by Aiden Bates
Pat folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "That's exactly right, Nenci. Too cool." Nenci knew the truth, or some of it. That didn't stop him from teasing, and Pat didn't expect it to. Nenci didn't get it though, not really. Pat didn't want to fall in love, not again. It had hurt too much the first time, and Pat knew damn well that he wasn't going to find someone he cared about as much as he'd loved Elias.
Too bad it hadn't been mutual.
Whatever. He wasn't going to sit around and waste time and energy whining about what could have been—especially when there never was a "could have been." "The consultant will get here when they get here. We'll find out who Devlin assigned then. Robles, you already know it ain't you. Why don't you find your chill and go do a crossword puzzle or something? You don't need to fight over the Montague case. It's a messy and ugly one, and there's no reason to try to get yourself stuck on it if you don't have to."
"An excellent point." Devlin walked out of his office. "The consultant is here. Why don't we all head into the conference room over near Abused Persons?"
Pat got up, folding his mouth shut. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask, but Devlin wouldn't answer them until he felt that the time was right. Manipulative bastard. The odds that HomeSafe would have sent Elias as a consultant were slim to none anyway. The guy never did cases in Massachusetts.
Pat had checked.
Morris stepped forward. "Uh, sir, our conference room is bigger. Why don't we just sit in there?"
Devlin glanced at him. "Because, Morris. The conference room we're using has better projection capabilities. Also, it has more exits. We're six alphas walking into an enclosed space. The consultant should feel as free as possible to run if he needs to."
A pit of dread spun itself into existence in the middle of Pat's stomach. His boss' words strongly suggested that the consultant was an omega. That didn't necessarily mean that their guest was Elias, but it did increase the odds. This was not good.
At least Pat wouldn't get stuck with the Scott Gilbert case. He hated working on cases with dead kids.
He followed the rest of the team into the empty conference room and sat between Nenci and Langer. Now that he'd built up that ball of dread, he just wanted to get the meeting over with. He needed to get this out of his system. He just had to get away.
The door from Abused Persons creaked open. Ryan Tran walked in first. He glanced around the room, spared a curl of the lip for Nenci, and sat down at the other end of the table. The man who followed him in, however, was someone who Pat didn't need to see to identify, although he couldn’t help but look anyway.
Elias looked good. He'd gotten older, in the ten years since they got done with undergrad. That only made sense. He still had that long, curly brown hair. This time it was tied back into a ponytail with a little black elastic. His brown eyes widened when he saw Pat, and he stopped moving.
Pat tried not to breathe too deeply. He hadn't smelled the lilac scent of the man he loved in over a decade. For half a second, everything fell away, and all he could think about was getting Elias back into his arms.
Nenci put a hand on Pat's arm. "You okay, buddy? You look like a ghost walked over your grave."
Elias' lip curled. "I can't do this."
Of course he couldn't. Elias had walked out of Pat's life without so much as a goodbye ten years ago. Why would he be anything but disgusted to see him now? He'd been repulsed at the thought of being with a cop. Seeing Pat here, with cops, must have made him want to vomit.
"I'll just go." Pat got up from his seat and headed for the door.
"Of course you will. It's what you're best at." Elias sniffed.
Words welled up in Pat's throat, but he choked them back. Words hadn't helped then, and they wouldn't help now. Besides, the last thing that he needed was to have his dirty laundry aired in front of the rest of the Cold Case squad. Those guys were vicious. Pat should know; he wasn't any better. Instead, he brought up his right hand and extended his middle finger.
"Sit down, Tessaro." Devlin's voice cracked like a whip over the silence of the room.
Tessaro froze. If he ignored his boss' orders, he could be kicked off the force. Considering that he'd lost Elias in part because he'd chosen to join the force, he couldn't get kicked out now. He knew his movements were stiff as he returned to his seat, but he couldn't do anything about that.
"Mr. Salazar, do you have a problem working with the alphas from my team?" Devlin raised an eyebrow and stared Elias down.
Elias wouldn't be intimidated. Why would he? The guy could have bought and sold Devlin ten times over back when they were undergrads. Who knew what he could do now? "I had a relationship with Mr. Tessaro a very long time ago." He shrugged, the very image of supreme indifference. "It's hardly relevant. I apologize, Lt. Devlin. I was simply surprised to see him again." Elias closed his eyes and gave a full-body shudder before sitting down beside Ryan.
"Shows how much you know, buddy." Morris snickered. "Tessaro doesn't do relationships."
"That's probably for the best." Elias managed a thin, polite little smile and pulled out a notepad. "If we could perhaps keep ourselves to the case, instead of to Mr. Tessaro's shortcomings, this will be a much shorter meeting."
Pat's cheeks burned with humiliation, but he bit down on the inside of his cheek and kept his mouth shut. He could sit there and analyze things later. Right now, they had a mystery to solve.
"Okay." Ryan glanced from Elias to Pat and back again. "Now that that's clear as mud, let's look at what we do know. We know that the state medical examiner, the assistants who loaded the body into the van, and the lab tech who initially processed samples from the body have all had to be taken to the hospital for treatment and isolation. Tests confirm that the disease is diphtheria, which is a terrible way to die, and that Scott did die from the disease."
