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Derik took a step forward, and Skunk barked excitedly,wagging his tail even harder. Morgan reached down and scratched the dog behindthe ears, trying to calm him down. Morgan wanted to ask Derik so manyquestions, to find out what he had been up to for the past ten years, but shecouldn’t bring herself to do it.
“How have you been?” she asked Derik, trying to break theawkward silence that had settled between them.
“Good. Busy.”
“Any cases worth talking about?”
He grinned at her as they settled on her couch. Itsmelled musty from years of non-use. “You really want to talk about work?”
“Well, it’s not my work anymore.”
He shrugged and looked around the house, then his eyessettled on her. “Are you doing okay, Morgan?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Honestly? You look…I don’t know. What’s the word forsomeone who looks like they’re depressed as hell but also jacked. Jesus, didyou work out every day?”
“Not every day, but most days.”
She noticed the strange tension between them instantly.It had never been there before; it was a wedge created by the last ten years.Surely he felt it, too. It made her wonder why he was here at all. It wasn’tlike Derik to drop by unannounced. Though, without a new phone number for herand no real organization to her life yet, how else would he have reached out?
“I…I’m sorry it was a while between visits there at theend,” he said.
“It’s okay, Derik. You had a life. A job, a wife. Youcame more than enough.”
“Thirty-one visits in ten years,” he said. “I kept countjust in case I needed to hold it against you. Also…as of right now, there’sonly the job. The wife…that ended a long time ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“When, during one of my visits? It’s not exactlyuplifting talk to share with a friend and work partner who’s been wronglyaccused and thrown into jail.”
“What happened?”
“We got bored. Just sort of drifted apart.”
“Just like that?” Morgan asked skeptically. She had afeeling Derik wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
He waved the comment away. “I’d really rather not talkabout it.”
She was relieved to see the glimpse of his old self, ofthe humor he was always so quick to toss out if a situation got toouncomfortable. Even though there was nothing funny about his avoidance of thetopic, his tone was practically dripping with it. But it felt forced, notnatural at all. Something was off. And in that moment, as she noticed that hewas finding it hard to look directly at her, Morgan started to get a very badfeeling.
“What is it, Derik? Why are you really here? And tenyears or not, I know you too well. Your poker face sucks, you know.”
He sighed and finally looked at her again, their eyeslocking. She saw sadness in his gaze and something that looked like…what? Wasthat excitement, maybe? Without taking his eyes from her, he reached into theinside of his jacket and pulled out an envelope. It had been folded to a curve,standard paper-size.
“There’s a case,” he said. “And I was sent to tell youabout it. To ask you if you’ve thought about coming back.”
Red-hot fury passed through her. If she hadn’t missedDerik so much over the last ten years, she would have punched him in the face.
“I hope to God you’re kidding,” she said, trying tocontrol the waver in her voice.
“I wish I was, but no. There’s a whole panel…threedirectors and a supervisor. When this whole thing started,” he said, shakingthe envelope, “they all realized you’d be out soon and that you’d be—”
“No.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “I figured that wouldbe your reaction. And I told them as much. But all the same, you really shouldat least read about it. Or let me tell you what—”
“Get out, Derik,” she said, getting to her feet.
