poetâs hands down his overcoat. He caught me looking and stopped that nervous dance. He offered me a hand just as if he hadnât called me a slut to his partner.
I took his hand. No hard feelings here. I even smiled though I knew it didnât reach my eyes. Franklin didnât even try to look pleased to see me. He wasnât rude, but he didnât pretend he was happy either.
âAgent Franklin, Iâm surprised to see you here.â
He took back his hand. âDidnât your friend Bradford tell you Iâd been reassigned?â He said friend like he meant more, and the rest was bitter. Not obvious bitter, but it had that feel to it. Nothing he said was rude enough to start a fight, but it was close.
Special Agent Bradley Bradford was head of the FBIâs Special Research section, which dealt with preternatural serial killers, or crimes involving the preternatural.
Thereâd been a lot of controversy about splitting those crimes out of the Investigative Support unit, the one that usually handled serial killers. At short acquaintance, Franklin had made his feelings clear on the situation. Heâd been against it.
Since Bradford was his boss at the time, that had been a problem. Apparently, Franklin had been reassigned, a nonvoluntary reassignment. Not good for a career in the FBI. I was taking fallout for a political squabble that Iâd had nothing to do with. Great, just great.
I started to introduce Micah, but Fox beat me to it. âCallahan, Micah Callahan.â Fox was already offering his hand and smiling, way more broadly than heâd smiled for me. How did an FBI agent know Micah? âYou look good.â
Micah smiled not quite as broadly, like he wasnât as happy to see Agent Fox. What the hell was going on?
âFox, I . . .â Micah tried again. âThe last time you saw me, I was still in the hospital. I must have looked like shit, so I guess anythingâs an improvement.â I could hear the uncertainty in his voice, though Idoubted anyone else could. You had to know him really well to hear that note in his voice.
âSomeone who came that close to dying is allowed to look like shit,â Fox said.
I knew then that this probably had something to do with the attack that had made Micah a wereleopard. All I knew about it for certain was that it had been violent. Once someone uses the words violent and attack, you donât press for details. Iâd figured heâd tell me more when he was ready.
Micah turned to me. His face was having trouble deciding what to do, and I was betting he was glad that the glasses hid his eyes. âSpecial Agent Fox was one of the agents who questioned me after my attack.â
I hadnât known that his mauling had gotten federal attention. I couldnât think why it would have but I couldnât ask that here and now because it would be admitting too much ignorance. Also, I wasnât sure how much Micah wanted to share in the airport with people walking around us.
I covered. I can do blank pleasant cop face with the best of them. I did it now. âWhat are the odds thatheâd be the agent in charge of this case?â I said, smiling, as if I knew exactly what we were talking about. Iâd give Micah a chance to explain later, when we didnât have an audience.
âI didnât know that you were an animator,â Fox said, still talking to Micah.
âIâm not.â And Micah left it at that.
Fox waited for him to add more, but Micah smiled and didnât. Fox would have let it go, but Franklin didnât. Some people just canât leave well enough alone.
âAre you a vampire executioner?â Franklin asked.
Micah shook his head.
âYouâre not a federal marshal.â And Franklin said it like he was positive.
âNo, Iâm not.â
âLet it go, Franklin,â Fox said.
âSheâs brought a civilian along on a federal
Arnold Nelson, Jouko Kokkonen