Hellhound (Supernatural #1)

1: Out in the Rain

Homicide, noun.

1. the killing of one human being by another.
2. a person who kills another, a murderer.

***

"So this girl, Cindy, broke up with her boyfriend, Mark, because he was making out with her best friend, Rose. But actually, it was a scam set up by the two girls so that Cindy wouldn't lose face in front of the school?"

Dad summed up what I had told him pretty well.

It was late, and, because he was technically still on duty, I had decided that, rather than eat Chinese takeaway alone at home, we could eat it together in his office. Wednesday nights were usually spent like this. Me bringing food and gossip to the police station, and him listening while eating aforementioned food. It was our thing.

I rummaged through my noodles looking for more shrimps until I finally found one. Grabbing it with my chopsticks, it was already halfway to my mouth when Dad finished his summary. "Exactly. From what I heard Cindy and Mark weren't going too well and the girl does the dumping rather than getting dumped. Or so she claims," I added with an eye roll. Cindy had gotten dumped more times than there were shrimps in my noodles. For once, she must have wanted to be on the other side of that conversation.

Putting down his empty carton on his desk, Dad leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head before resting them behind his head. The movement caused his uniform's shirt to tighten around his chest as well as for the light to catch on his Sheriff's badge, reminding me why we were having this conversation in here rather than at home. It didn't matter; I had gotten more than used to it over the years. Sure, it would be nice for him to be home more often, but the police station had become like a second home to me. I knew every nook and cranny of the building, as well as every deputy. A fair share of them had helped me with my homework growing up, beaten me at poker while waiting for Dad's shift to end or chauffeured me home when his shift didn't end.

"Didn't you say that after she broke up with her boyfriend, Cindy also got angry with Rose? Why would she do that if they were in on it together?"

"To make it seem believable," I told him in a duh-tone.

How could he not figure that out? Wasn't his job figuring stuff out? And yet this escaped him completely. It wasn't his fault though; he had had a long shift today, on top of the one he had had yesterday. It didn't seem to matter he had spent most of his day at his desk today. He had arrested Benny again yesterday, the local car thief - and not a very good one since he kept getting caught - which had led to quite a bit of paperwork. The bags under his eyes told me he needed to catch up on more than a couple of hours of sleep. He must have been running on nothing but caffeine and sugar.

"Won't the truth come out tomorrow, though, when they go back to being best friends?" Dad frowned, reaching for his fortune cookie.

"No," I shrugged, stuffing my mouth with another load of noodles. "You know, the whole 'sisters before misters' thing." A look of incomprehension appeared on Dad's face, his hands freezing in their movement to unfold the fortune while his eyes came up to mine. "Lasses before asses?" I tried. "It's like saying 'bros before hoes' but the female version."

Dad chuckled and tried to get the wrinkles out of his little piece of encrypted future. "I didn't know there was such a thing."

"Of course, there is! Why wouldn't there be?"

Finishing the noodles, I looked at Dad and watched as he read his fortune. He munched his cookie quietly as a frown appeared to crease his forehead. It was strange to see him like that; he never, ever, took his fortunes as more than a joke. And why would he? They were completely random. He'd read them silently to himself, laugh and read it out loud to me. One time, he got one saying to go buy another meal, and another time it was a request to ignore what the previous cookie said.