Page 16 of Jep

“Yeah. He’s visiting his sister, then he said he’d be back.”

“He hasn’t spoken to me about this.”

“I told him I’d let you know.”

Jep nodded slowly. “It’s nice to know you guys are finding a way to get along.”

“Yeah, well…” He cleared his throat. “I feel bad about your black eye. It’s kind of my fault. I’m not proud of what I said to Moses…so…I apologized.”

“Did it hurt?”

“It’s about the worst thing ever. Butyoudon’t have any trouble saying it, so I thought I’d give it a shot.”

“It gets easier.”

“What would be easier is not having to apologize in the first place.”

“Being perfect is a whole lot harder than being humble.” He rested a hand on Slate’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”

Slate shrugged it off. “It’s nothin’.”

“Hey, Boss.” A thirteen-year-old kid with a buzz cut ran inside, his two-sizes-too-big Nikes thumping across the floor as he came. “There’s some dude in a suit outside.”

“A suit?” Slate said. “I thought Jep told you to stop drinking or you couldn’t hang around anymore.”

“I’m not drinking. Go see for yourself.” His voice cracked at the end.

“Did he give you a name?” Jep said.

“Yeah.” The kid leaned in and lowered his voice. “Called himself Agent Geoffrey Pearce.”

Slate balked. “Agent? What, you mean like a travel agent?”

Jep’s cheek twitched. “Not that kind of agent. You’re sure he said his name was Pearce?”

“Yeah, he made me repeat it back ta him like he’s some important dude and I’m an idiot. It’s probably a scam. That’s what my gramma says. Everyone’s tryin’ ta scam everybody these days.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Jep said. He could remember the name but not the face.

His nonchalant walk through to the main workshop and then to the front of the building hid the fact that this news had him wound up tight.

He wiped his hands on the rag he was carrying when he spotted Pearce, and the face came back. They hadn’t had much to do with each other in the short time they’d both worked on the task force. He would prefer going into this conversation knowing why the agent was here, but he couldn’t even begin to guess.

“Agent Pearce,” he said, almost looking his visitor up and down in an act of intimidation, but he held back. He’d only appear aggressive if necessary. Lawson had been good to his word about leaving him alone. Until now. Jep would hide his strength in case he needed it as a surprise. “This is unexpected.”

“It’s good to see you again, Mr. Booth.”

“Call me Jep.”

“Jep. I would have called, but I didn’t know your number.”

Jep shook Pearce’s offered hand, then stepped back and looked at the car. “Don’t know my number, just my address?” Someone was in the passenger seat, but the interior was too dark to see who it was.

“How’ve you been?” Pearce pointed toward his face. “You get in a fight?”

“I got in the middle of one.”

Pearce looked around the overgrown block. “Nice place you’ve got here.”

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