His tone was clear with subtext. As in,you want me to help, or do you want to be an asshole?
I reached out to touch his shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting way. “Don’t pay attention to him. We’re both just a little high-strung about everything going on, you know?”
Derek’s gaze flickered between me and Xavier, and I waited for His Royal Broodiness beside me to make some kind of off-color comment or snap at the detective.
But to my surprise, Xavier remained civil.
“Go on,” he said stiffly, if not particularly nicely. “We do have an appointment uptown, but I imagine if you’re here, it’s important.”
“Uh, right,” Derek said. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that nothing showed up on the letter you gave me, like I thought. But a squad car down the streetdidintercept a kid delivering a second letter to your box last night around two in the morning.”
I glanced at Xavier, who just flickered an equally befuddled, if not tense, look my way before we both turned back to Derek.
“I think you’d better come in,” Xavier said, opening the door fully.
Derek followed us back into the living room, where I made myself busy getting him a glass of water rather than sitting on the couch and stewing with sweaty palms.
“Can we see the letter?” I asked.
Derek shook his head. “It’s already been entered into evidence. But I can tell you what it said.” He pulled up his phone and scrolled through some notes. “This time it was printed out from a computer. ‘Get him out of your house. He doesn’t belong to you.’” He looked up with a bemused expression. “We got a poet, I see.”
“So, who is it?” Xavier asked. “Who the fuck is tormenting my family?”
I hated the way my heart thrilled at the term “my family.” Hated and also loved it a little.
Okay, maybe a lot.
“Well, the kid who delivered it is a fifteen-year-old kid name Juan Simmons who lives about four blocks that way.” Derek pointed in the direction of Red Hook West, the public housing projects on the other side of Coffey Park. “He has a couple of priors. Nothing major. Shoplifting, skipping turnstiles. Things like that.”
He handed us both a sheet of paper containing the kid’s mug shot and a few basic facts about him. It looked like a profile that might have been printed off a database in his office.
Xavier took the sheet and looked it over with a scowl. “So, some teenager has been messing with us…why?”
I looked at the picture. “Oh, I recognize him. I’ve seen him at the bodega here and there. He opened the door once for me and Sof.”
“Any reason he might be stalking you?” Xavier asked. “Got a thing for the cute bird down the street, maybe?”
I shook my head. “Doubtful. To a fifteen-year-old, I’m a crone.”
Beside me, Xavier chuckled. “Never,” he murmured, causing my cheeks to redden. “To a fifteen-year-old, I’d say you’re fodder for a lot of…pretend.”
The blush threatened to become an all-out fire.
“Er.” Derek cleared his throat. “It might just be that he was paid to deliver. Sort of a middleman to cover up the original perpetrator. We checked security cameras all around here, and we actually got him on camera delivering the first one too, so next step is to send a squad car down to pick him up for interrogation.”
“Oh, don’t,” I put in. “I don’t want to ruin this kid’s life. Can’t you just ask him what you need to know in his own home? It sounds more like a harmless prank, honestly.”
“Ces,” Xavier argued. “Obviously it’s not.”
“Or maybe it is,” I argued back. “What if this isn’t about a jilted lover or some weird stalker, but just some kids who saw my profile in thePostand wanted to screw with me? He doesn’t deserve to have his whole neighborhood watch him taken away in a squad car just because of some mischief.”
Derek clearly did not agree with me, but it also looked like he did not particularly want to use his valuable time hunting down teenage delinquents with mean letters when there were lots of other, much more serious crimes happening in the city.
Xavier rubbed his hand over his face. “What about a private investigator?”
“That is not necessary—” I started to say before Derek cut me off.
“That sounds great,” he said, looking relieved to have Xavier (and his money) on board. “Actually, I was going to suggest it.”