In Death 22 - Memory in Death

Since he hadn’t bothered to leave her a message. Men were such pains in the ass, she wondered why she bothered to keep one. She’d been doing okay solo. It wasn’t as if she’d gone out looking for somebody like Ian McNab. Who would?
    Now she was cohabbing, with a lease in both their names. They’d bought a new bed togethera really uptown gel. And that made ittheirsinsteadothers, didn’t it? Which she hadn’t thought about until now. Which she wouldn’t have to think about now, except he’d been such a complete dick.
    And technically, he’d been theoneto walk out, so he should be the one to make the first move. She hesitated, nearly jumped off the glide. But the box Dallas had given her was burning a hole in her pocket and the idea that maybe she’d been partly to blame was burning one in her gut.
    Probably just indigestion. She shouldn’t have grabbed that soy dog on the corner.
    She stalked into EDD, her chin jutted up. There he was, in his cube. How could you miss him when
    even in the rainbow hues of the division his green zip pants and yellow shirt vibrated.
    She sniffed, then stomped over to jab him sharply on the shoulder twice. “I need to talk to you.”
    His eyes, cool and green, flicked to her face, away again. “Busy here.”
    The back of her neck sizzled at the dismissal. “Five minutes,” she said between her teeth. “Private.”
    He shoved back from his station, swiveled around fast enough to make his long tail of blond hair swing. He gave a jerk of the shoulder to indicate she should follow him, then strode off on his shiny yellow airboots.
    Color, from anger and from embarrassment, rode her cheeks as she wove through the clicks and clacks
    of EDD. The fact that no one paused long enough to hail her or send her a wave told her McNab hadn’t kept their situation to himself.
    Well, neither had she. So what?
    He opened the door to a small break room where two detectives were arguing in the incomprehensible terms of e-geeks. McNab simply jerked a thumb toward the door. “Need five.”
    The detectives took their argument and a couple of cherry fizzies out the door. One paused long enough to glance back at Peabody with a look of sympathetic understanding.
    Of course, Peabody thought, the look came from a female.
    McNab got himself a lime fizzy, probably color-coordinating his outfit, Peabody thought nastily. She closed the door herself as he leaned back against the short counter.
    “I’ve got something cooking, so make it fast,” he told her.
    “Oh, I’ll make it fast. You’re not the only one who’s got something cooking. If you hadn’t snuck out of the apartment this morning, we could’ve dealt with some of this before shift.”
    “I didn’t sneak.” He took a long drink, eyeing her over the neon tube. “Not my fault you sleep like a corpse. Plus, I didn’t feel like slamming up against your attitude first thing in the morning.”
    “My attitude?” Her voice came out in a squeak that would have mortified her if she’d noticed it.
    “You’re the one who said I was selfish. You’re the one who said I didn’t care.”
    “I know what I said. So if this is just a replay”
    Peabody planted her feet. For once she was happy to know she outweighed him. “You make a move
    to that door before I’m done, I’ll flatten your bony ass.”
    Now temper flashed in his eyes. “Say what you’ve got to say, then. Odds are it’ll be more than you’ve
    had to say to me for the past week.”
    “What’re you talking about?”
    “You’ve always got something to do.” He slammed down his drink, and true to its name, lime-colored liquid fizzed over the lip. “Always got something going. Every time I try to talk to you, it’s ‘We’llgetinto it later.’ You’re going to dump a guy, you could have the decency to wait until after the holidays. Wouldn’t fucking kill you.”
    “What? What? Dump you? Have you lost what little brainpower you had?”
    “You’ve been avoiding me. Coming in late, heading out early, every damn day.”
    “I’ve been Christmas shopping, you moron.” She threw her hands in the air as her voice pitched toward a shout. “I’ve been going to the gym. And I’ve been up at Mavis and Leonardo’s because … I can’t tell you why. And if I’ve been avoiding you, it’s because all you want to talk about is going to Scotland.”
    “We’ve only got a couple of days left to”
    “I know, I know.” She slapped her hands to her head and