Page 52 of Midnight Coven

“You’re an idiot. You shouldn’t let yourself get that low on blood.”

Nick’s scowl deepened. “I just spent hours getting a full body probe with a blow torch and a pair of pliers… and you think it’s a good time to be funny guy? Are we going to talk about the damned case? Or are you going to just keep needling me?”

“Maybe both. It was boring waiting out there. They left me in I.S.F. holding without so much as a magazine.”

“Jesus you’re old,” Nick retorted. “And apologies my incarceration and prolonged torture were so dull for you. Maybe we could switch places next time.”

Morley grunted. He conceded Nick’s point with a tilted head.

“Theories?” Morley asked.

Nick shook his head. “About the torture?”

“About the dead bodies.”

Nick exhaled, shoving back his annoyance with an effort. “I want to see the scene first. We can talk theories after that.” He looked at Morley. “You’ve seen it?”

“Some of it.” Morley gave him another of those cagey side looks. “I saw it via surveillance routed through my headset. I was about to head out there when I got word they were going up north to pick you up. I figured I should stick around for that.”

“Did you send Jordan to the scene?” Nick frowned. “You said he was meeting us there, right? Why wasn’t he out there already?”

Morley gave Nick a faintly exasperated look.

“Because I had him looking at surveillance footage on every airport, train station, and boat dock in New York Protected Area, trying to prove it couldn’t be you.”

Nick flinched.

Then he felt his annoyance deflate.

Nick studied the senior detective’s lined face, frowning.

He could see it on him now. He saw denser hints of emotion on the human’s lined face. He could read it on his dark brown eyes and wrinkled brow. Morley looked like he was decompressing from too many hours of worry and stress.

That might be the real reason he was needling him.

Nick realized a second later he was touched.

“Thanks,” he said, gruff.

He had a desire to punch the other man lightly on the arm.

He didn’t, though.

CHAPTER10

SURVEILLANCE

Nick gotout of the precinct pool car just before Morley did.

He pushed open the metal door and stood, taking in the house in front of him. His eyes drifted up the nearly featureless metal front of the four-story building. He frowned slightly as he stared at the greenish-blue walls.

He didn’t recognize it… exactly.

Still, there was something.

“You know this place?” Morley asked.

Nick looked over. Again, he saw that sharper, warier look in his boss’s eyes.

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