If she went to Rita, she would have to tell her that and she didn’t want to because she really didn’t think Rita would understand. And if she didn’t tell her, then Rita would only start harping again on the question of what she was waiting for. Probably accuse her of waiting for the Dread to go away.
Then she would have to confess: No. I’m waiting to find out. I’m waiting for whatever it is I’ve been Dreading to show up. Which was something she hadn’t quite admitted to herself yet.
“Coffee?”
The voice cut through the combination of Ruby’s usual morning haze and the constant overriding pressure of the Dread, startling her and making her jump a little. She looked up from the open folder she had been staring at unseeingly to find a young guy standing next to her desk, holding out a large cup that definitely had not come from any of the precinct machines.
“I didn’t know you guys delivered,” she said, smiling as she took the cup from him.
“Don’t let it get around,” the guy said, “or I’ll have to do it for everybody.” He was about thirty, just a little too dark to be called olive-skinned, with a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose and a head full of honey-coloured dreadlocks that had the potential to become unruly. He was only a couple of inches taller than Ruby herself—five-eight, five-nine at the most—and slightly husky.
“It’ll be our secret,” she assured him, taking the lid off the cup. A dark roast aroma wafted up with the steam; not her favourite but she wasn’t inclined to find fault. “Am I supposed to know you?”
“When the lieutenant comes in, he’ll introduce me as your new partner.”
“I see.” Ruby studied him. “Transfer from vice?”
He shook his head.
“Narcotics?”
“Ah.” He smiled with half his mouth. “Must be the dreads.”
Ruby barely managed not to flinch at the word; it took a quarter of a second before she realized what he was referring to. “Well, it was some kind of undercover work, though. Right?”
“Fraud and cybercrime. Rafe Pasco.” He held out his hand and Ruby took it. It was strong and square but as smooth and soft as a woman’s.
“Portuguese?” she guessed.
“Filipino, actually. On my father’s side.” He grinned and half-sat on the edge of her desk. “Though as you can see, that’s only part of the story. Even on my father’s side.” His grin widened a bit. “Like you, maybe.”
Ruby shrugged. “Everybody had a story in my family and none of them could ever keep them straight. My father claimed they almost named me Kim Toy O’Toole. And I didn’t even have freckles.”
“Then you grew up deprived.” He tilted his head to look at the file on her desk. “What are you working on?”
She had to glance down to remind herself. “Ah. Suspicious drowning. Wife reported her husband missing, three days later he turns up on the rocks under the Soldiers Road bridge. Coroner says he’s pretty sure the guy didn’t just happen to wash up there, that someone must have pulled him out and then just left him.”
“Anonymous call tipping you off where to find him?”
Ruby shook her head. “Couple of kids found him and told their parents. Can’t figure why someone would pull a corpse out of the river and then just leave him.”
“The killer?”
“Then why pull him out at all?”
“Well, the wife couldn’t collect on any insurance without a body. For instance.”
“Could be.” Ruby made a face. “But I don’t think she killed him. I think he’s a suicide and she’s trying to make it seem like a murder so she doesn’t lose the insurance. The pay-out isn’t much—$25,000. Not enough to inspire murder but not a sum you’d want to have to give up, either.”
Pasco nodded, looking thoughtful. “Is she a hardship case?”
“Why?” Ruby asked, frowning.
“Maybe she really needs it.”
She gave a short laugh. “Hey, man, who doesn’t need $25,000? Especially if it’s on the verge of dropping right into your lap.”
“Yeah, but if she’s got kids or she’s gonna get evicted or something, it’d be too bad to take it away from her.”
Ruby leaned back in her chair and gave him a searching look. “Are you kidding?”
“I’m just saying.”
“That’s a whole lot of just saying about a case I only just now told you about. You always get so deeply invested on such short notice?”
He looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m not invested. This is just something we do in fraud—think about all the angles. Try to get into the mindset of the people we’re investigating, try to figure out where they’re coming from—are they desperate or do they feel entitled for some reason. Stuff like that.”
Ruby had to bite her tongue to keep from making an acid remark concerning the mass media image of criminal profiling and other extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. It wouldn’t do any good. Pasco would only get defensive and then expend a lot of effort trying to prove she was wrong instead of just working the cases. In the end, he’d flounder, trying to adapt the job to his methods rather than the other way around.
Abruptly she realized that she had been staring at him in silence for more than just a moment or two. Before she could think of some neutral comment, Lieutenant Ostertag came in and waved them into his office.
“I know, I know—he’s a geek,” Ostertag said to Ruby after he had waved Pasco out of his office again. “He’s got, I dunno, two, three degrees, maybe four. He’s been in fraud and cybercrime since he joined the department about five years ago.”
Ruby nodded. “And somebody thinks he’d make a good homicide detective.”
“Apparently he already is. In the course of his last two cases he cleared up two murders, one of which nobody even knew about at the time.”
“Good for him,” said Ruby. “Has anyone told him that he left all the criminal masterminds back in cybercrime?”
“He’s working another case right now. I’ll let him tell you about it.” He got up and opened the door for her by way of declaring the meeting over, then caught her arm before she could leave. “You OK?”
Ruby drew back slightly, giving him a surprised look. “Sure I’m OK. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Ostertag’s mouth twitched. “You OK with getting this guy as a partner so soon after Rita leaving?”
She laughed a little. “Rita retired, she didn’t die. I’m not in mourning.”
The lieutenant nodded a bit impatiently. “This guy’s pretty different than what you’re used to.”
Ruby tilted her head and frowned. “Are you asking me if I’d rather work with someone else?”
Ostertag’s face turned expressionless. “No.”
“What I thought,” Ruby said goodnaturedly and went back to her desk.
She decided to give Pasco a little while to organize his desk, maybe meet a few of the other detectives and then go over to ask him about his case. Instead of taking over Rita’s old spot, he had opted for the vacant desk by the blocky pillar that served as an unofficial bulletin board for less-than-official notices and items, usually cartoons (which were usually obscene). It was a strange choice; Ruby had never seen anyone actually opt for that particular desk if there was anything else available and there were two others empty at the moment. It was badly positioned—you had to sit either facing the pillar or with your back to it. Turn the desk sideways and it would obstruct the aisle. The previous lieutenant had tried switching the desk with a set of filing cabinets but that had been no solution at all and they’d switched things back before the day was up. Moving the desk out altogether would have made more sense but there were no city employees anywhere who would have been so foolish as to voluntarily give up anything. Someone at City Hall could get the wrong idea, start thinking that if there was no room for a desk in your area, there were probably other things you could do without as well.