A Friend in the Dark - Gregory Ashe Page 0,16

some guy punching him in the neck for being queer. Even after getting food in his stomach, Rufus wasn’t sure what he thought of Sam. Besides the obvious, of course. Sam was gorgeous and probably knew it, confident in his masculinity, and frustrating in conversation. So the dickish personality was probably fairly true to his character and not something Rufus superimposed on Sam merely because he had hunger pains and little patience. Sam was also gay—maybe gay?—definitely, Rufus was certain. And that was, on the one hand, sort of nice—the casualness with which Sam embraced his sexuality, the teasing, the possibility of someone to flirt with—but on the other hand, Rufus wasn’t any good at that sort of stuff.

Rufus ate some more pancakes. “That next bullet might hit its mark. I don’t make it a habit of walking headfirst into danger.”

Sam’s smile snapped out, and he worked on the food for a while. When he spoke again, his voice had flattened back into its former tone. “Then you could at least tell me what you think might be going on. Where you’ve looked for his phone. Anything that might help.” Then, throwing down the knife and fork, Sam pushed away the plate. “You might not care about Jake enough to risk your life, but I do, and I want to find who did this to him.”

Rufus stopped chewing the mound of dough in his mouth and stared at Sam. “I do too care.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Nobody taught you not to talk with your mouth full?” Then, that smirk ghosting across his lips, “Except in certain cases, of course.”

Rufus swallowed. “Wow.”

“I might have somewhere to start, but I want to know the rest of it. Where else have you looked for his phone? If you had to make a list, right now, of who might have killed him, who are your top five? What don’t I know that I need to know?”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Rufus asked with a sort of disbelieving laugh. “Jake was a cop—a good one. Any criminal in this city would want him out of the way. Anyone he’s put on Rikers who’s got connections on the outside could have done this.” But Rufus held up one hand and began to tick locations off on each finger, starting with his pinky. “I checked his apartment. I checked his car. I checked his secret apartment.” He said that and gave Sam the finger. “I checked trash cans, a nearby park—short of going through his desk at the precinct, I’ve checked everywhere for his stupid phone.”

Sam mouthed, Secret apartment, shook his head, and ate a few more bites of potatoes. Then, without seeming to realize it, pushed the mostly intact stack of pancakes toward Rufus. “I don’t know,” Sam said. “If they wanted to scare you off, they might have tossed the phone. Maybe they still have it. We could talk to the girlfriend, see if she’s connected to his Find My Phone app or whatever they have. Or… or we try something else, to start.”

Rufus inched his fork toward Sam’s pancakes as he spoke, stabbed one, and quickly slid it on to his own plate. “Do you know Natalie? I’ve never met her. I’m not supposed to know about her. But I’m a curious little shit, so said Jake on more than one occasion.” He doused the pancake in more syrup and took a huge bite.

Whatever Sam thought about that little revelation, Rufus couldn’t tell. Sam watched him again, hands tucked under his arms, the pose now familiar. “No,” Sam finally said. “Jake told me about her. Just that she existed, basically. Jake was complicated about that kind of stuff.”

Rufus made a sound. “Complicated,” he agreed.

“Do you want to cruise the Ramble with me?”

“I’m still on Natalie. She might freak out, you know.”

“Oh, she’ll definitely be freaked out. But I’d rather have her freak out and give us some answers than us stumble around just so we can leave her illusion of Jake intact.” Leaning against the bench, both arms now stretched along the back of the seat, Sam said, “You didn’t answer my question about going cruising together.”

Rufus’s fingertips tingled. He put his fork and knife down and rubbed his hands on his thighs until the friction against his jeans deadened the sensation. He realized he’d been staring at Sam’s broad chest while doing so and quickly averted his gaze to… Sam’s biceps that went on for days. Rufus shook himself, looked at Sam’s face, and