on it, but not if the guy was Garza, and there was no way in hell I was letting Ryan send Rand over here.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing, why?”
“For just a minute there, you looked like you ate something that tasted bad.”
“No, I was just thinking about that spider you had for lunch, that’s all.”
“Squark?” I asked.
“Yeah, squark,” he insisted.
“I don’t think that’s a word.”
“It’s a word.”
“Then what does it mean? If you can’t define it, you can’t use it.”
“First of all, that is not a rule, and next, it's some kind of quantum psychics word or something. Like a quark, but different.”
“Like a quark, but different?” I asked.
“Yeah, you want to challenge me?”
I thought about it. That was a seven-letter word with a letter Q that he’d just played on a tripled word score. That would guarantee a win for him. I wasn’t sure it was legit, but he seemed so pleased with himself, so I decided not to challenge it. “No, if you say it’s a word, then I’ll allow it.”
“You’ll allow it?” he asked in mock outrage. “Oh my, the great and powerful Roman will allow it.”
We were on our third game, and this one would determine the champ. I hadn’t expected him to be so competitive. I couldn’t say if he was in other areas or not, but when it came to Scrabble, he was fierce.
“Okay, so squark is nineteen points, on a triple, so that is fifty-seven. And I added the S to video, so that’s ten points which is sixty-seven. Now add the fifty for using all my letters, and that’s a whopping hundred and seventeen points.” He grabbed the dictionary, flipped through the pages, and then thrust it in front of my face. “See? Squark.” He was so pleased with himself he couldn’t sit still. Yep, Adorable.
My phone rang. I checked to caller ID, and it was Ryan. “I need to take this.”
“Okay, I’m going to get something else to drink, do you want anything?”
“Yeah, another soda would be good.”
I went out on the patio and hit the answer button.
“What’s up?” I asked, walking to the edge of the pool fence so I could see the river.
“Not much, to be honest. I wish I had news for you, but we got nothing on the paper used in the notes. It’s available pretty much everywhere. It’s normally used for formal letters, resumes, and things like that, but you can get it anywhere they sell paper.”
“I had a feeling that was going to be the case. I have a bad feeling about this, Ryan. That last letter implies that the guy is following him. Until then, everything said was easy information to find out on the internet, but the only way for anyone to know he’d been with his friend was to follow him.”
“Or happen to be where he went.”
“I don’t think anyone would’ve been able to recognize him if they didn’t know he was there.”
“But you recognized him, right?”
“Yeah, but like I said, I knew he was there, so I was looking for him.”
“Uh, huh.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, I still think it’s odd that you could find him so easily in a crowded club, wearing a mask, and dressed differently from the way you were used to, that’s all. Do you want me to send someone in to take over? I know you don’t like long, close-protection jobs.”
“I’m good. No need to send anyone. Just keep them in the rotation for anything that comes up.”
“Uh, huh?”
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said. Then the line went quiet.
“What?” I insisted.
“Just watch yourself, okay. I’ve seen the pictures. He’s pretty.” I glanced in the window at him. Our game was on the coffee table, and he sat on the floor in front of it rearranging his tiles and studying the board like this was the most important game he’d ever played.
“He is, and not just in looks. He’s a good guy, Ryan. And his father is a piece of shit.”
We both paused for a second, letting that sink in because we knew what it was like to have a piece-of-shit parent. Lucky for us, we also had Conrad, and I knew having someone support you and have your back could make all the difference.
“You’re sure you don’t want a replacement?”
“I’m sure. I think I’ll swing by the house and grab some things, though. But I’m here until we catch this guy.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
“Hey, Ryan, have you ever heard of the word squark?”
“Squark? You mean like the counterpart to