Chapter Fifteen
FIFTEEN
Annie
It’s strange working at Virtu with Cal. Before, it was always me in the front, him in the back office researching the goose.
Or him in the front, helping customers, and me quietly fuming as I attempted to stay out of his way.
Even yesterday, after we’d reached an accord (or, rather, I coerced him into one), he was at the bank for a good chunk of the morning.
Then we were too frazzled over the missing goose to really appreciate the fact that we were both in the same space for more than a few minutes without provoking each other into a squabble.
Now we know what it’s like to be in a single room together for hours.
The same bed, even. Getting stuck in the mansion last night has shifted the dynamic between us even more.
Cal is no longer an abstract concept to me.
He’s no longer just a cartoonish villain or a cute guy caressing an old lamp on my TV.
After hearing about his relationship with Nicole, his failed attempt to date again, his apparent appreciation of my hands…
There’s a real awareness and I am, uh, quite aware of it. It’s become impossible not to notice where he is at all times. To track the distance between us like some sort of video game mechanic, extending a line from body to body with a fluctuating number between.
I doubt I’m alone in this feeling that something has changed. Especially because I keep catching Cal staring at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention. Then, as soon as I meet his eyes, he’ll glance away and pretend to be engrossed with whatever item is closest at hand.
“This is such a nice stapler,” I hear him mutter to himself when it happens for the fifth time today.
It doesn’t help that we’re also both on edge, waiting for a return call from Marvin of Marvin’s Moving.
I left a message for him this morning, and now it’s early evening.
The fact that we haven’t heard back from him yet has me gnawing on my thumbnail.
All I can do is remind myself that, as long as the goose is on the truck still, it’s safe. Which means Cal and I are also safe.
Probably.
The call finally comes close to closing. Marvin apologizes for the delay; he had back-to-back-to-back jobs today, but yes, we can come check out the truck he uses for Genevieve’s staging this evening.
“Thanks, it shouldn’t take long at all,” I promise.
“Are you looking for that big bird?” he asks.
My stomach sinks. The chances of him knowing much about the laws concerning the mounting of migratory birds are slim, but not nonexistent. “Oh. Um. You’ve…seen it?”
“Yeah, it’s creepy as hell. Makayla said she didn’t want to use it, so we left it on the truck.”
I exhale in relief. If Marvin does intend on ruining our lives, he’s hiding it well. “Great. Yeah. We’ll be there in a bit to get it from you.”
Cal waits patiently for me to hang up. “Well?” he asks.
“Good news or bad news first?”
“Bad,” he answers without hesitation.
“Marvin has seen the goose and guessed pretty easily that it’s what we’re looking for.”
Cal frowns. “And the good?”
“He doesn’t seem to think anything of it other than that it’s ‘creepy as hell,’ and he has confirmed it is indeed still on the truck.
So it’s just a matter of going to pick it up.
And then we’ll be right back to the less-than-ideal-but-more-ideal situation of having it hidden in the shop while you research its origins. ”
Cal’s breath is shaky. “Okay. That’s…a relief.”
“Yep. So come on, Callahan. Let’s go see a man about a goose.”
—
Marvin is one of the tallest men I have ever met in my life. He must be over seven feet. Cal looks like a small child standing in front of him. And I feel like a miniature of a doll that belongs to a slightly larger doll.
“Thank you so much for letting us come by after hours,” I say. “Especially when you’ve already had such a long day.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all. Always happy to be of help,” Marvin says, reaching for the door of the box truck behind him. “Besides, these things happen.”
I’m not actually sure they do. At least not this exact thing. But I appreciate the sentiment.
The door rolls up with a loud clatter as metal clangs against metal, and Marvin steps up into the truck with the ease of someone tackling a normal stair. “I’ll put it on a dolly and wheel it forward for you,” he says, and ducks into the shadowy depths.
“Dammit, Nevin!” echoes from inside the truck a few seconds later, followed by a string of much more creative expletives, and Cal and I exchange an uneasy look.
Marvin emerges again into the light, a familiar quilt fisted in his ginormous hand, but without a stuffed water fowl on a dolly accompanying him. “I am so, so sorry, but your goose isn’t here anymore.”
“Isn’t…here?” Cal repeats, color quickly draining from his face.
“Were you robbed?” I ask.
Marvin shakes his head. “Not exactly. I’m certain I know who took it.
My kid brother, Nevin. He helps me out sometimes, but his judgment is…
well, it’s shit, to be real candid. It’s my fault, though.
I should’ve kept a better eye on him after he showed interest in the thing.
I’m going to call him and make him bring it right back, don’t you worry. ”
As Marvin pulls out his phone to call his brother, I tug on the sleeve of Cal’s jacket. “What if we just let him keep it?” I whisper. “Then he would get caught with it instead of you.”
Cal considers it for a moment, then shakes his head.
“Still too easily traced back to Virtu. I doubt this Nevin kid is going to keep his mouth shut about where he got it if anyone questions him. Plus, while I’m fairly certain my, uh, friend, doesn’t particularly want to keep the goose, I don’t think unloading it on some random kid with sticky fingers was what they had in mind for it. ”
“Nevin,” Marvin growls angrily into his phone when his brother answers after the second attempt at reaching him.
“Yo, Maaaarv! What’s up?” We hear the response as clearly as if he was on speaker.
“I got people from the antique store here wanting that goose back. Don’t even try me, I know you swiped it. You need to bring it back here to the lot right now or else I—”
“Yahhh, no can do, bro.” Marvin stomps farther away as Nevin explains why this is apparently not possible out of our earshot.
Cal has his eyes shut tightly when I look at him again. “It’ll be okay,” I assure him. He takes a deep breath but doesn’t otherwise respond.
Marvin comes back from the corner of the parking lot, no longer on the phone, his mouth pursed tightly in displeasure as he massages his temples.
“Okay, so this is the situation. Nevin helped me with the staging job yesterday and when we decided not to bring the goose in, he decided to ‘borrow’ it to play a stupid prank on a buddy of his.” He pauses, taking in our questioning looks.
“The guy’s name is Gustav. So Nevin thought giving him a goose would be real funny. ”
That makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.
“So where is it now?” Cal asks.
“Well, he said he left it on Gustav’s porch early this morning.
He hasn’t heard from him yet, so presumably it’s still sitting out there.
I tried to tell him to go get it and bring it back here, but he’s…
in no state to drive right now.” Marvin’s displeasure with his brother is palpable.
“But he did give me Gustav’s address so you can go get it yourselves. ”
I pull out my phone to take down the information as Marvin reads it from the text Nevin sent.
“I can’t believe he did this,” Marvin says, more to himself than to us.
“I mean, I can. I can believe it. But I thought this job would help give him some structure, teach him responsibility. He’s such a good kid at heart.
He really is. Just also a complete moron.
” He wrings his hands together. “Hey, can you please not tell Genevieve about this? My contract with her and her referrals make up a huge part of my business, and if I lost that…”
“We’re happy to keep this between us,” Cal says quickly. “All of it. You don’t tell anyone about the goose, and we don’t tell anyone you lost it. Deal?”
“Absolutely. Won’t tell a soul. And I’ll make Nevin swear too, under penalty of getting his ass whooped.” Marvin’s dark eyes narrow as he visualizes punishing his younger brother.
We shake hands with Marvin as he once again apologizes for his role in this situation and on behalf of Nevin, then get back into Cal’s car, GPS set to Gustav’s address on the other side of the city.