Knock Knock

A sendoff to Europe without more information didn't give him anything. It could have meant that Seaver was at the bottom of the ocean. It could have meant he was off murdering someone. Or it could have meant that he was actually in Europe on vacation or something.

"Doesn't help much," Angelo said with a wave of his hand. "And for the record, I'm not child services. I'm not going to go digging through your paperwork." He really had no interest. The Rosales's were a mafia family, and they'd have made absolutely sure that someone was in charge, even if it was only on paper.

But, apparently, it was Shay who was in charge now. In charge of the family.

Christ, was she even sixteen yet?

"As a courtesy, because it's off topic, I'm not going to mention to the cops that you're in charge, but I am going to tell them that Klaus and Vito are missing, and that they should be keeping a closer eye on things to watch out for retaliation and power struggles in the aftermath."

Shay really should have expected that much. Angelo would have, back when he was her age.

Angelo somehow managed to sag even deeper into his chair, letting out a sigh.

"I suppose I should be congratulating you for keeping things as under control as they are, considering the police had no idea until now."

Angelo made a little hmmm at the 'we didn't kill him'. That more or less guaranteed he was dead, just not by Rosales's hands. A rival gang or an accident, but almost definitely dead.

The word query sounded unnatural. Like a robot had taken Shay's place and was trying to figure things out. Like she was trying to act like an adult, even.

"Relevant police, and only relevant police," Angelo said, dropping his volume a level in response to Shay's own. "Cops get fired over digging around in police records for things that aren't related to their own cases. What brings this up?"

There was obviously a reason. A big reason. The only question was whether or not Shay would tell him, or if she'd just dismiss it as another you don't need to know.

Angelo was not expecting to find out who had killed Shay. Really, he didn't expect that Shay would have ever brought it up. It was the sort of thing that everyone involved considered dead and buried.

Only then it wasn't. Only then it was simply laid out on the table.

The Butcher killed Ted. The Butcher had killed her.

Angelo's face went pale.

"Jesus," Angelo said under his breath, taking a moment to recover. "The Butcher?"

He wasn't on the case--not at all--but even he had a general idea of what sort of things the Butcher did. The messes he left. Everyone knew.

Angelo was torn very hard in two very different directions. He wanted to comfort Shay. He wanted to do his job. And the two things ran in very, very different ways.

Comforting won out.

"Jesus," Angelo said again. "Are you doing alright?" And now she'd lost Klaus, too.

Angelo knew a lie when he saw one, and that was a bold faced lie and then some. Shay wasn't fine. Shay was upset.

"You don't have to apologize," Angelo said, letting his brain slide into victim mode rather than junior mob boss mode. Less guarded. More careful. "You told me in your own time. You could have kept it to yourself forever, but you didn't, and that will help a lot of people get closure that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It's a good thing, Shay."

His instinct was to hug her, but that instinct was a bad one. Hugging victims was awkward, painful business. A lot of the time--most even--people tended to recoil. He was friendly with Shay, but they weren't close, not enough to make a hug acceptable or okay.

"I shouldn't have pushed you so much when you were at the station, Shay. I was just worried about someone--especially you--getting hurt."

Angelo wanted to say no. He wanted to say that she was wrong. But it was true, honestly. There was always going to be space between them. It was always going to be hard. Angelo was police. He couldn't put something in front of his job. Couldn't promise to keep secrets.

"You could still come," Angelo said simply. Even if he'd never made an offer, things could still be different. He'd broken away from the