Page 48 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

Marc’s head jerked back in a double take. “No kidding?”

“No kidding.”

He leaned sideways to look past me. “Jon, you’re smarter than you look.”

“Hey! I’m not a complete idiot.”

Marc laughed, clearly enjoying the teasing.

Gonzalez hip-bumped his husband to the side so he could shake hands with me, too. He was as short and stocky as his husband was tall and slender, and clean shaven for once, as he normally kept stubble. “Hey, Havili. I hope you understand we’d love to be at the wedding.”

“Of course! Once we have a venue and a date locked in, we’ll send out invites.”

“Awesome. Now, where’s this apprentice Marc spoke to?”

I moved away from the door to let them in, waving to Abby. “That’s Abby. Abby, this is Marc—he’s a Tracer—and his partner in every sense of the word, Javier Gonzalez.”

Abby popped up and came around the table to shake hands.

Marc held her off with a stayed hand. “First, you look like you run hot. Are you as bad as Jon?”

“No, no,” she assured him. “Your phone’s safe from immediate death. If you want to sit next to me, though, I’d put it in a case. I leave mine in a case all the time.”

“Okay. Just double-checking. Hi, Abby.” Marc shook hands with her, and the longer he looked, the more delighted he became. “You and I need to talk about FBI recruitment after this meeting.”

Jon, still seated, drawled, “Thou shalt not have mine apprentice until she’s out of high school and at least legal.”

Marc ignored him. “We’ve been dying to get Jon as an agent for years, so you? The one who can actually use tech? You’re a godsend. Doesn’t a guaranteed job that makes 80K out of the gate sound like the best idea ever?”

Abby’s eyes narrowed. “I’d normally say yes, but your lines are speaking of greed.”

Ha! Take that, Marc. You couldn’t ever negotiate with a Reader and come out with your initial goal intact.

He groaned. “Of course I’m greedy. You’d cut my casework load in half.”

“That’s kinda what I thought.” Abby pursed her lips, then relented enough to agree. “We’ll talk later.”

Marc was instantly back to all smiles. “Okay!”

“First, though, help me solve my case.”

“Your case?” Gonzalez asked this question even as he took a seat. “I thought it was Jon’s.”

“No, no,” Jon corrected. “Abby was the one who initially found the guy in prison and alerted me. She and Dwayne are very good friends now, and she’s determined to not only exonerate him, but also to find the missing sister. This is very much her case. I’m along for the ride and to sign paperwork.”

That about summed it up, yeah. Some days I felt like I was around for the same reasons.

“Well, that’s even more awesome.” Gonzalez pointed to the chair Abby had just left, coincidentally the one to his immediate left, and encouraged her to sit. “Tell me about it. I read Sho’s brief on the way here, but what’s your take on Dwayne?”

Abby took her chair and dropped into it. “I know for a fact he’s law-abiding and just the best guy ever.”

“Damn. Okay, so he’s absolutely not involved in any of this shit.”

Jon supported this with a nod. “Correct, I verified that with my own eyes. We have a conference call scheduled so you can ask him questions yourself.”

“Look at you guys being all efficient. Okay, let’s do that. What time’s the call?”

“In about twenty minutes, but we can push it forward.”

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