Devin scowled at her and then looked at Layne. “Jesus, boy, next thing I’ll find out is you drive a mini-van.”

“That’s another reason I called you here all the way from Cleveland, Dev. I wanted you to help me pick the color,” Layne returned and Dev rolled his eyes.

Then Devin walked to the reception desk and picked up a white cup of lidded coffee. A Mimi’s coffee.

Devin was wearing a pair of dress pants he should have thrown away probably five years ago, a pair of scuffed shoes and his wife beater. Thick, gray, chest hair could be seen out of the top of the wife beater and the shock of white-gray hair on his head looked like he hadn’t even run his fingers through it after getting up from the couch. Total bedhead.

“You didn’t get me a coffee?” Layne asked, walking into the room.

“What am I, your nanny?” Dev asked back.

Good to know Devin hadn’t changed. Layne knew the man would take a bullet for him but he’d give him lip the entire time he was doing it.

“You go to Mimi’s in your wife beater?”

Devin moved away from the reception desk to his bag spread open on the couch and Layne moved to the desk, dumping the folder with TJ Gaines’s file on it, turned to Dev and leaned back into it.

“Woman runs that joint ain’t difficult to look at,” Dev muttered rather than answering Layne’s question which did answer Layne’s question that, yes, Dev wandered into Mimi’s wearing a wife beater like he’d wander up to his own kitchen counter and pour himself a mug of joe.

“Yeah,” Layne agreed, “and her husband used to be center on the football team, he’s no less solid twenty some years down the line but his devotion to wife and family, coupled with his gun collection, means you should not go there.”

“Can a man pay a woman a compliment?” Devin asked cantankerously and shrugged on a shirt.

“Sure,” Layne replied and Devin buttoned his shirt, his eyes locking on Layne.

“Well, now that we got all the heartwarming reunion shit outta the way, you run off what you got for me. I’m goin’ to the po-lice station to take a shower and I’ll want it ready when I get back.”

It was clear Devin took some time last night to get the lay of the land. He’d never been to the ‘burg but he knew where to get coffee and where the police station was, two things Devin Glover was sure to take note of on any assignment.

“Dev, no one knows you at the Station,” Layne reminded him. “You can’t waltz in there and take a shower. You can shower at my house.”

“Your house two blocks away?” Dev shot back.

Layne grinned at him. “No.”

“Be back,” Dev stated, grabbing his coat and hoofing it out the door.

Blondie barked at it.

Layne tagged the file and walked into his office, hitting the power button on his computer as he picked up the phone to call the Station and tell them a crotchety old man was going to stroll in like he owned the place and take a shower and their best play was to let him. Kath picked up at reception at the Station, Dev showed up while Layne was talking to her and she instantly agreed.

Layne went to his e-mail and found Merry’s intel about Astley and he also found that Natalie didn’t fuck around. As promised yesterday, she’d sent an e-mail with the names of people at work she thought might be able to help. She added addresses, phone numbers and copious commentary and she even made notes of who she’d already contacted to let them know someone would be calling them, helping out by making cold contacts warm. Checking the e-mail, Layne noted she’d sent it by eight o’clock last night and there were fifteen names on her list, eleven of them she’d already contacted.

Natalie, Layne had discovered yesterday, did not like Dr. Jarrod Astley, this e-mail was added proof and indication that she really did not like him.

He printed off the e-mails and put them in the file he’d created when he’d done his searches two weeks ago, making notes on the searches of what was probably now bogus due to Astley’s recent activities. He needed to start looking into TJ Gaines and he unfortunately didn’t have time to re-run Astley’s shit.

He’d begun work on Gaines, and was not liking what he was finding, when his cell rang. The display said “Colt Calling”.

“Layne,” he said after he put it to his ear.

“Hey Tanner, you busy today?”

“Yeah but what’s up?”

“Merry gave us the rundown on Stew. I got a guy you might wanna talk to.”

Layne sat back in his chair. “When?”

“I gotta go with you. He’s not fond of strangers,” Colt told him.

“Right. When?” Layne repeated.

“How’re you fixed to meet me at the Station at one?”

“I can do that,” Layne replied.

“Got it. See you then.”

“Later.”

