Page 27 of Code Violation

ELEVEN

Forrest – Thursday Evening

Forrest stared down at the grass circlet. He was lightheaded and needed to sit down. His heart crashed against his ribs—or maybe it was trying to claw its way out through his esophagus—but Nero was watching him closely, so he tried to school his expression.

“Where did you get this?” he repeated, sitting back down on the bed next to Nero. His voice shook no matter how hard he tried to stop it.

“Are you alright?” Nero asked. “I found it on my steps just before you showed up tonight. Do you know what it is?”

Forrest looked up from the bits of dried grass shaped into a crude circle that he held in his hand. Another wave of dizziness washed over him. Déjà vu.

What the fuck was this? How come Nero Vik had this in his cabin?

“Cooper?” Nero said his name quietly as if he was afraid of startling him.

“You found this? Just now?” He did his best to sound perfectly normal and figured he’d failed.

Vik nodded. “I was working and heard a noise—well, I thought someone knocked—but when I opened the door, there was no one there. Just that bracelet thingy. Are you sure you’re alright? You look pale.”

Forrest shook off the uncomfortable feeling that he’d somehow traveled back in time. “I’m fine. Low blood sugar. Just hungry,” he replied. “It looks like something a kid would make, doesn’t it?” Looking over at Nero again, he added, “Call me Forrest, alright? You say Cooper and I keep waiting to hear Springs afterward.”

“Sure, okay. Forrest. Call me Nero.”

From the skeptical tone and matching expression on Nero’s face, Forrest hadn’t been very convincing with his excuse.

“So,” he said, wanting to get as far away from the artifact as possible. If the cabin had had a fireplace, he would have burned the thing. “How should we get started on our investigation?” He nonchalantly set the band of weeds back where he’d found it. As if it wasn’t the most terrifying thing he’d laid eyes on in decades.

Since coming down from The Deep.

He earned himself another look from Nero, who was obviously aware that Forrest didn’t want to talk about the bracelet.

“There are rules.” Nero tapped the tip of one index finger with the other. “First of all, we are not the Hardy Boys. Or Starsky and Hutch. Or Cagney and Lacey. Or any other buddy detective pairing that I can think of.” He tapped his middle finger this time. “Second, I’m in charge. Think Magnum or Sherlock. And, third, that makes you the sidekick. Understood?”

Forrest opened his mouth to protest but Nero held up his hand, stopping what Forrest had been about to say, which was, In your fucking dreams. Something else occurred to him, something that wasn’t pertinent, but that he was now insanely curious about.

“I need to learn everything there is to know about Ned Barker,” Nero continued. “Since he was friends with your family, you get to tell me everything you can think of.”

“Wait a sec.”

“Wait a sec, why?”

“My grandpa loved dime-store detective novels. He collected them. Wanda used to set aside any that came into the shop.”

Forrest pictured the bookshelves Ernst had built into the living room walls. They were still packed with old-school paperbacks that his grandfather had loved. Their covers mostly depicted scantily clad women and fierce-looking manly men with guns, and one series had featured an extremely rotund man who was almost as smart as Sherlock Holmes.

Forrest had devoured them all in just a few months when he’d first come to live with Ernst because there’d been nothing else to read in the house.

Nero’s expression was resigned, like he knew where the conversation was going. “Why is this important, Forrest?”

“Just wondering. Are you by chance named after the great Nero Wolfe?”

Nero visibly deflated. “Do you know how many people have ever asked me that? Maybe three.” Now he was scowling at Forrest. It was very sexy.

“Well?” Forrest prodded, trying not to grin.

“Fine. Yes. Are you happy now? I was named for a fictional character who had a sidekick named Archie. Shall I call you Archie?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Hell, no. And hey, at least you’re not named after a stand of trees.”

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