She cleared her throat and looked away, feeling her cheeks go red in shame. She shouldn’t have allowed Gage to stare at her. She should have told him to stop it the second she noticed. Why was she letting him cross these lines with her? What was wrong with her?
“Um, anyway, you should call the school. Pretend you’re the police again. That’s always a good way to get people to listen to you,” Fiona said, pacing back and forth so that Gage couldn’t grab any more cheap glances. “Get his last name, get his address. He’s in her civics class; that might help you when you talk to the people in the main office.”
“Got it,” Gage said, walking out of the room to make the phone call, leaving Fiona with her thoughts again.
She sighed deeply and walked to the bathroom to splash some cool water on her face. “Okay, it’s okay,” she said to her own reflection. “You haven’t done anything. Nothing is wrong. Everything is okay. You’re going to be fine.”
A moment later, she heard the front door slam, causing her to jump a little bit before she slapped her own forehead in frustration. It was just Gage coming back in. Why was she so jumpy, so nervous? Why couldn’t she just be strong? She’d been through so much worse than this investigation. It shouldn’t have been affecting her like this.
She walked back out into the living room. “So?” she asked.
“We’ve got it,” Gage said, slipping his jacket back on. “Come on, let’s go. It’s not far.”
They hopped back onto the subway, heading deeper into the city, the opposite direction from before. Fiona felt her anxiety rise with each passing minute, her shoulders bunching up around her face. Gage must have noticed it, as—once again—he reached over and tapped her knee, lightly this time, like he was a little boy trying to get her to smile. It didn’t work, but for some reason, Fiona appreciated the effort. She wished he would touch her a little bit more, maybe even give her one of his great massages like he used to when they were together. She used to melt under his touch, coming apart in the best of ways. But now, she had to remind herself that she couldn’t get that gentle, tender treatment from Gage anymore. It was unfair to expect it from him, right? She’d sacrificed that when she’d left the city, and there was no getting it back, no matter how exhausted or stressed-out or overwhelmed she became.
Gage tapped her elbow, so lightly that the hairs on her arm stood up, when it was time to get off the subway and head toward the second suspect’s house. He was rich, that much was clear, judging by the district that he lived in. “He probably has a doorman for Christ’s sake,” Fiona said, sighing deeply as they turned onto the right street to find “Tommy S.”
“We’ll find a way in,” Gage reassured her, rubbing his hand down her back once, then twice before letting his hand fall away from her body. Despite what she’d berated herself about earlier, it seemed like Gage was still willing to comfort her, even if he got nothing in return for it. Somehow, that only made Fiona feel more guilty about this whole mess.
There wasn’t a doorman, at least not that Fiona could see, but there was a heavily-locked front door. They’d have to buzz their way in. It wouldn’t be as easy to break in this time.
“It’s number 16,” Gage said, hitting the buzzer for Tommy’s apartment. They waited on pins and needles, Fiona fidgeting with her hands while they waited for a response.
“Hello?” a male voice said from the speaker above the front door.
“Hey, is this Tommy Snyder?” Gage said into the speaker.
There was a long pause where they heard only static before the male voice said, “Um, yeah. Who’s this?”
Fiona panicked for a second, her eyes going wide as she realized she never thought up an excuse that would convince the kid to let them into the building. It was all up to Gage now, but at least he didn’t look as scared as Fiona felt.
“We’re here from the Weekend Post. We’re doing a story about the soccer team, and we were hoping that we could get a few minutes of your time?” Gage said, his voice going up at the end of his sentence so that it sounded like a question.
There was silence for a long minute before they heard a loud buzzing noise, signifying that the door was unlocked. Gage quickly grabbed the door handle and opened it for Fiona, allowing her to step inside first. Fiona found the elevator on the first floor and pushed the button to go up, jumping in place just to get the excess anxious energy out of her body. It wasn’t going to do her any good if she looked nervous while they were lying to the suspect to try to get information out of him.