Page 13 of Bears Behaving Badly
“What?”
“It’s an adverb, dear,” Nadia explained.
“It’s an adjective,” Annette pointed out.
“Ibegyour pardon,” Nadia sniffed, already digging out her cell phone and poking at it. “I’ll have you know I have a degree in English from Oxf… Never mind.”
“Adjective,” Annette said again, not bothering to hide her triumph. But victory was fleeting. And a London native had a degree in English? Was that like an American having a degree in American?
Who cares? You’ve got more important woes.“This is not great. This is the polar opposite of great. We’re theparens familia1; he’sourkit!”
Nadia hesitated, then took the plunge. “Annette, don’t be distressed—”
“Iwillbe distressed. We should all be distressed! We can’t keep him from getting into trouble, and when we catch him, after failing to keep him from getting into trouble, we can’t fucking hang on to him!”
David raised his eyebrows. “Whoa.”
“What, David?”
“You never swear. Not even that time you pulled cubs from folks freebasing carfentanil and the mom ran you over.”
“Oh, please, she barely grazed me. Then she stalled out before she could back up and try again.”
“Yes, yes, the lad’s a woeful handful,” Nadia soothed. “One easily found. You know he’s fond of you. He’ll not have gone far.”
“You’re right!”
“I nearly always am, darling.”
“He wanted to talk to Caro,” Annette said with growing excitement. “He said so before we left for the hospital. But I wouldn’t let him. So he must have… Is there any lock that kit can’t pick? Because we should find one. And then buy them in bulk.”
“Ask him,” David suggested. “Maybe he’ll tell you.”
So off they trooped. Caro had been moved to a private cell in Juvenile Detention and seemed entirely unsurprised to see them. She sat on the edge of the bunk, crossed her legs, and waited for their questions.
“Did Dev come talk to you?”
Silence.
“Because he might be in trouble,” Annette added.
“Moretrouble,” Nadia elaborated.
Silence.
“Do you know him? Had you met before? He claims you’re his sister.”
A slow shake of her head, and the girl’s expression… Was that sadness? Without context, it was difficult to know for certain.
Annette was now even more annoyed, which she hadn’t thought possible. She’d actually given credence to Dev’s sibling claims. “You remember my colleague, Special Investigator David Auberon. He pulled you off the man you tried to kill.”
“Hello again,” he said.
Nothing. If she was intimidated by any of the three of them, Caro Daniels wasn’t showing it.
Annette sighed. “Fine. You know what to do if you need to talk.” On their way out, she asked, “Nadia, when’s Dev’s hearing?”
“Fifty-five minutes.”
