“Ms. Odell—” Primelles started.
“It’s Dr. Odell,” Cooper said. “Dad, what’s going on?”
Ed wasn’t meeting his eye. He looked rumpled and smaller than usual in the old suit he only took out for funerals, and there was just the faintest hint of mothballs in the air. “It’s fine. They just had some follow-up questions. It’s nothing.”
“Nothing that couldn’t have waited until tomorrow?” Sophie said primly.
“This is a homicide investigation, ma’am. I’m sorry it can’t be postponed to a more convenient time because of a party,” Primelles said stiffly.
Cooper gritted his teeth. “Yes, of course, every agent knows the first twenty-four are essential. Oh, no, wait, is that first twenty-four hours or years?”
“Well, it’s certainly interesting to know the BSI’s opinion of cold cases. I guess you guys have a statute of limitations for—” Primelles broke off, and his sneer flickered with annoyance at something over Cooper’s shoulder.
Cooper didn’t need to turn around to know who had joined them.
“Sorry I’m late, everyone,” Park said easily. “This is my first pissing contest. Wasn’t sure when to jump in.”
“Mr....Park, was it? I’m not surprised to see you. But as I was just telling your friend, we’re here to talk to the older Mr. Dayton only.”
“Have you even spoken to any other suspects or did you just spend the entire day trying to dig up something against my father? Because you’re not going to find anything. And coming here, trying to embarrass him, isn’t going to get you anywhere either.”
Joon spoke up. “Unlike you and your productive day, you mean? You should know we’ve already informed your supervisor that two of her agents are interfering with an ongoing investigation.”
Well, shit. Cooper didn’t dare look at Park. He was surprised he hadn’t heard from Santiago yet. She was probably still drawing breath for the imminent explosion. Either that or she had just quietly put in his papers for termination from the BSI. Though he would not be surprised if she had the means to put a hit on him, as well. But Park didn’t deserve that.
Frustrated, Cooper snapped, “I don’t see much of an investigation to interfere with. If you were running your own, you’d know that Hardwick pissed plenty of people off. His reporting on the Valley Girl scandal. His messed-up photo collection of Rose Daugherty.” The scraps of possible motives they’d spent the entire day collecting sounded humiliatingly feeble now.
Primelles and Joon exchanged amused looks. “You think someone killed Mr. Hardwick over a beauty pageant?” she said. “Tell me, did any of these enemies you’re alluding to have a physical altercation with the victim shortly before his disappearance?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You assaulted Alex Hardwick, didn’t you, Mr. Dayton?”
Cooper laughed. “What? Who told you that? My father would never hit someon—”
Ed was shaking his head at him, a stricken look on his face.
“Dad?”
“Mr. Dayton, again, we can certainly continue to speak here, but perhaps you would prefer if we finished this conversation down at the station.”
The blood drained from Cooper’s face as he imagined his father, the former Sheriff Dayton, being interrogated in his own old building. He could already see the defeat and the shame setting into his eyes. “No.”
“Mr. Dayton—”
“Is my father under arrest?”
“Cooper!” Ed scolded, finding his voice at last. “That’s enough. I don’t want you to get any more involved. You’ve done enough as it is.”
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
“I did lose my temper and hit Hardwick. I should have said so yesterday, I know that. I’m fine with going to the station to clear up any questions. I’m sure everything will be sorted out soon.” His voice was painfully even. It was his on-duty voice, the one he used to calm down hysterical witnesses. Ed looked at Sophie. “I’m sorry about this. I didn’t mean for—” He shook his head and without looking at Cooper walked away with Primelles and Joon following behind.
“I can’t believe him.” Cooper watched them leave the room.
“Yeah, why does that guy hate you? And what’s up with the inter-agency rivalry stuff,” Sophie said.
“I mean I don’t believe him. My dad. Why is he just giving up like that? And I can’t believe he hit someone. I need to follow them.”
