Devil in the Details

Chapter Twelve

Evelyn stood outside the door to Floyd's office, shifting her weight from foot to foot. It was her day off, but she still found herself here. When she had started out for the day, she'd had every confidence in her plan. She was going to pick up lunch for the both of them. They were going to have a long talk where she would tell Floyd about her dreams, and about what her grandmother had said. She'd gone through all the motions, picking up the food and even singing in the car. Today, she was going to figure out what was going on. She was going to get help. Now that she stood before the door, lunch in hand, she wasn't so sure.

"You gonna make it, Waters?" Nick asked, coming out of the gym with a towel around his neck.

"Shut up." Evelyn replied, with no hint of malice. She'd meant to sound more demanding, but she couldn't. She sounded more hurt than anything.

"Can't afford to be soft with a badge, Waters." He said, continuing on. Evelyn ignored him, but had to admit he had a point. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and knocked on the door. It didn't take long for Floyd to call out and she opened the door, holding up her peace offerings. He glanced up and motioned for her to come in. Evelyn turned and shut the door behind her before taking a seat in front of his desk. Floyd continued to fill out whatever forms he was working on.

"It's a good thing you came today." He said when he finished, filing the papers away in a folder on his desk. "I was going to come by the house after work, anyway."

"You were?" Evelyn asked, "what for?"

"To check on you." Floyd replied. "James told me about the interview with Walker, how he behaved. Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Evelyn replied, focused on taking her lunch out of the bag and setting it up. She had ordered chicken alfredo, and it looked like they hadn't forgotten the cheesy bread sticks this time. She looked up to find him scrutinizing her. "I'm fine, Floyd."

"Are you?" He asked, focusing on his own lunch. "I haven't seen you since then."

"I've been busy." Evelyn replied, "and I was here for a few hours working on the case. You weren't." He hummed.

"And the nightmares? How are they going?"

"Ah, that's something I actually wanted to talk to you about." Evelyn replied, "off the record, of course."

"I shouldn't have put you in that situation, Evelyn." He said seriously, "and I apologize for that. I got too involved trying to solve the case."

"It's fine." Evelyn replied. "Really."

"It's not fine." Floyd replied, "James told me that Walker asked about the organs?"

"He asked if the killer took anything." Evelyn said, taking a bite of her sandwich. "He didn't outright say it was the organs he was asking after, but it was the organs. I think you're right, and he really is the first killer. When we catch this one, we should go over the old case and find a way to retry him as well." She looked up, "what do you think?"

"I think you're right." Floyd agreed, "after we catch this one, we'll catch him too, but..." his long pause made her look up. He didn't want to meet her eyes.

"What?" Evelyn asked, swallowing.

"I don't think you need to be on this case anymore."

"What?" Evelyn croaked, scowling at him. Floyd set his sandwich down.

"I'm going to take you off of it, Evvy, I'm sorry." he said, "it's not right to ask you to do this. It's clearly influencing your health-"

"The hell it is!" Evelyn snapped. She gritted her teeth together and glared.