"So, what are we looking at here?" Devlin turned his eyes to Elias. "Have you ever seen a kid come back after ten years when they've been kidnapped that young?"
"Actually, yes." Elias managed a smile. It didn't reach his eyes. "We have had cases where abductees have come forward and recognized themselves, sometimes well into adulthood. It's not usually accompanied by nudity and easily preventable diseases, though."
Pat scowled. He shouldn't engage, but this was too much. Elias was putting the cart before the horse, and they'd never solve anything that way. "If you can put your judgment aside and maybe get a picture on the screen—thanks, Langer. Look. The ME's report says that the kid doesn't seem to have had a lot of variety in his diet, but that he had food to eat. There are no signs of trauma—no sexual, no physical. No bruising."
Elias glared at Pat, clenching his pen so hard Pat thought it might break. "Your point?"
"He also found that the sheet was wound in a certain, very specific way. There were remnants of certain oils and resins on his body, items mentioned in old texts as appropriate for use in burying a corpse." He gestured up at the screen. "I'm not saying that the person was right to abduct baby Scott. Far from it. I'm saying that in their way, they cared for him. We're not looking for some child trafficking ring here."
Elias pursed his lips. He looked like he'd been sucking on a lemon. "You're probably right. It might still be a possibility, but those types of organizations don't usually show this level of care for their victims." He relaxed, although he still looked like he'd bitten into something foul. "Something still seems off here."
Tran chuckled softly. "Yeah, all we do is 'off.' And these guys? Their 'off' is even more 'off' than ours. That's why they're here too." He shook his head. "What can you tell us about cases like this, Elias?"
Elias took a deep breath, and he put a hand on the table. He almost looked as if he were steadying himself. "Well, I can't tell you much. We do see some cases where a person will steal babies, but they're usually stolen when they're smaller. They're usually sold to a desperate childless family who couldn't adopt for whatever reason. Sometimes the perpetrator will keep t
hem, but they won't usually refuse to vaccinate."
Pat kicked Nenci under the table. He wasn't going to contribute anymore, not if it meant risking being assigned to this case, but he could egg others on.
Nenci jumped and glared at Pat, but he spoke up. "There's a clue right there. Our perp might be a vocal anti-vaxxer."
"Or too poor to afford vaccines." Robles twirled his pen in his hand. "That could explain why they couldn't adopt by normal means."
"Why dispose of the body in that way, though?" Elias' face twisted. "I mean that's just wrong. It's just plain wrong. He was thrown away like an old carpet!"
"It seems that way." Langer scratched at his chin, his eyes far away. "What are some alternative explanations? Morris?"
Morris shrugged. "When I was in the service, I knew a woman who brought the bodies of her relatives to an old, bombed-out place—I think it was a tomb of some kind, but I'm not entirely sure. She wasn't in great shape, physically, thanks to the war. She couldn't dig graves for them, but she couldn't just leave them lying around." He pursed his lips in thought. "She brought them to that place in the hopes that someone would find them and bury them decently. Just a thought."
Pat cleared his throat. He didn't want to intrude and cause Elias more disgust with his presence. "The Hotel Alexandra was kind of a landmark in the area. People are always around it. Someone would have found the body eventually." He tapped his pen against the table. "I don't think that the way that the body was anointed and dressed is consistent with a careless disposal. Hey, Nenci, is Oliver working on the rest of the trace evidence that came in with the body?"
"He most certainly is not." Nenci crossed his arms over his chest. "Oliver is four months pregnant. He's not going anywhere near something with diphtheria exposure. Once that Sheedy kid gets out of isolation, Oliver can supervise him in getting that trace evidence."
"Okay, is there no one else in the lab who can examine evidence?" Elias sighed. "I mean you guys are paying for my services, so I'm going to stay here for as long as you need me, but the clock is ticking. Someone who will steal a baby once will do it again." He bowed his head. "The trauma of losing one, especially if they've gotten attached, can unhinge them."
"I'll see if I can talk someone into it," Ryan inserted smoothly. "No promises, though. Oliver lets us cut in line because he's married to Nenci." The corners of his mouth twitched in something like a smile. "The rest of the lab is a little less enthusiastic about line cutting."
"I see." Now Elias did smile, or at least smirk. It was the first real expression, other than disdain, that Pat had seen on his former lover's face since they'd gotten here.
"You're already working on this with Ryan." Devlin cleared his throat. "I realize that this might be an unpopular decision, but I want Tessaro on this case."
"What?" Pat squawked.
"No!" Elias recoiled.
Devlin held up a hand. "I said I recognized that it wasn't going to be a popular decision. It is, however, final. This case is messy. Tessaro's good at messy. He is, in fact, the best detective we have when it comes to messy. I don't know what your beef with him is, and I honestly don't care. This is about that little boy now. You're both professionals. Act like it, and get the job done that much faster."
