“Cassandra Lillo,” I mumbled. “The aquarium, huh? OK. Email me whatever you pull up on her, and call me back if you find the detergent boxes.” As I hung up, I noticed that Tessa, who had been watching me carefully, let her eyes wander past me toward a couple of cute guys laughing in a booth nearby.
During the next few minutes, I ate in hungry silence but then I noticed Tessa’s long-sleeve T-shirt slide back from her wrist, exposing a red, inflamed streak beneath her bracelets.
“What happened to your wrist, Tessa?”
She pulled the sleeve back in place. “Nothing.”
Over the last year Tessa had struggled with cutting, and I wondered if maybe the rubber band snapping was her way of trying to break the habit, kind of like smokers who start to chew gum instead of lighting up. But it was still a bad habit, and obviously, since her wrist was raw, she was taking it too far. “You need to stop snapping that rubber band so much. You’re hurting yourself.”
“I’m all right.”
“I’m just saying-”
“I’m all right!”
Lien-hua, who had been eating quietly beside us, cleared her throat softly. “Anyone else want some coffee? I’m going for a refill.”
Tessa and I both shook our heads.
Lien-hua rose and I decided that now was as good a time as any to tell Tessa what I’d started considering while I was waiting in the lobby. “Hey, listen. I was wondering if maybe we should head back to Denver.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, I just thought that after last night, after that guy, well
…”
“Killed himself? Ew. Yeah. That was totally disturbing.”
“Well, I thought if we went back to Denver, we could maybe, you know, deal with it together. Talk it through.”
“He’s dead, what is there to talk about?”
“I know. But it happened so close to us.”
“As if people don’t die in Denver. Besides, I want to stay.”
“You’re right, people do die everywhere, but…” I let my words trail off as I noticed Lien-hua pause beside one of the tables. A woman who appeared to be deaf was anxiously trying to communicate with one of the restaurant managers. Lien-hua stood between them, interpreting. She watched the deaf woman’s quick gestures, then spoke softly to the manager, listened to his reply, and let her own fingers fly nimbly through a series of words to the deaf woman.
A sandy-haired boy, maybe eight or nine years old, sat beside the worried-looking woman. Lien-hua had mentioned to me a few weeks ago that one of her brothers had been born deaf, just like her paternal grandfather, so I wasn’t surprised she knew sign language, but this was the first time I’d seen her use it.
“Patrick, hello!” Tessa was waving her hand in front of my face.
She didn’t look happy that Lien-hua had grabbed my attention.
“I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
Tessa’s eyes flickered toward Lien-hua, then back to me. “I was saying that they need you here. And besides, we only have a couple days, and what am I supposed to do at home? I’m fine. Really.”
The two guys in the neighboring booth had finished their meal and were now busy checking out Tessa, that is, until they saw me glaring at them. They looked at least three or four years older than she was. I leaned close to her. “You’re sure you don’t want to stay just so you can scope out those cute surfer guys at the booth over there?”
She purposely avoided looking at them. “What? I was not.”
“Yeah, right. They were checking you out too.”
Her eyes brightened and skipped toward the boys. “They were?”
“Watch out for those older guys. They’re nothing but trouble.”
You’re getting off track here, Pat. Decide if you’re staying here or going to Denver.
“So, seriously, Raven.” My cell phone started to ring. “You want to stay?”
“Yeah,” she said. My phone rang again. “I want to stay here, see the beach, the aquarium. The sharks. All that stuff.” Phone still ringing. She stared at my pocket. “Are you gonna answer that already?”
I flipped out my phone.
“Dr. Bowers, it’s Aina. We found the boxes but no girlfriend.
We contacted the aquarium. Ms. Lillo never showed up for work today.”
Hunter’s keys were gone from his apartment. Maybe they took off together.
“Aina,” I said. “That’s great. But I’m in the middle of something.”
“Her car’s still in the parking lot of the aquarium, though. Dispatch sent a team of criminalists to look through it.”
She told me that last part on purpose. I know she did.
“Thanks, Aina.” I hung up.
“OK,” I told Tessa. “I don’t want to argue with you here. If you’re good to stay, we stay.”
“I’m good to stay.”
“OK.”
“Good.”
Lien-hua returned with her coffee, and I asked her, “Was everything all right over there?”
She nodded. “The boy is allergic to peanuts. His mother saw him eating one of the cinnamon rolls with walnuts and pecans and was afraid it might contain peanuts as well. But the manager assured her that there weren’t any.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Tessa said, staring at the boy. She’s allergic to peanuts, so I knew she could relate.
“Good.” I really wanted to inspect Cassandra’s car and work space before the criminalists got to them. If Hunter was the arsonist, it was possible she was working with him, and we could wrap this whole thing up if we could locate her. I stood. “Tessa. I think Agent Jiang and I are going to go check-”
“Can I come to the aquarium with you?” Tessa asked.
I blinked. “I never said we were going to the aquarium.”
“But you are, and I want to come too, and don’t tell me it’s not safe or anything, because if Austin Hunter really is the arsonist and he was taking off with Cassandra, they wouldn’t hang out at the place she works; they’d get out of town. Right? Besides, it sounds like you should be looking for him at a Keva Juice or a Laundromat, not an aquarium.”
Lien-hua and I just stared at her. Before I could say a word, Lien-hua said, “Tessa, how do you know all that?”
“I was listening to you guys. He talks loud on the phone, and you oughta know that when you whisper something it just makes people nearby listen more closely.” She pushed back from the table.
“It’s a good thing you two aren’t spies.”
“But you only heard my side of the phone conversation,” I said.
“I filled in the rest.”
Forget college. I should send her to the FBI academy.
“Sharks are cool, right?” she said. “Remember? So, can I come?”
Something didn’t quite jibe. “Hang on, Tessa, you’re always asking to go off by yourself, to do things by yourself, to be left on your own. But whenever I’m working a case, you want to tag along. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not consistent.”
“I’m a teenage girl. I’m exempt from being consistent.”
I looked at Lien-hua, who shrugged. “She’s right about one thing, they wouldn’t hang out at the aquarium.”
Well, that was helpful.
“So,” said Tessa. “Can I come? We were gonna go to the aquarium anyway.”
“OK. Look. You stay in the public section while we check out Cassandra’s office. You stay by a crowd of people. No sneaking around. You’re never alone. Got it?”
“Got it,” she said. “No problem.”
27
As Tessa went back to her room to get her satchel, she thought about the conversation she’d just had with Patrick. On the one hand he was right, it didn’t seem to make sense-she wanted to live her own life, but she also wanted to be part of his: to need him but also be free of him. It was kind of weird, or maybe it was normal, she didn’t know. She was still trying to get used to the whole idea of having a dad around.