Chapter 3 #3
Before Javi could work himself up to a genuine apology, his phone went off in the pocket of his slacks. The insistent buzz of it against his hip bone made him jump. He pulled it out of his pocket to answer it, pushing Bon’s head away from his leg.
“SssA..Merlo,” he said, with a brief, sibilant stumble over his demoted title. “What is it?”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone; then Sue’s voice asked, “Is SSA Joel on an off-site operation this morning?”
Cloister came back over, wiping his hands on a napkin. He raised a curious eyebrow at the interruption. Javi gestured for him to sit down and wait as he got up from the picnic table and stepped to the side.
“Not at the fair,” he said dryly, angling his body to let a small child with two handfuls of sticky candy dart past him. “Wouldn’t you know that better than me? What’s on the books?”
The question came out casually, but his brain had already started to turn over as he realized the import of the call. If Joel was actually out of contact, that was a short step to the head of a suboffice being missing, and that was…
An opportunity.
…a problem.
It was a problem. That was what Javi had meant to think, but opportunity was loose in his brain now. It was…indiscreet…but the little thrill that prickled the hair on the back of Javi’s neck told him it wasn’t incorrect.
“Nothing,” Sue said, her voice worried. Then she corrected herself. “She had a meeting this morning with Dr. Galloway, the pathologist, but it was rescheduled.”
“By who?”
“SSA Joel,” Sue said. “At least, her credentials were used at…four twenty-one to log in remotely, but she didn’t give a reason.”
“Hold on,” Javi told her shortly.
He lowered the phone and quickly checked his call log, a swipe of his thumb flicking up and down through the numbers. Nothing. A missed call from her from two days ago, but he’d followed up on that already and been dismissed.
“And you can’t contact her?” he asked as he lifted the phone back to his ear.
“Not so far,” Sue said. She, very pointedly, didn’t sound offended at the suggestion she wouldn’t have done that already. “No answer. I’ve tried her work and her personal phone.”
“Can you call her…”
What? Last time they had worked together—back when Joel was Kincaid’s workhorse and Javi was the rising star—she’d been dating an air marshal, he thought. He’d had a…dog? Or a child? Something like that.
Had she been closed off back then too, Javi wondered with a dull nudge of guilt, or had he just not listened?
It didn’t matter, he told himself. Even if he’d made notes, that intel would be out of date by now, and Joel had no current plans to include him in her private life.
“Husband,” Sue provided. She might have sounded a little smug about that, but Javi let it go. “He’s scheduled to be out of town, but he’s definitely not answering his phone.”
Javi nodded as he took that in. He turned and headed back over to the picnic table. Cloister had collared Bourneville and pulled her to sit at his heel. He raised a straight, heavy eyebrow at Javi expectantly, but Javi gestured for him to wait.
“Call his work,” Javi instructed Sue. “Find out where he should be, if he’s there, and if not, whether or not it’s a pattern. But don’t lead with ‘missing.’ Keep it routine and low-profile.”
She made an agreeable noise to that. Javi could hear the rustle of the phone against her shoulder as she reached for her ever-present stack of Post-its to write down a note. The pen scratched softly in the background.
“First, though, send me Joel’s address,” he told her as he gathered up what was left of his lunch (most of it) to toss it. “I’ll do a wellness check.”
“I don’t know…I’m not sure SSA would want that? She’s—”
“Then she should have called in.”
It would be hard to argue with that. Sue didn’t try and just gave in instead.
“I’ll text you,” she said.
Javi hung up on her and stuck his phone back in his pocket. His hands weren’t trembling. It felt like they should be. That—making the calls, giving orders—had felt right. As hard as he was trying to be a good team player that Joel couldn’t complain about, he missed being in charge.
He supposed he’d better make the most of it. It wasn’t likely to last long. Javi turned to give Cloister a searching look.
“I need to go do something,” he said. “You free to ride along?”
Cloister looked confused, but he didn’t ask any questions. He just nodded.
“Of course,” he said, gathering Bourneville’s lead up in one hand as he stood up. “Whatever you need.”
Most people would appreciate the unquestioning support.
Javi did as well. He did.
That feeling was just accompanied by a prickly need to stress-test the tall deputy until he found where it stopped. Because it always did. It had to.
Perfectly normal, Javi told himself as he snapped the plastic fork in half and shoved it in on top of the congealed lump of cheese and potato, but it would have to wait. Not only had he pushed his luck enough today, they didn’t have the time.
“Good,” he told Cloister, ignoring the ache in his jaw. “I’ll explain on the way.”