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"He&039;s a fake"

"A fake?" She sat down beside him "What do you ht" As she gasped, he kept going "It was him Probably his two buddies, too - "

"Why didn&039;t you tell me? And why the hell didn&039;t you report it?"

He started rubbing his teht, Well, at least this headache was the nor but tension -

Abruptly, he jacked around

Except there was nothing behind hiun muzzle with his skull It was just an empty room cut up by cubicles that were filled with computers and phones and empty office chairs

Unfont size=ately, his instincts told hih his eyes couldn&039;the could touch and feel

Just like last night in his kitchen Just as it had been down by the river ten o

Just as it had been his whole life

"What is it?" Reilly asked

"Nothing"

"Your head hurts?"

"No, it&039;s fine"

Veck casually got up and walked all the way across the department to the banks of s that looked out over the street below Making like he was just glancing outside at the sky, he focused his eyes on the glass and braced himself

No shadows in it

Thank fuck Mirrors were usually the surest way to see as lurking, but panes could do the trick

Godda back around, he passed through what seemed like a warm draft as he returned to his chair

Reilly put her hand on his arm "Talk to me I can help"

He rubbed his hair and didn&039;t bother to sot home, I knew there was someone in my house There was no obvious break-in, but it was just " Okay, noas starting to feel crazy as he heard himself talk "I wasn&039;t sure until I went toathell, I should have expected so like this so close to my father&039;s execution"

"WhatI&039;m sorry, what does your father have - "

"Like I said before, he has fans" More with the hair scrubbing "And they&039;ve done scary shit They can&039;t get close to hieneral public and they find ine what it&039;s like to discover your new roommate is a devil worshiper, or that chick who hit on you at the bar is covered with tattoos of your old man&039;s face Especially my old man" He cursed low and hard "And believe me, those are only the less creative exa to happen right now, but I don&039;t believe in paranoia Maybe I dah"

"You can&039;t blame yourself about Heron I saw his ID It absolutely looked legitimate"

His eyes shot to hers "I took that oddamn mother Oh, for fuck&039;s sake "

Veck shoved his chair back on a sharp push and got up As he paced down the row of empty cubicles, he wanted to hit a wall

And naturally, at that

Reilly stayed in her seat as Veck accepted a call

He looked awful Stressed Exhausted And it dawned on her that he hadn&039;t had anything to eat at her place last night, and probably, given how "lunch" had gone, hadn&039;t done himself any favors at noontime, either

"Really? Yeah, she&039;s with me Uh-huh "

As twelve kinds of noncoht circle, frhand on his hip, head down, brows tight He earing his uniforh the pocket of his button-down, the red stripe on his pack of Marlboros showed

The cubicles in the Homicide departht, and as with her colleagues, the detectives here decorated their workspaces with pictures of kids and wives and husbands A couple of the fes they used for coffee, and pinned up Dilbert cartoons, and ads with stupid mistakes in them

DelVecchio&039;s was utterly bare, the cloth-covered, thu but the holes left behind by the last inhabitant&039;s life display And she had a feeling it had nothing to do with the fact that he had just started working here Usually, when so they did

Veck hung up and glanced over "That was de la Cruz I also spoke with Bails"

"As did I"

"So you know Kroner thought it was an animal that attacked him, and that he ID&039;d me as the man who came and called nine-one-one"

"Yeah, I do And I think you should believe it"

"Believe what"

"That you didn&039;t hurt him" As he made a dismissive noise, she shook her head "I mean it, Veck I don&039;t understand why you&039;re so persistent, even in the face of evidence to the contrary"

"People can be wrong"

"Not at a face-to-face distance Unless you think those wounds were so lot?" When he didn&039;t say anything further, she knew better than to beat a dead horse "Heron needs to be reported"

"For ient, yeah But I doubt I can prove he was in h his phone "At least I have his cell phone number in here"

"I&039;ll file the report," she said "You need to take the rest of the afternoon off"

"Nah I&039;ood"

"That wasn&039;t a request"

"I thought you were o by rank, I am on top of you" With a wince, she wished she&039;d phrased that differently "And I can also take care of the paperwork about e did yesterday"

"Thanks, but I&039;ll do it"

She turned to check her e- the afternoon off, reht s up She should have known better

He&039;d just leaned back in his chair and was staring at his co on it "I&039; I just want to work"

And that hen she realized he had nothing No one to go home to No one in his life - he&039;d left the "next of kin" slot unfilled in his HR file, and his euy Where was his mother? she wondered

"Here, eat this," she said, putting her Micky D&039;s bag in front of hier, but you look like you could use soentle as he picked up the gift "I don&039;t want to take your lunch"

"I had a big breakfast"

He rubbed the wrinkled part between his eyebrows "Thanks I mean that"

As he took out the yellorapped package and e fries, she found herself sliding back into step with hi

But then, partnerships were like that At tirind and squeal And it wasn&039;t always clear why or when things returned to being at ease

Although in the case of last night, it was very da her throat, she said, "How&039;d you like to try dinner again"

Going by the way his head whipped around, she ht as well have dropped a boolden arches

"You&039;re serious," he said

She shrugged,like she was nonchalant "My mother wasI head over there tonight Actually, I think she would have e and tofu - the urge to cook comes over her from time to time, and as an only child, the extra , if you knohat I ered up three fries, chewed them down, and wiped his mouth with a napkin "You sure you want to do that"

"I asked, didn&039;t I?"

He focused on the red carton "Wellthen yeah I&039;d like that A lot"

As Reilly got busy texting her mom, he said, "I promise to be on ested he wasn&039;t just talking about table manners, and she kneas the kind of vow she should take as well It took two to tango, and God knew she&039;d been right there with hiain, she wasn&039;t wearing anything Victoria would go hush-hush about So they were probably safe

Probably

"Okay, how do you spell &039;Heron,&039; " she murmured as she pulled up a blank incident report on her screen

There was the briefest of pauses And then he said quietly, "Just like the bird"