Page 84 of Lion & Lamb

“I am soft, you’re right,” Cooper said with a smile. “Ordinarily if someone said that, I’d threaten to break his bones, but I’m too lazy to wade through all that fat.”

Maya slowly closed her eyes. “Oh, boy.” She opened her eyes and placed a hand on Cooper’s chest. “We should go.”

“What did you say to me?” Glenn said, as if he were preparing to fight Cooper.

“You can’t bury the truth forever,” Cooper said. “That’s not the way the world works.”

Chapter88

Transcript of conversation between Cooper Lamb and Maya Rain, captured using a recording app on Lamb’s smartwatch

COOPER LAMB: Thanks for being the cooler head up there.

MAYA RAIN: All part of the job. Cleaning up messes—

LAMB: Is what you do, right?

RAIN: Something like that.

COOPER LAMB JR.: Dad, can we turn on the radio so we can at leasthearthe second half of the game?

LAMB: What? Oh, right. Hand these keys to your sister and turn on the power. Donotturn on the engine, you got it?

COOPER JR.: Got it.

RAIN: Smart idea. Because we need to talk.

LAMB: Well, there isn’t a pool house handy, so I had to improvise.

(Ambient sounds of power windows being raised, and a muffled sports broadcast behind the recorded voices.)

RAIN: I can’t believe what you said to Glenn.

LAMB: I’m tired of everyone lying. Did you know what that monster did to Francine and the kids?

RAIN: I didn’t know…everything. Not until after, when it was too late to do anything about it.

LAMB: Sounds like Archie deserved some cosmic payback. Part of me is glad he’s dead.

RAIN: Don’t say that.

LAMB: That’s not going to stop me from finding out who killed him. The Sables know a lot more than they’re saying.

RAIN: Sure, but I thought you would have been alittlemore professional. Especially considering you were a guest.

LAMB: To steal your favorite line: It’s all part of the job. It’s whatIdo.

RAIN: Whatareyou trying to do, Cooper?

LAMB: Some people don’t tell the truth until you push them out of their comfort zone, make them a little miserable. But I’m sure you knew that, otherwise you wouldn’t have invited me into Sable’s luxury box.

RAIN: No good deed goes unpunished.

LAMB: Is that why you were surveilling Roz Cline? You were trying to do a good deed?

RAIN: Who told you about…never mind, it doesn’t matter.

LAMB: We’d save each other a lot of time if we were honest. I don’t know how you fit into all of this, and I can’t tell if you’re trying to help me or throw me hopelessly off track.

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