Page 82 of Lion & Lamb

Chapter86

2:57 p.m.

“I CAN’Tbelieve we’re actually doing this!” said Cooper Lamb Jr.

“Me too,” replied his father, although without quite the same level of enthusiasm.

That they were attending the NFC championship game wasn’t the surprise. Harold Sable had honored his promise; a cream-colored envelope with the team logo had been waiting forMr. Cooper Lamb and Familyat the will-call window. But there were no tickets inside.

Instead, Cooper had pulled out a handwritten note instructing him to take the enclosed green plastic card to a particular luxury box and swipe it through the reader. Cooper led his children to the elevators per the instructions.

Cooper was reasonably sure that Harold Sable wasn’t the one who’d writtenXOXOat the bottom of the note.

“Isn’t this just a wee bit unethical?” asked Ariel Lamb as the elevator doors closed. “I mean, taking championship-game seats from someone who might be implicated in a murder?”

“Accepting seats may be a little unethical,” Cooper replied. “But it’s not as if we’re hanging out with the owners in their luxury box or anything.”

“Dad,” Cooper Jr. said. “These are the elevators to the luxury boxes.”

Cooper turned to his children and winked.

One swipe of the card led them into Glenn Sable’s lair, which was directly next to his father’s (bigger) box. The reactions from those gathered inside told Cooper everything he needed to know. A look of shock—perhaps even fear—flickered on Glenn Sable’s face before he covered it up with a scowl.

The Hughes children were there, and they squealed with delight the moment they saw Cooper, thinking he had Lupe with him. Alas, he had left his constant companion with his ex-wife; a stadium full of screaming fans wasn’t the ideal place for the pup. After hearing that, the Hughes kids waved shy hellos and turned their attention back to the pregame festivities taking place on the field.

But Maya Rain was there, and she wore a warm, knowing smile as she locked eyes with Cooper. Of course she was the one who had arranged this.

“Thank you,” Cooper told her.

“For what?” she replied.

“X-O-X-O?”

“Mea culpa,” she said, smiling. “I like you, Cooper. I couldn’t have you and your family sitting out there in the cold. What good is a personal connection to the team if you can’t exploit it every once in a while?”

“Well, I appreciate it. So do my children.”

“They are very welcome. Your wife couldn’t join us?”

Cooper smirked. “I’m divorced. But I think you knew that.”

“How would I know that?”

Cooper had a half dozen responses to that question:Because you’re super-observant, and I’m not wearing a ring. Because we’ve been walking a flirtatious line for days and never once did you bring up other partners. Although you don’t seem to have a problem with married men.But he let it go. “Speaking of personal connections, where’s Francine?”

“She wasn’t feeling up to this today,” Maya said. “And I don’t think anyone could blame her. But the kids wanted to see the game, so I agreed to take them.”

“Another tough day at the office, huh?”

Maya leaned in close, as if she were about to reveal something dark and personal. She touched the top of Cooper’s hand; her fingertips were cold. “I’m not exactly a sports fan,” she whispered.

Cooper, pretending to be scandalized by this confession, held his hand to his mouth. He saw Glenn Sable throwing eye-daggers his way. Apparently this particular private eye was most unwelcome in Glenn’s luxury box.

Not that his children noticed. They were too busy joining the Hughes children in a raid on Glenn’s Eagles-themed dessert bar. There was plenty of Stock’s pound cake with green frosting, Termini Brothers cookies in the shape of the team logo, and ice-filled coolers holding tubs of Breyers mint chocolate chip.

“I don’t think the little big man likes that we’re speaking,” Cooper said.

“Little big man doesn’t like a lot of things.”

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