Page 34 of Reading Between the Lines
“Yes now. No better time than the present.”
“You’re evil. Can’t we just pretend I know everything and move on?”
“No.”
Since taking Tallus on as a junior partner, I used as many opportunities as possible to teach him the ropes. Recent cases hadn’t provided enough learning opportunities, but this one had potential.
“What are our goals if we find Hugh Abercrombie? How do we approach him?”
“With charm. Obviously.”
“Tallus.”
“Fine.” He removed his glasses and buffed the lenses on his shirt. “That’s easy. We show him the short story and ask if he thinks it’s Weston’s writing style. If the teen is in his class and his club, and if he writes for the school paper, which this guy runs, he should know. When the clever, clever man confirms I’m right because he will, then we ask him who he thinks wrote the mysterious story, and voila, we have our murderer.”
Tallus replaced his glasses and hit me with the sultry and mischievous smirk that made me stupid.
“You’re getting cocky.”
He wiggled his brows. “Bring me back to Ivory Lace, and I’ll show you just how cocky I can be.” When I stammered to find a response, he added, “How’d I do?”
I scrutinized the leaf, then shook my head. “Not good enough. That’s idealistic thinking. In theory, that would be a best-case scenario, but—”
“Ah, man. Don’t say but. There is no but. It was perfect.”
“But… in reality, if that was the case, the police wouldn’t have written it off as an accident.”
“We don’t know if they asked Mr. English Teacher to identify the writing.”
“Of course they did, and Howdy Doody in there is going to tell us to fuck off.”
“I doubt that. Not if I charm him. Everybody loves me.”
“In the event that your charm fails—”
Talluspffed. “As if.”
“In the event that your charm fails—”
“Which it won’t.”
I growled and narrowed my eyes.
“Fine. In the event that my charm fails…” Tallus rolled a hand, urging me to continue.
“What else can we learn from Dr. Dolittle?”
Tallus pursed his lips and made a clicking noise with his tongue. “We could… inquire about the writing club.”
“And?”
“And find out when they meet and who their members are.”
“Not gonna happen. He’s going to tell you to fuck off again.”
“He won’t. He’s a professional. At best, he might find a polite way to tell me to fuck off.”
“There is no polite way.”
