Page 12 of Deadly Deception
“Oddly enough, Michigan City isn’t in Michigan, at least not the one we’re going to. This one’s in Northwest Indiana. It’s less than an hour from here.” I waved my phone in the air. “Captain Tompkins wants us to head there as soon as we land. We’re headed to the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office. Whatever Tompkins wants, it’s there.”
“Will Shane Tompkins be there too?”
“According to the text he sent.” My thick fingers struggled across the small buttons. I made more mistakes than I wanted and cursed and praised autocorrect within the same breath. “I’mletting him know we’re on our way.” I took a minute to text Nana and my brother Evan too. They’d let the rest of the family know I’d arrived in Chicago safely. My text to Nana apologized that it would be later than I’d like before we met up. I hadn’t expected Captain Tompkins to want Erasmus and me to hit the ground running. An afternoon to recover from travel and get settled into a hotel would have been nice. I’d planned on getting a room close to Nana on the east side of Chicago, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Erasmus stretched before burrowing into his thick sweatshirt. He’d layered up, but there was no way his current clothing would be warm enough if the temperature dropped further. A quick scroll of the local weather let me know a shopping trip would be needed before tomorrow morning.
“We’ll need to stop somewhere and get you a thicker coat,” I said while putting the SUV in reverse and heading out of the parking lot. “I just checked local weather and the highs are only supposed to be in the upper forties the rest of the week. You don’t want to know what the lows are going to bottom out at.”
“Freezing?” Erasmus asked.
“Lower,” I answered.
“Fuck, that sounds cold.” He shivered despite the heat kicking on.
“Yeah. It’s a bit chilly, even for this time of year. Remind me not to bring you back here in February.” Hell, I didn’t want to be here in the winter either. That was one of the major reasons I left the upper Midwest.
“Duly noted.” Erasmus’s mouth cracked open with a wide yawn. “I think I’m gonna need a little caffeine boost if we’re going straight to work. Maybe some food too.”
“I’ll swing by a drive-thru,” I answered. “I could use some calories too.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Erasmus shifted in his seat, his eyes tracking the passing scenery. With his head turned, I barely heard him when he asked, “Did you contact your family?”
“I texted them after Tompkins.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I knew what he was worried about and reached across the console to grab his hand. “They’re going to love you.”
Erasmus’s fingers gripped mine tightly. “I just…I know you think that, but not everyone is as open-minded as you. Experience has taught me that. I just don’t want to embarrass you, or—”
“I could never be embarrassed of you. You’ve got it all wrong. You’re way too good for me, Erasmus. Trust me, with you, I’m dating way above my pay grade.” I drew his hand to my lips and kissed his knuckles. Besides, if my family had a problem with Boone, then it wastheirproblem, not mine. While I wanted them to love Boone as much as I did, it wasn’t a deal breaker. It’s not like I thought Lynn’s husband was a winning catch. The guy was a cocky, know-it-all asshole. I couldn’t understand Lynn’s attraction to the guy, let alone why she’d married him, but that wasn’t my decision to make and I accepted her choice and tried my best to swallow my irritation when he was around.
Sometimes, that’s what family was about—accepting and spending time around people you’d otherwise avoid. If there was one constant in the universe that transcended all species, it was that family was complicated.
Including our longer than expected trip through a drive-thru, it took over an hour to reach the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office. I texted Captain Tompkins when we arrived. It was a littleafter four p.m. and the sun was already starting to fade behind a thick overhang of clouds. The temperature dropped steadily as we drove east and was now down to forty-seven according to the SUV’s dashboard.
I got a text back that said Tompkins was already in the parking lot and he wanted to know what our vehicle looked like. I texted back a description and soon saw him jogging across the parking lot, headed in our direction.
“Is that him?” Erasmus asked as he leaned against the passenger’s side door. “You didn’t tell me he looks like Keith Morris.”
I wracked my brain and finally came up with, “TheDatelineguy?”
“Yeah. The handsome older one with the silvery-white head of hair.”
My eyebrows shot skyward. “I didn’t know you had an older guy kink.”
I caught a glance of Erasmus’s flushed cheeks as he threw me a scathing glance. “I have akinkfor handsome men, regardless of age. Lucky for you.”
Considering I was about ten years older than Boone, I couldn’t agree more and answered, “Damn right.” My answer replaced Boone’s stink eye with one of appreciative affection.
Our playful banter stopped when the back door opened and Captain Tompkins slid into the back seat, a blast of colder air accompanying his presence. Boone shivered and my body gave a commiserative wiggle. Tompkins didn’t seem to notice.
“Franklin,” Tompkins said, a genuine smile pushing up his weathered cheeks. “It’s damn good to see you again.” Thrusting out his arm, Tompkins offered his hand, and I grasped it easily and shook. If we’d been standing outside the vehicle, I probably would have pulled him in for a one-armed hug.
“Good to see you too,” I answered easily. Tompkins wore a thick sweatshirt and seemed content with the weather outside. Some people were like that. I remembered that it had to get close to zero with a windchill to boot before Tompkins so much as shivered.
Turned in the front seat, Erasmus peeked around the edge, his green eyes observing my mentor cautiously. “Captain Tompkins, this is Necromancer Erasmus Boone.”
