CHAPTER 38
In the office, Rick had sprawled across the couch as usual, crossing one leg over the other.
He had even taken the ball away from Billy and was now lazily rolling it between his palms, as though it helped him concentrate.
Billy was silent for a while, but eventually couldn’t hold back anymore:
“And still,” he drawled as casually as if nothing was wrong, “what’s the point of all this?”
Aaron lifted his tired gaze from the laptop.
“Of what?” he asked.
“Well, this whole case,” Billy explained. “We’ve found so much, but I still don’t understand where exactly all of it is leading.”
Lake gave the screen one last sweep with his eyes, as though putting a full stop to his thoughts, then carefully closed the laptop and looked at both of them.
“Let’s break it down point by point: what we have and what we need to check first.”
“We have a beat-up van with a taped-over mirror,” Hong quickly glanced at the photograph lying on the desk. “Rick did a good job today. He photographed the license plate and the scratches. We have pictures from every angle.”
“We have copies of the pages from the vehicle log,” Rick added, twisting his wrist and tossing the ball into the air.
He caught it neatly.
“But there are no entries for this van. So it looks like we wasted half the day on it for nothing.”
“Not for nothing,” Aaron said calmly.
Rick raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Even if we didn’t find anything?”
“We found something that shouldn’t be there.”
Aaron glanced briefly at the wall clock.
“All right,” he continued. “We’ll leave this until tomorrow.”
Billy immediately perked up:
“Tomorrow I can run the owners through the supplier database and call some people I know at the garages. Maybe someone’s seen it in the last month.”
“Good,” Lake nodded. “While you’re at it, check the registration history, repairs, and previous owners by VIN. Everything you can find.”
He shifted his gaze to the stack of photographs, took the top one, examined it carefully, and put it back.
“I’ll handle all the photos and video footage. And I’ll go through the street-camera recordings from the night of that fight again.”
He was silent for a moment, then looked at Rick.
“Parker, you with me?”
Thud.“I…” Rick hesitated for a moment. “Yeah. Of course.”
He squeezed the ball in his palm.
“I’d like to go over the lake material again. Start from the beginning. Maybe we missed something. You okay with that?”
“Sure.”
Rick nodded, trying to focus on the ball.
“Wonderful.”
It came out a little more brightly than he had intended.
Aaron’s gaze lingered on him.
Rick noticed exactly where he was looking — the greenish mark near his cheekbone, almost completely faded over the past few days. Then his attention moved lower, to the similar mark on his neck.
“I can’t shake that King charity event,” Lake said a little more quietly.
Billy leaned against the desk. He rolled the pen lying on top of the documents between his fingers.
“What can we actually check on him?”
“Documents, contracts, payments?” Rick suggested.
“I’m interested in the payments.”
“Then,” Billy turned his gaze toward him, “what exactly are we looking for?”
Aaron thought for a moment.
“Everything connected to the event itself. Who paid, whom, and for what. Contracts with contractors, donations, organizers’ accounts. Whatever we already have access to.”
Rick thought for a moment.
“Can’t we just look at his bank accounts?”
“No. First we need to get access to the banking records.”
Billy frowned.
“Do we have grounds to request them?”
Lake shook his head.
“Not enough yet.”
Rick set the ball aside.
“Yet.”
Billy let out a low whistle.
“Jesus, we’re actually digging into the mayor. Holy shit… For real?” He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Not just for show?”
“For real,” Aaron replied calmly.
“It’d be great if we could just go ask him ourselves,” Rick drawled lazily. “You know, politely: ‘Excuse me, Mr. King, could you tell us where you were ten years ago in November? And what you were doing last month when a bunch of junkies were fighting in an alley? Oh, right, and could you show us your bank statement?’”
“You forgot the ‘please,’” Billy added.
“‘Please.’”
Billy snorted, and Rick couldn’t help laughing himself.
The corner of Aaron’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. He leaned back in his chair.
“If he realizes we’re digging into him, the conversation will be over before it starts.”
Billy folded his arms across his chest and turned toward Rick.