Layne flipped his phone shut and Devin walked in carrying another cup from Mimi’s.

“That for me?” Layne asked.

Devin looked him in the eyes and took a sip, this being his answer.

Then he walked to the desk opposite Layne, held out his hand and grunted, “File.”

Layne grinned, picked up the Astley file, reached across the desk and gave it to Devin.

Devin weighed it with his hand moving up and down and asked, “How long you been workin’ this?”

“Haven’t really. There isn’t much there.”

Devin put his cup down on Layne’s desk and opened the file, his eyes skimming the paper on the top. “Rely too much on computers these days,” he grumbled.

“It’ll get you started.”

Devin looked at Layne. “How deep do you wanna bury this guy?”

“So deep he won’t remember what oxygen feels like.”

Devin studied him. Then he nodded, grabbed his cup and turned to go.

“Dev,” Layne called and Devin turned back. “Dinner, my house, be there at five thirty so I can introduce you to the boys and try to talk you into behaving yourself so my girl Rocky and my son’s girl Keira don’t run screaming into the night.”

Devin’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Only person I can be is me, boy.”

“Why don’t you try on a different personality for tonight?” Layne suggested.

“Women love me,” Devin shot back.

Layne grinned and muttered, “Right.”

“You wait and see, I’ll have them eatin’ outta my hands.”

“Just as long as you don’t try to do that literally.”

Devin grunted. Blondie, standing next to him looking up at him and likely wondering why he wasn’t petting her, barked. Devin glared at the dog and then he disappeared.

Layne chuckled and turned back to his computer.

An hour later he’d run through every scrap of information in TJ Gaines’s personnel file twice because he could not believe what he’d found and he’d printed it out. He’d also made some calls based on info from the file, typed up quick notes and printed those out too. He was in Mimi’s and Mimi was handing him his Americano when his phone rang.

The display said, “Raquel Calling”.

Seeing Rocky’s name on his phone, he made a decision, smiled at Meems, turned toward the door, flipped the phone open, put it to his ear and greeted her with, “Hey sweetcheeks.”

“Hey Layne. Did you run the searches?”

“Yep.”

“Well?” she asked when he said no more.

“You get a break?”

“Sorry?”

“Do you get a break, Rocky?” He walked through the door, gave a quick, sharp whistle and Blondie, waiting outside for him with her nose pressed to Mimi’s glass the entire time he was inside, likely wondering if Layne was getting her a seriously gourmet dog treat (Mimi’s coffees were great but her baked goods were so fucking fantastic, Layne wanted to watch Rocky eat one, guaranteed orgasm). Blondie wagged after him as he headed down the sidewalk to his SUV. “I wanna talk about what I found face to face,” Layne finished.

She was silent. Then she asked, “Did you find something?”

“Do you get a break?” he repeated.

She hesitated then said, “Yes, right now. I have third period free.”

“Can I walk right in or do I need to sign in?”

“Layne –”

He cut her off. “Answer me, sweetcheeks.”

“I’ll meet you outside the office,” she told him on a sigh.

“Be there in ten.”

He flipped his phone shut, shoved it in his back pocket, opened the door, Blondie bolted up into the cab and he swung up after her. He was at the school in ten minutes. He left Blondie in the truck with a window cracked and her nose shoved out of it, sniffing at the outside air like she’d never experienced it before. He walked into the school and saw Raquel was standing outside the office, which was right at the entrance.

She was wearing another one of her to-the-knee, tight-and-sexy-as-hell skirts, this one light beige topped with a thin, tight sweater in deep pink with a matching scarf tied around her neck and high-heeled pumps that also matched the pink. Her lips were glossed in a color that looked like raspberries and he wondered if it tasted the same. Her hair was coiled in a twist at the back of her head.

He smiled at her. When he did, her eyes went immediately to the windows of the administration office that faced out to the halls that Layne was certain was filled with colleagues, mostly women, all who were watching avidly. Then she looked back at him and smiled back tentatively, telling him she was at work and he needed to behave himself.

He walked up to her and stopped close, closer than he should, not as close as he wanted, not close enough to be inappropriate but definitely close enough to give their audience something to gossip about and he tipped his head down.

“Hey Roc.”

“Hey,” she whispered, staring up at him.