The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,92

head back and forth. But here you can see a partial bite pattern. Clear pitting and punctures, no furrows—it bit down hard and locked its jaw.”

Elvira took Tean’s place at the microscope. After a moment, she said, “And there’s a gap in the pattern.”

“Exactly. So, as you said, either the animal is missing a tooth, or it’s chipped just enough to prevent it from closing on the bone at the same height as the other teeth.”

Stepping back from the microscope, Elvira shook her head. “So we’re not any closer to figuring out what killed her or who might be responsible for the damage to the body.”

“No,” Tean said, “but once we have a suspect, we can take dental impressions from specific animals and compare them against the bite mark. This is how we prove who killed her.”

27

Jem woke with a paw on his face. Again. And the same cold flare of panic in his chest, the same disorientation, the tightness that made it difficult to breathe. He tamped it down, pushed the paw aside, and began the process of disentangling himself from Scipio. Scipio woke up and realized this was the best game anyone had ever played with him, so he decided to participate by biting the hem of Jem’s polo and making growling noises as he yanked on the fabric.

By the time Jem got free and stumbled into the bathroom, his heart was pounding, and he was covered in flop sweat. It’s dumb, he told himself in the mirror. It’s stupid. That dog is crazy about you. That dog wants to sleep with you even when Tean’s here. He doesn’t want to bite you; the only thing he wants to do is eat peanuts when you accidentally crack the shell too hard and the nut shoots across the room.

He ran the water, showered, and found his XXX Files t-shirt that featured a shirtless Fox Mulder on the front and, on the back, Scully? Who’s Scully? He pulled on clean jeans, realized he needed to do laundry, and got himself a bowl of Lucky Charms. There was a new container of milk in the fridge, and as he stood on the balcony, the morning air cool against his bare arms, the boards rough under his bare feet, he thought about fresh milk. When had Tean gone out to buy some? It had to have been this morning, which meant that Tean had gone and done it sometime after he and Jem had stumbled into the apartment and before he’d gone to work a couple of hours later. After finishing the cereal, Jem went back to his pile of dirty clothes and rifled the chinos until he found the slip of paper that LouElla had given him, the one with a name and address. He also found the rental application that Tean had cosigned. He let himself think, for a few minutes, scratching Scipio’s ears when the Lab laid his head in Jem’s lap. Saturday mornings, he could stumble down here earlier than he wanted to be up, and he and Tean could go on a hike. And weeknights, when Tean got home from work and was tired, he could just go straight to Jem’s apartment, and Jem would have an actual, edible, human dinner waiting. Scipio pawed at his arm, and Jem said, “Yeah, you can hang out there too, but the first time you pee on the rug I’m going to taxidermy you.” And when Tean got busy with work—he worked too much—Jem could pick up groceries for Tean, instead of the other way around, so the doc didn’t have to sacrifice sleep for a jug of two-percent milk.

He finished the cereal, drank the milk from the bowl, and rinsed the bowl at the sink. Scipio followed him into the kitchen.

“And how am I supposed to pay for it?” he asked the dog.

Scipio cocked his head.

“Am I supposed to work minimum wage at Snow’s with Mr. Kroll eye-fucking me for the rest of my life? Am I supposed to spend my whole life doing jerkoff work for absolutely no money, while Tean goes on dates with guys named Orion and Kismet and Buffalo and they all earn a million dollars a year and they’ve got great teeth and Roth IRAs, whatever the fuck those are?”

Scipio butted him gently with his head.

“And don’t get me started on college. If I hear one more fucking word about college, I’m going to cut my own throat.”

Scipio shoulder-checked him, his whole weight slamming