“No way.” Sophie put a restraining hand on Cooper’s arm. “No offense, but right now I think you’d just piss them off more. Let me find Dean and we’ll go to the station.”
“It’s your engagement party,” Cooper protested. “You should stay here. Look, they caught me off guard, but I can be professional. Stay here and I’ll go.”
“I don’t—” She broke off, looking over Cooper’s shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”
He turned to what had caught Sophie’s attention. Park’s face was sweaty and his normally light brown skin looked bloodless, almost ashy. Dark circles that hadn’t been there minutes ago were starting to form under his eyes. Cooper instinctively reached up and brushed his thumb across one.
“I’m fine.” Park gently pushed his hand away.
“No, you’re not. Oliver, you’re shaking,” Sophie had grabbed his wrist and was taking his pulse. “Your heartbeat is elevated. You should sit down.”
Park’s eyes drifted closed and he licked his lips a couple of times. “I just need a moment.” He swayed forward and Cooper grabbed him, feeling the full weight of his body for a millisecond before Park jerked himself up again. “Sorry, still a little seasick.”
“Sure, delayed onset seasickness, that makes total sense,” Sophie said brightly as Park started to tip back over.
Cooper grabbed hold. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I have no idea.”
“You’re a doctor.”
“I’m an animal doctor. It’s a bit different, and I’m officially ruling out heartworm.” She reached up and pried open one of Park’s eyelids, revealing just a glimpse of his wolfy gold before he jerked back and away from them both, ripping out of Cooper’s arms.
“Whoa, there,” Sophie said. “Easy.”
“Not loving this bedside manner,” Park said stiffly, eyes squeezed shut.
“None of my other patients have ever complained. Your pupils are crazy dilated.” She frowned. “Did you take something?”
Park shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face aggressively.
“You took Dramamine. On the boat, remember?” Cooper looked to Sophie. “Who knows how old that was? If Dean fucking poisoned my boyfriend, I swear to god I’m going to kill him. Do you think he’s having some kind of allergic reaction?”
“No.” Park seemed to pull himself together, his eyes passably human again, and straightened shakily. “I just got a little vertigo. I’ll be fine. Go after Ed. I’ll follow you.” He took a step forward, inhaled deeply, then bent over and put his hands on his knees. “In a minute.”
“I don’t...” The urgency to follow his father and make a scene at the station had faded, overshadowed by his worry for Park. He didn’t want to leave him. Cooper had never seen him like this, this unwell. He looked even worse than he had on the boat that morning. Could it actually be some kind of delayed seasickness? But no, he’d been fine just minutes ago. Not to mention all afternoon.
“There’s a bathroom downstairs.” Sophie’s voice was gentle but commanding. “Take him there, sit him down and splash some water on his face. I’ll talk to Dean and we’ll go to the station. Cayla can go home with my parents for tonight.” She squeezed Cooper’s arm. “We’ll figure this out.”
Cooper nodded, grateful again that Sophie was not the sort of person to get flustered. “Thank you. I’m sorry. Call me when you know something.”
“Of course.” She kissed his cheek quickly. “Take care of him.” She went to look for Dean.
“Come on.” He tugged a non-protesting Park out of the room, his silent acquiescence almost more worrisome than anything else. Cooper led him down the stairs and into the bathroom, then turned on the sink and tested the water temperature. “Here. Come stick your head in here, okay? Oliver?”
Park was leaning up against the bathroom wall, his eyes closed again. He was breathing heavily, almost panting, like he was in pain.
“What’s the matter? Do you feel dizzy again?” Cooper reached up to put the back of his hand to Park’s forehead.
Before their skin could touch, Park’s hand was wrapped around his arm tightly. His teeth, sharper than usual, grazed the thin skin of Cooper’s wrist and his eyes were open and blown out, the whites barely visible in the corners.
Cooper felt a thrill of something run up his spine—fear, arousal, a previously unexamined combination of the two—before Park dropped his wrist and turned his face away so quickly only the slight ache and dampness of spit on skin proved he’d been there at all.