“Yeah… After what happened a week ago, I wouldn’t rush into that option either.”
“You mean Fox?” Rick asked.
Hong nodded.
“You were almost killed, a detective was wounded. And now we’re digging into the mayor too.”
Silence hung for a moment.
“If it turns out to be as serious as we think,” Lake began, “we’ll only take him with a warrant and SWAT backing us up. But first we need solid evidence.”
Rick and Billy exchanged a glance.
“And the fewer people who know about this, the better,” Aaron added. “Until we have evidence, any leak could ruin everything.”
“Even if it’s someone from our own department?” Hong asked.
“Especially if it’s someone from our own department,” Lake replied calmly. “We don’t know who we can trust yet.”
Billy frowned.
“So, no one at all?”
“I can trust only the two of you completely,” Aaron said. “That’s why no one else should know what we discuss here.”
Billy slapped a palm against his thigh, as if putting a period at the end of the conversation:
“All right, I understand, Detective. Then tomorrow evening we check out Cooper’s lead?”
Lake said nothing. Rick watched him carefully.
“Still on?” he asked seriously.
Aaron sat silently for several seconds, his fingers interlaced on the desk. Then he released them and gave a short nod.
Billy exhaled and began gathering his papers from the desk.
“Great, then tomorrow everything gets decided.”
He gathered several sheets and stacked them neatly, but for some reason didn’t hurry to get up.
Rick was about to ask if there was anything else when he noticed Billy suddenly staring at one spot. He bit his lower lip slightly, as though trying to decide whether to say something, then looked at them.
“I wanted… I wanted to ask you something. Find out…” He shifted in his seat, not knowing what to do with his hands, and nervously began worrying the edge of one of the papers.
An awkward pause followed.
“Ask,” Lake said calmly.
Billy scratched the back of his head.
“It’s just… well… you remember Christmas is this weekend…” he began slowly. Then he took a deep breath and spoke faster than he had intended: “My grandmother and Julie have a Christmas dinner every year. She says Christmas is a family holiday, and… I thought that… well… you’re practically family.”
He stopped, as though only now hearing his own words.
Lake raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing.
Rick felt warmth rush to his cheeks and fixed his gaze on the ball. It really did sound awkward. So awkward that now even he found it difficult to look at Aaron.
“I mean… you’re both like my second family!” Billy blurted out, turning completely red. “I just wanted to invite you to dinner. In the evening, at our place. Grandma cooks really well, Renata will be there too… That’s it.”
He was quiet for a moment, then added more softly:
“I won’t be offended if you already have plans. I just thought… maybe you’d want to. You know… spend some time together.”
Rick didn’t immediately understand why he suddenly stopped hearing the hum of the old heater and the occasional voices from the hallway.
A completely different picture appeared before his eyes.
Someone else’s kitchen. Warm light above the table, a fogged-up window, the smell of something hot and spicy. Plates, cups, napkins on the table, some kind of Christmas nonsense someone had put between the dishes for no particular reason.
People talking over one another. Someone laughing. Someone arguing about some trivial thing, taking their side far too seriously. Someone reaching across the table for sugar, someone pouring coffee into an already cold cup.
Nothing special.
Just an evening. Just people who were happy to be together.
Rick lingered in that picture for a moment, not even noticing that he had stopped listening to Billy. And then, for some reason, he imagined that he wasn’t sitting there alone.
Aaron was beside him.
And suddenly he was back in the office. The hum of the heater returned, and the papers, laptop, and ball in his hand were before him again.
“Together, huh…” he repeated quietly, more to himself than to Billy.
Only then did Rick look up at Aaron.
Aaron had been watching him the whole time.
“What do you say, Detective?”
Lake was silent for a little longer, then shifted his gaze to Billy.
“What time?” he asked calmly.
“Seven. So… you’ll come? Right?”
“We’ll come,” Lake answered shortly and already reached for another folder.
Billy’s face immediately lit up.
“I’m so glad!” he said with relief, rising from the chair.
He quickly put on his jacket and, already holding the door handle, turned around.
“Julie’s going to be so happy! She and Grandma have wanted to meet you for ages!”
