IslandAffair

stuck in the same cycle.
    “You have to understand where we’re coming from, Mr. Grant.
You and Mr. MacAllister were the only ones in the vicinity of a public building
that was badly damaged in a clear case of arson. Mrs. Shaw on the other hand
has an alibi provided by a sworn officer of the law who says she was with him
all night.” He squinted at Rob. “Mr. MacAllister already showed us he can be
less than honest.”
    “Why the hell would we handcuff ourselves inside a burning
building? Why would we want to set the damn place on fire in the first place?”
Robin forced himself to lower his voice. “I don’t know what to tell you,
Detective. She was there. She even told me the guy was asleep in her bed. Have
you checked him for drugs?”
    The man frowned at him. “As a matter of fact we did. At your
friend’s insistence.”
    “Partner. He’s my partner .” Robin lifted his head and
pinned the man with a glare. “It’s not a difficult word, why can’t anyone say
it? If it makes you feel better you can call him my boyfriend, or my
significant other.”
    The detective cleared his throat and looked away. “I apologize.
I wasn’t sure how you’d like to be addressed.”
    Rob sighed. “No, I’m sorry, Detective. I might be a bit
touchy right now. Partner is fine.”
    The other man nodded his acknowledgement before continuing.
“By all accounts Linda Shaw is a quiet, well-liked member of the community. Why
would she suddenly start behaving in a way that is totally uncharacteristic of
her?”
    “Hell, I don’t know. ‘Who knows what evil lurks in the
hearts of men’ and all that crap. You must have seen good people snap before. I
told you what she said, she’s obviously responsible for a lot of the other
stuff we’ve been dealing with this week.”
    “All right, Mr. Grant, let’s go through this one more time.”
    Rob let his head drop back down with a heartfelt groan.
Eventually the endless questions stopped and they left him alone. He woke
sometime later to the smell of coffee. He rubbed his gritty eyes and focused on
the plastic cup steaming gently about six inches in front of his nose.
    “Good morning, leannan .”
    “John?” He cleared his throat and sat up gingerly, wincing
as his neck crunched in protest and a whole new set of aches made themselves
known. They were alone in the tiny room. John was dirty and unshaven, dark
circles shadowed his eyes but he was smiling.
    “Ready to go home?”
    “Seriously? I thought we were prime suspects?”
    “They did as I asked and took a blood sample from the guy
giving her an alibi. When the seed was planted he got suspicious of the fact he
had slept so long. Apparently that’s unusual for him. I got the feeling they
wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. It came back positive for a sedative. They
also found pink paint in her garage that matches the stuff used to paint your
door and her phone records show several calls to you. They still have to match
up her gun to the shots fired at me and find the silver car but they charged
Linda Shaw this morning. Not even her lawyer could stop her homophobic tirade
after that. She confessed to arson and attempted murder, though I’m sure those
aren’t her words.”
    Relief washed over him, lifting some of his exhaustion.
“Well, thank god for insomnia.” Rob stood, stretched and stepped into John’s
embrace. He smelled like sweat and stale smoke but Robin knew he didn’t exactly
smell like a rose either. It didn’t matter, all that mattered was the comfort
of each other’s arms. They kissed, uncaring of the red glare of the
surveillance camera in the corner.
    “Let’s get out of here.”
     
    The early morning light was just beginning to soften the
peaks of the rooftops and steal back the shadowy corners. John breathed in the
fresh cool air, smiling as he heard Rob do the same. He shrugged off the
oppressive atmosphere of the police station and wished he could shake off the
weariness as easily. Robin looked exhausted and he forced away the worry over
his health, knowing his partner wouldn’t appreciate it.
    He put his arm around the slender shoulders and the younger
man leaned into his embrace. The police had offered to take them home but he
hadn’t wanted to spend any more time in their company. They were just doing their
jobs but he’d had more than enough of it. Instead John had called and arranged
another rental car to be dropped off. He hadn’t even winced at the price of the
insurance.