanettis.”
Dan chuckled. “With a name like that, we could be talking organized crime. You know, like the Mafia.”
Gary didn’t say a word.
Dan gazed at him openmouthed. “Oh my God. Seriously?”
“Maybe I’m doing them an injustice—they definitely had that kinda rep back in the day. But then again, I’m a firm believer that leopards donotchange their spots. But enough of them. I think the only way forward with this is to interview James’s coworkers again. The ones who were there the day he died.”
“Are you expecting different results?”
Gary smiled. “Yes, I am. Because this time, we have you.” From the moment Travers had proposed the two of them working on cold cases, Gary had felt an undercurrent of excitement. It hadn’t been cut and dried at that point—they’d had to wait for approval from the chief—but something told him the addition of Dan’s gifts could make a real difference.
And if thoughts of finding Brad’s killer occurred, that was only because Gary was human.
Dan moved closer. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.”
“And what’s that?”
“When I changed the calendar in the kitchen last week, I noticed something.”
“Ah. You noticed I hadn’t changed the page. It happens a lot.”
Dan chuckled. “Whereas I’m usually good at stuff like that. The fact that I missed it only goes to prove one thing—you addle my brain.”
Gary preened. “Damn, I’m good.”
“But that isn’t what I wanted to talk about. You’d circled a date last month—the twenty-third, I think—and you’d written ‘lunch’ underneath. But you didn’t have a lunch date. I remember because that was the Sunday I moved in with you.” He peered at Gary. “Did you have to miss something because of me?”
Answering that question was going to open up a can of worms Gary would rather leave sealed, but he knew they had to talk about it sometime.
“One Sunday every month, I have lunch with my parents.”
“So what excuse did you give them for missing that particular Sunday?”
He cleared his throat. “I told them I was helping a friend move house.”
Dan’s eyebrows shot up. “So I’m a friend? And I’m guessing you didn’t tell them whose house I was moving into.” Before Gary could respond, Dan held his hand up. “You know what? It’s okay. They don’t need to know, not if you’re not ready to tell them.”
“You don’t mind?”
Dan rolled his eyes. “What did I say to you right before roll call? You don’t have to tell anyone anything, and yes, that includes your parents.” His face flushed. “I’m sorry I reacted so badly just now. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Iwilltell them, okay? About our relationship, the fact you’re living with me. But not yet.”
“That’s okay.” Dan smiled. “I’m not going anywhere. Now how about we sit down, go through the original statements, and draw up a list of James’s coworkers? Because it’s going to take us a few days to locate them all, and we only have until Friday, right?”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Work was better than thinking about his parents’ reaction when he finally shared his news. Gary knew what lay at the root of his reluctance to tell them the truth was not fear of them rejecting his assertion that he was bi. No, what he feared was that they wouldn’t react at all, that his words would crash into the wall they’d built around their hearts and fall to the ground to be forgotten.
