Page 62 of Reading Between the Lines
“And the pink.”
“I know.”
“And the—”
“I know, Tallus. I fucking hate every inch of this place.”
“Why didn’t you speak up?”
“Because my head is scrambled right now. Words fail me on a good day, so when a man points a rifle at my fucking head, and his dog threatens to tear your fucking throat out, I wasn’t exactly on my fucking game.”
“Wow, that was a three-fuck sentence. Say no more. We’ll make the best of it. Let’s be sure we’re up before the seven a.m. air raid sirens go off, though. I’m not sure I can do that again.”
“You’ll have to call work.”
“Shit.”
“If you can’t stay—”
“No. I’ll figure it out. I can always blame the weather. Where do we go from here? Are we hunting down the teens? We should figure out where the twins live and—”
“I want to go to the police department and chat with whoever dealt with the Mandel case.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?” Tipping my head to the side, I pinned Diem with a look of confusion. “I thought you said you wanted to go to the police department to chat with the officer who handled Weston’s case, but I must have heard you wrong.”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“But the police department?”
“Yes.”
“Willingly?”
“Yes.”
“To chat?”
“Yes, Tallus. Willingly. To chat.”
“Sweetie, are you fevered? Did you catch a cold in the woods today? We can go to the drugstore and get some cherry-flavored medicine. I can tuck you in bed, sing you lullabies, feed you soup.”
Diem glowered.
I chuckled. “Is that a no?”
The surly man’s lips twitched, and I silently scored myself another point.
“What do you want to ask the police?”
“If they’ve deemed the incident by the river an accident, there’s technically no case. No case means there’s nothing for them to hold back. I want exact details about where the kid was found and where they suspect he went into the water. I also want the name of the dog walker who found him.”
“Do you think it was that guy from the woods?”
“Makes sense. Same area. I don’t know, but we’ve got to figure out why Weston was out there and with whom.”
I stared at myself, evaluating how presentable I looked if we were going to the police station. Diem’s hoodie hung to mid-thigh, making me look like a child. “This thing is too big. I may as well wear my coat. I have to put those shoes back on anyhow.”
“Wear both. You’ll freeze otherwise.”