He almost shouted the last words from the hallway before disappearing through the door.
The door closed softly, leaving the two of them alone in the office.
Rick leaned back against the couch and slowly exhaled. As though he were releasing something that had been lodged in his chest. For the first time in a long while, there was no tightness inside him.
Silence settled between them, and it felt good to be in it.
He caught himself thinking that this was exactly the kind of silence he had always been looking for. No unnecessary words, no need to prove anything. He simply wanted to stay in it.
Rick looked at Aaron again.
With one hand, Aaron held a stack of papers steady while making notes with the other.
A completely ordinary scene.
And yet, for some reason, Rick lingered on it longer than he intended.
“It’s been a long day,” Aaron said calmly without looking up from the papers. “If you’re tired, you can go home too.”
Rick finally set the ball aside and made himself comfortable on the couch.
“I don’t want to,” he replied a little more quietly.
“All right. But you don’t have to sit here until night.”
For a second, it seemed to him that there was something more in those words than simple concern.
Care?
He tilted his head to the side.
Billy’s earlier words echoed inside him:
Your savior.“My…”Rick grew embarrassed, as though he had caught himself thinking something completely indecent.
And the strangest part was that he liked the thought.
He didn’t even notice that he had been watching him this whole time.
His attention involuntarily caught on the most ordinary details: the way Aaron frowned slightly as he read what he had written, the way he tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear, the way he breathed calmly and deeply.
Rick liked simply looking at him. Simply being near him.
Strange. Something unfamiliar stirred inside him.
He had never felt anything like it before.
Suddenly, he realized that Hong’s invitation wasn’t such a bad idea.
A family dinner. Homemade food…
Rick couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten a proper home-cooked meal instead of some ready-made food from the nearest store around the corner.
And did Aaron eat?
If not, it really would be nice to eat together.
For some reason, he imagined a morning they might share. A sleepy Aaron in the kitchen, two mugs in his hands. An argument over some trivial thing that they would both forget five minutes later. Then work, an ordinary day, coming home.
Nothing special.
Just an ordinary life.
With him…
Thud.Rick froze as though he had been scalded.
His breath caught, and his heart, missing a beat, suddenly began pounding wildly somewhere in his throat. The skin of his face instantly grew hot.
As though sensing the stare burning into him, Lake looked at him.
“What?” he asked calmly, tilting his head slightly to the side.
A strand of hair had slipped from behind his ear and fallen softly against his cheekbone. Such a tiny thing, but it sent a jolt through Rick like electricity. He swallowed.
“Nothing,” he breathed too quickly. His voice betrayed him, breaking into a rasp.
Aaron drew his brows together.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Rick didn’t answer. He immediately lowered his head, hiding his eyes behind his bangs. His fingers found the edge of his shirt and clenched the fabric, crumpling it until it hurt.
“What the hell was I just thinking?!”His cheeks burned even hotter. He touched his face, as though hoping to cool it down. But his heart was pounding so hard it felt as though it might burst out of his chest.
“No… this can’t be. I can’t want…”The longer he tried to push the thought away, the clearer something else became.
“What if it’s true?”Then everything really did fall into place.
Rick realized he was barely breathing. His lips trembled. He wanted to say something, anything, but his tongue seemed to have stopped obeying him. He looked at Aaron again and felt his pulse lose its rhythm, his mouth go dry, his skin burning hotter and hotter.
Aaron noticed his strange behavior and set his pen aside.
“Rick?”
But Rick didn’t answer.
Aaron straightened slightly in his chair, keeping his eyes on him.
“Are you all right?” he repeated.
Rick was afraid to even blink unnecessarily.
“I’m fine,” he barely breathed.
The revelation that had crashed over him a second ago was still buzzing inside him.
“You look kind of strange.”
Rick lowered his gaze, unable to withstand the concern in Aaron’s eyes.
“I just…” He faltered, unable to come up with anything to finish the sentence.
When suddenly Aaron slowly rose from behind the desk.
Everything inside Rick stopped.
Lake took a step toward him.