Sorry, Park mouthed without making a sound.
Cooper’s hand stayed frozen midair a moment before he tentatively reached the couple inches farther to touch Park’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”
Park rocked his head back and forth until Cooper’s hand was petting his hair and Cooper jokingly scratched behind his ear.
Park hummed and pressed his nose to his wrist. “You smell nice.” He licked the same spot. “Taste nice.” He began mouthing his way up Cooper’s arm.
“Park. Oliver, seriously what are you doing? This is not vertigo. Am I going to have to get your drink tested for roofies or did someone squirt a flower in your eye?”
Park’s face was pressed against his armpit by now, and he nuzzled there for a moment. Cooper squirmed at the ticklish yet bizarrely arousing sensation, and Park’s hands seized his hips, spun him around, and pushed him against the wall.
“Mmph—” Cooper managed before Park’s mouth came down on his and kissed him with a strange undercurrent of desperation. Cooper responded distractedly, kissing him back while his mind whirred with questions. Pushed up against him heavily, Cooper could feel Park’s body shaking, and he tentatively raised a hand to his shoulder.
As soon as he touched him, Park jerked away. He took a step back, head hanging low, and didn’t meet Cooper’s eyes. “Get out.”
Cooper stared. “What?”
“I need a couple minutes alone. Please.”
“Oliver, you’re obviously not okay—”
“I’m fine. Please, just—” Park looked up and met Cooper’s eyes. “I had too much to drink.”
“No you didn’t.”
“I’ll be fine in a couple minutes, but not while you’re distracting me. Please, Cooper. Trust me. Just—trust me.”
Cooper looked at him for a long time. He did not want to leave Park alone, but felt conflicted after his conversation with Sophie on how he wished Park would respect his own boundaries when it came to caregiving. Was this the same thing? He had no clue. He had no idea what was even going on. But he did want Park to know he trusted him.
“Okay, fine. But I’ll be right outside, and if you collapse and die in here I swear to god I’m going to resuscitate you and kill you myself.”
“Mmm, mouth-to-mouth.” Park jerked his head at the door. “See? You’re distracting me again. Two minutes.”
Cooper left and leaned against the wall opposite the bathroom, straining to hear the thump of Park’s body hitting the ground. How the hell had the night gone so badly? He didn’t know what to worry about more, the fact that the FBI was having a chat with his father over assaulting a murder victim, or that the always unshakable Park was shook and then some.
Or maybe he should he fixate on the fact that he’d called Park his boyfriend earlier, right in front of him. That was...not intentional. But if worst came to worst and Park questioned him about it, he could just blame a fever dream.
“Christ, Dayton, you’re an asshole,” Cooper muttered to himself.
He heard voices coming down the stairs, and a moment later Stephen Daugherty appeared holding the hand of a small boy, probably five or six.
“Cooper? Is that actually you?”
“Stephen, hey. I didn’t see you upstairs.”
“We just now defected from a pretty intense capture the flag battle outside. Latrine break.” Stephen winked.
Cooper laughed. His brother’s old friend was just as overgrown and gentle-giant-ish as the last time Cooper had seen him at Dean’s graduation. He was tall and broad, with blunt features, noticeably red hair, and a ton of freckles at various stages of fading. It was a face as familiar to Cooper as his own family’s except without all the familiar baggage, and seeing it now soothed a little bit of his nerves.
At one point in his childhood Cooper had seen Stephen every single day. Margaret Daugherty hadn’t been the most present sort of person. He wasn’t sure if that was a direct result of losing her daughter or a long-standing struggle with mental health, but the result was Stephen had spent a good amount of time over at the Dayton house growing up. Mostly by design. Ed wasn’t the type to badmouth other people’s parenting, which was why Cooper had never forgotten when he’d raged at Margaret Daugherty after Stephen had shown up on their steps scratched up, underfed, wearing torn clothes, and desperate to hide the fact that his mother hadn’t gotten out of bed in days.
