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“I don’t know, Chief.” Cassidy offered a crooked grin. “Why don’t you and Emery roll into Eldoria and see if you can solve it for them? Traveling detectives. Just like you did here.”
Emery snorted again. “Has anyone made contact with Brey? Is it possible he was taken by Welch?”
“Brey’s fine. Talked to him five minutes ago.”
“You talked to him on the phone?” Emery said. “Jesus, Jonas.”
“He needs to be in a station house giving his statement,” John-Henry said. “Where is he?”
Cassidy’s crooked smile was back. “He’s recovering from a traumatic shock. I’m going to take his statement personally once he’s calmed down.”
“Fantastic. I’ll join you.”
“What? No—”
“Me or Lieutenant Mendez, your pick. Eric Brey was in contact with Welch after the murders, after Welch escaped from jail. He lied about it to my investigators. And then he almost got three people killed when his meeting with Welch turned into an ambush. I’d like to know what he has to say for himself.” He glanced at his watch. “Get on the phone with Brey and let him know he needs to be here in the next hour.”
Cassidy stared at them for several long seconds. He marched into his office and slammed the door.
“Do you think—” Emery began.
John-Henry shook his head and glanced at Bonilla, and then he motioned for the others to follow him outside.
The late afternoon shadows made pockets in the copper-colored light that filled the street and spilled out into the harbor. A few cars tootled along, but otherwise Auburn was empty. Except, of course, for the black Audi idling at the curb, where Theo’s and Auggie’s profiles were visible. One of them must have been watching because the Audi’s engine cut out and the two men got out of the car.
“Nice to see you too,” North said, examining the twin dirty looks directed at him and Shaw. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“You’re welcome?” Auggie repeated.
“What the hell was that stunt—” Theo began.
“You jackasses ran off without telling us anything!” Auggie shouted.
Red slashed Theo’s cheekbones. “You almost got Auggie killed!”
“I got you that fucking interview, and you turned around and ditched us!”
“Walking into a fucking ambush like a couple of fucking imbeciles!”
“What the fuck is your problem?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Auggie wiped sweat from his forehead. He held North’s gaze for another moment and then looked away, shaking his head. Theo’s chest was heaving, and he didn’t look away.
“Get it all out of your system?” North asked.
Shaw made an unhappy noise.
“Fuck you,” Theo said.
“Sure, Pop-Pop. Call me in thirty minutes when the Viagra kicks in.”
“Jesus Christ, North,” Auggie said. And then, with a kind of parceled out delivery, like he wanted to make sure every beat of the insult landed, Auggie said, “If you’d picked up the phone, jackass, I would have told you I’d seen Brey before. He was in the Cottonmouth Club the night I was there. He was arguing with Gid.”
The words erupted from North before he could stop them: “And you couldn’t take five fucking seconds to tell us that?”
For a moment, something ugly rose in Theo’s face until it lay just under the surface of his usual calm. Then, bit by bit, he must have forced it back down, because he took a deep breath, caught Auggie’s arm, and said, “We’re going.”