Pat rose to his feet. "I guess I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning."
Elias glowered at him. "I'll be lodging a formal complaint."
"Get in line." Pat left the room without waiting to be dismissed.
Devlin had gotten one thing right. Pat was the best at messy.
Chapter Two
Elias walked into the State Police Headquarters and glanced around. He didn't want to have to ask the trooper manning the desk where to go, but he was definitely feeling a little lost here. He could hold out hope that he wouldn't have to set up shop in Cold Case, surrounded by alphas and on Pat's home turf, but he didn't know where else they'd put him.
"Hey, Salazar."
Elias looked up when he heard his name. There, sticking his head out from behind a door, was Ryan Tran. Elias breathed a sigh of relief. Tran was a good guy. He was also another omega. He was a hell of a lot safer than anyone from Cold Case. He made himself smile and walked over to the door. "Good morning." He shook Tran's hand. "How are you today?"
"Under-caffeinated." He made a face. "I've got a six-month-old kid at home who’s teething. For the record, that kind of sucks. He hates it. The only things that calm him down are his stuffed froggy and terrible Vietnamese pop music from the 1990s. It's enough to drive you to drink."
Elias had to snicker at that. "I can't say as I'm familiar with it."
"Me neither. Nenci played it for him as a prank and it worked, and now we're stuck." Tran reached into a pocket and pulled out a card, attached to a long lanyard. "Before I forget, here's your ID. You don't have to hang around the lobby like some kind of supplicant; you're part of the team."
"About that." Elias scratched at the back of his head. "Where will we be setting up to work?"
Ryan turned around and gave him a sympathetic smile. "We'll be in the same conference room as we were yesterday, in Abused Persons. We'll still be working with Cold Case, but for obvious reasons this is primarily an Abused Persons case. That makes me the ranking officer. I can't get rid of Tessaro unless he does something egregious, but I'm not going to let him skirt the line either." He tilted his head to the side for a moment. "Let's grab some coffee, what do you say?"
Elias grimaced. "Is it typical cop coffee?"
"Hate to say it, but yes. Still, I'm feeling powerfully inclined to take my caffeine where I can get it." Tran led him toward a large kitchen space, one with a lot of cops milling around. After a second, Elias recognized it as a giant coffee station. "So, I have to say, I can't imagine that Tessaro is going to cause you any problems."
Elias snorted, but then he slumped. "Yeah. I mean it's been a long time. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be letting my personal issues affect a case or anything like that."
Tran rolled his eyes and filled up a cup. "I know, right? We're all robots. Not a single one of us has a thought or emotion outside of the uniform." He shook his head. "It happens. The important thing is, you recognize when it's happening and correct your course. For what it's worth, while I'm not Devlin's biggest fan at the moment, he's probably right about Tessaro being the right guy for the job here. He's pretty freaking good at this kind of case."
"I guess I never saw him as a detective type." Elias bowed his head. "Is that weird of me?"
"How long ago did you know him?" Tran leaned against a table.
"We were together in college. We split up right before graduation." Elias turned his head for a moment. "He got accepted to Columbia. Did he tell you that?"
Tran huffed out a little laugh. "No. I didn't know Columbia had a criminal justice program. Or was it for law?"
"Geology. He used to love that stuff." Elias sipped from his coffee. "Sorry. You don't want to know any of that."
"Actually, I do." Tran stood up. "If it weren't for Tessaro, Nick and I probably wouldn't have gotten our stuff together. He's the one who basically yelled at us until we got over ourselves. So, I owe him something. I do want to know more about him." He chuckled. "And I have to say that I'm surprised to hear he was with anyone through college. He's a little, ah, hard to pin down now."
"Probably for the best." Elias tried not to clench down on his coffee cup. The last thing that he needed was to spill it all over himself. That would be a great way to go into a meeting with the ex—covered in burns, with stained clothes.
"Yeah, well." Tran stood up. "We should probably head in there before he gets bored and starts trouble or something."
Elias followed his host through a warren of corridors until they got to a door labeled "Abused Persons." He thought he recognized it from yesterday. A few of the people in the bullpen recognized him, and he waved to all of them in turn, but his stomach was tied up in knots as he followed Tran back to the meeting room.
As
it turned out, Tran needn't have worried about how his colleague would handle waiting. Pat was in a seat at the head of the table, leaning back in his chair as though it were a recliner. His eyes were closed, and his head was back. He snored softly.
He looked so young, in that moment. He looked so innocent. How often had Elias seen him just like that, dozing off in the middle of a late-night study session? He couldn't forget his anger toward Pat. He couldn't forget his heartbreak. If he did, he might well walk over to him and stroke that stubbled cheek, or even drop a quick kiss to his forehead. His gingery scent hammered at the doors of Elias' resolve, demanding forgiveness and adoration.
The other set of doors flew open. A third omega walked into the room at a brisk pace, and Pat jolted into an alert and ready position before Elias could blink. He sat up straight, and his hand dropped to his service weapon. After half a second, he moved his hand. "Oliver," he said. "How you doing?"