Stephen had barely spoken two words together back then, and it had always confused Cooper why his brother, with all his friends, had taken this silent and awkward boy under his wing so defiantly when Dean generally had the emotional awareness of a spoon. Or used to. But after today, Cooper was starting to realize he’d underestimated his brother.
“It’s been forever,” Stephen was saying, shaking Cooper’s hand. “This is my son, Callum. Callum, this is your uncle Dean’s baby brother.”
“Son, wow. I’d heard a rumor but had to see it to believe it. Hey there, Callum.”
“You’re telling me. Say hi.”
Callum, as redheaded as his father but much more petite, had moved from holding his dad’s hand to clutching his thigh and was hiding behind him shyly. In his arms he squeezed a stuffed white horse.
Stephen rolled his eyes jokingly at Cooper. “He takes after his father.” He gestured at the bathroom. “You waiting?”
“Uh, sort of. My friend got a little sick. Too much, uh, sugar.”
“Mmm, I had a couple glasses of sugar myself. Sophie knows all the ingredients to a great party and pours them generously.” Stephen winked and raised his cocktail glass in a toast. “Where’d they take off to, by the way? I can’t find Sophie or Dean anywhere. Or did I just answer my own question?”
“Umm.” Cooper glanced back at the bathroom door. “I didn’t see them leave,” he said honestly.
“Well, there’s enough people up there that I doubt they’ll be missed. Though I’m pretty sure Dean said if anything happened to him, it was your job to make sure the roof got raised and the conga got in line.”
“Yes, you know me,” Cooper said. “A regular party animal.”
Stephen propped his substantial bulk up against the wall. At his side, Callum sat on the floor and started combing the horse’s mane with his fingers.
Cooper glanced up the hall, but they were alone, the sounds of the party were muted and distant. “Actually, Stephen, can I ask you a couple questions?”
“’Course.” He grinned. “Is this about potential bachelor parties, because Dean already told me I’ve been ousted as best man. He also might have said something about me making sure you don’t get him into any trouble.” He waggled his thick red eyebrows. “Which indicates to me an inner party animal after all.”
“No, not that. Um, maybe we could
talk without little ears?”
Stephen frowned. “Cal, love, why don’t you stay right here and wait for the bathroom? Daddy’s going to talk to Mr. Cooper.”
They walked about fifteen feet down the hall. Stephen seemed utterly relaxed, mildly curious, and genuinely pleased to see him again. Cooper knew he hated talking about the past. One of the reasons he knew so little about Rose was because Stephen had always refused to talk about her. He didn’t want to bring any of this shit up now. He had just taken a step forward in his relationship with Dean. What kind of damage would forcing this painful conversation with his best friend do to that?
For a moment he considered slapping Stephen’s arm, telling him he really did want to get his advice on bachelor parties and didn’t want to bring up the possibility of strippers in front of the kid.
Cooper exhaled loudly. He couldn’t. Even with his partner out of commission for the moment, he was determined to carry on the investigation. He was working on borrowed time. Who knew when Santiago would call and cut him loose? Frankly, even if she did fire him right now, it wouldn’t stop Cooper from following this case through. Not after seeing the defeated slump of his father’s shoulders as he left his own son’s engagement party. Not after hearing his father, his father, had punched the murder victim in the face and hidden that fact from the FBI.
“You heard about what happened yesterday, yeah?”
Stephen’s smile froze in place and his body seemed to still for just a moment before he responded casually, “Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. Alex Hardwick. Crazy.”
“Did you remember him?”
Stephen looked down at his drink and swirled it contemplatively. “Not well. He was a journalist, right?”
“Look.” Cooper took a guess. “I already know him and my mom were having an affair, so don’t bother sparing my sensibilities there. What I want to know is if he was also sleeping with your sister.”
“What the fuck, Coop?” Stephen hissed. He glanced down the hall toward his son, but Callum was now racing his horse from wall to wall and wasn’t paying any attention.
The Wolf at Bay (Big Bad Wolf) Page 18