Page 39 of Lovesick Titan

They sat at the dining room table poring over Joey’s laptop, while John and Stella remained in the living room for most of the afternoon, talking in hushed tones—Danny assumed about him, but he pushed all that from his mind.

He explained Andre’s fogged up window trick to Joey but that it was limited, something they’d need to set up beforehand; they couldn’t carry it around offensively. Which was when Danny remembered that Ludgate could very well be watching them from any number of reflections right that moment, so he and Joey switched to typing, carrying on a silent discussion as they worked up basic schematics for a potential trap.

Joey might only be fourteen, but he wasn’t getting straight A’s in Physics and AP Calculus for nothing. He suggested things Danny hadn’t even considered. The boy would make a good detective someday, or a mechanical engineer.

If they chose a place Ludgate couldn’t resist, somewhere teeming with reflections, and lured him there, somehow got him out into the open and turned on Andre’s program before he could escape, they’d have him. Of course, while luring Ludgate to a collection of mirrors might prove easy, luring him out of the safety of a reflection wouldn’t be.

It was late afternoon when Liu and Anderson, the other IA officer, stopped by the house. This wasn’t a full-on crime scene to investigate, they just needed to look around for anything incriminating, confiscate items of Danny’s that could aid in the investigation, which at this point was all voluntary unless Danny pushed for them to get a warrant. He didn’t. He had nothing to hide in the house other than his cell phone, which was safe now. Andre had texted him hours ago.

Finished that pie you asked for.

Pie?

Yeah you know, forSparky.

Danny quickly got with the program. Andre couldn’t exactly text him,Finished erasing all of that evidence you asked me to get rid of.

Thanks, Andre.

Yeah, man, any time. You need to come by so you can have some of this pie yourself.

Tomorrow, I promise.

Now the officers were there, going through Danny’s room. It caused a resurgence of that awful numb feeling as he remained sitting at the table with Joey to stay out of the officers’ way.

Reaching over to grip Danny’s arm, Joey smiled with that new understanding growing between them, saying without words,It’ll be okay.

Danny just felt guiltier that Joey had to put up with this when all he’d wanted was the family he’d been robbed of. Once again Danny was a disruption to that. A cancer in someone else’s life. A poison.

Even if IA hadn’t taken Danny’s cell phone, he wouldn’t have been able to talk to anyone about anything important. Danny didn’t expect Mal to attempt to contact him again. Maybe ever.

He didn’t realize he hadn’t taken any of his pills that day until he was lying in bed trying to sleep. When midnight crept past, he took two. It had been 24 hours. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. At least in his pills, he had a way out.

He slept hard until almost 10AM. When he woke up after not eating enough the past few days, he realized how sluggish he was and ate a large breakfast, mixed half with lunch since it was so late, before finally lightning jumping to the morgue.

Lynn and Andre practically accosted him the second he appeared.

“Danny!Dude, we so got ya covered,” Andre said as he bounded toward Danny with a tablet in hand.

The fogging device had been implemented like Andre promised, making everything look matte and close-quartered. Lynn walked over more slowly with an exasperated smile at Andre as he continued on in full rant mode.

“Getting rid of the photo will be cake. If you use your powers to snatch it before they run authentication, I can make it look doctored in less than fifteen minutes. As for Cho’s comms—”

“How do you already know everything?” Danny sputtered as he looked at Andre’s tablet that had an evidence photo of the comms proudly displayed. “I figured they wouldn’t let you do any of the CSI work since we’re friends.”

“Please,” Andre tucked some of his braids behind his ear, “like hacking into IA records is a challenge. Now, all we need to do about—”

“Andre, stop,” Danny took the device out of his hands, “I’m not doing any of that. I don’t want you to save me from this. I only had you wipe my phone to protect everyone else. If that photo and hiding evidence leads to putting me away for a while…maybe that’s the best thing.”

“What?” Andre snagged the tablet back from him. “What are you saying?”

“Danny…” Lynn spoke up.

“Don’t try to talk me out of it.” Danny pushed past them to lean against one of the desks. “I’ve already been through this with Dad and Stella. I’ve made up my mind. And don’t tell me to turn Mal over to the police, either.”

“Danny,” Lynn said more insistently as she stepped closer to him, “we weren’t going to say that. We’ve been talking and…” She sighed as she glanced at Andre, who looked somewhat guilty. “Why didn’t you tell me this was so much more than just you and Cho sleeping together?”

Sagging heavily into the desk beneath him, Danny fought to offer Andre a twitch of a smile, because he wasn’t angry, he just couldn’t seem to keep any secrets anymore. “It doesn’t matter. He hates me now.”

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