Page 85 of Hurry Up And Wait
I glanced at my hand, then back at him. “Oh, I don’t actually know what it means to be a scout or what their secret handshake is. But I read somewhere that they do some kind of hand signal. Am I close?”
“Not even a little.”
I frowned at that. I really thought I could pull this off. “Would it help if I distracted you with…” I pulled a bag of Funyuns out from behind my back, waggling my eyebrows at him. “Huh? Did this do it? Tell me it did it for you. I’ve thoroughly distracted you and you’ve forgotten about my lack of knowledge about hand signals of scouts.”
“Fox.”
“Yeah, boss?”
He opened his mouth, but then turned and walked away. That seemed a little unfair. It was only right that I be in on whatever he was about to tell me. I chased after him, ready to pepper him with more questions, but I was interrupted when a portly man with a rather unsightly mustache stepped out of the captain’s office and headed right for us. I tried to hold back my grimace, but the man looked like he was wearing a caterpillar on his face.
Cash nudged me and I quickly schooled my features, though it was really fucking hard to do. “Captain Morris, thank you for meeting with me.”
“Yes, well…let’s get this over with,” he grumbled, turning and waddling into his office.
I grabbed Cash and stared at him with horror before putting my finger horizontally above my lip and wiggling it.
“Stop it!” he hissed, smacking me on the arm.
How could he walk in there and not stare at the atrocious thing? Who actually thought something like that was a good look? But I was outnumbered since Cash’s vote counted for double. So, I followed him into the office and took a seat, looking anywhere but at the gigantic worm on the captain’s face.
“So, you said you have a complaint to file against one of my detectives,” the man said.
“Are you aware that Shawn Yates’s wife filed for divorce?”
The captain glanced between the two of us, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m aware.”
“And did you know that he delivered a box with the shredded divorce papers to her door?”
“That’s not a crime. The man is upset that his wife left him.”
Cash leaned forward. “There was no postmark. It was hand-delivered.”
That got the captain’s attention, and I could see the underlying tension in his shoulders. He had other issues with Shawn.
“Has Detective Yates missed any work recently?”
The captain stiffened in his chair. “I don’t like the way this meeting is going. I don’t like what you’re accusing the detective of.”
I couldn’t stop staring at the man’s face. No matter how hard I tried, all I could see was a caterpillar that would sprout wings and fly off his face. Nothing helped distract me, so I did the only thing I could and pulled out the bag of Funyuns, opening it as quietly as possible.
“I’m not accusing him of anything. Yet,” Cash said, his voice full of an underlying threat. “However, this is more serious than a man angry that his wife is divorcing him.”
I grabbed a Funyun and popped it in my mouth, nearly choking when the explosive flavor hit my tongue. I looked at the bag, cursing myself for grabbing the wrong one. Flamin’ Hot Funyuns were amazing, but this wasn’t the occasion for them.
“His wife was recently attacked in her home. An explosive was set to go off when she opened her fridge, and had it not been for the door blocking her, she would most likely be dead right now.”
I nodded along, trying to chew only on the sides of my mouth without letting the Funyuns hit my tongue. It resulted in a loud crunch filling the silence after the bombshell Cash just dropped.
He slowly turned to me, narrowing his eyes when he saw the bag in my hands. “Funyun?” I asked, stretching it out to him. When he didn’t answer, I held it out to the captain. “You want one?”
His brows furrowed as he stared at the proffered gift.
I cleared my throat and explained. “They’re the Flamin’ Hot Funyuns. I wouldn’t let them hit your tongue if I were you.”
When he didn’t take any, I slowly retracted my arm and smiled at him slightly.
“As I was saying,” Cash continued, “Isla just barely survived the attack.”