Cooper digested that. If Arthur’s whole purpose for shadowing Genevieve was to do with the blackmail, as they’d suspected, had he not shown up that day because he knew the threat was gone? Because he had already decided to leave town, as Neil thought? Or was there some other reason? “So they just waited around with the... What were they supposed to be filming with?”

“Wolf exhibit,” Dionne said flatly. “Now if you’re done not-working the case, you might want to move date night along to a secondary location quick like. Cola said she’d meet us here.”

“Cola’s coming? Into the field?” Park asked from the back of the room, clearly surprised their boss was showing up to the scene herself, for the second day in a row.

There was a definite shift in the atmosphere. Dionne and Roy stood a little taller, looked a little warier. “Yes,” Roy said after a moment’s pause, but didn’t offer anything else.

Cooper suppressed a sigh. “You get the tox report back yet?” he asked.

“James Finnigan didn’t test positive for any of the usual suspects,” Roy said hesitantly, sounding a bit awkward. “They’re going to have to go back and test individual toxins.”

“If it’s poison at all,” Dionne murmured, voice even lower than usual. “And not the punishment of a wolf who’s betrayed his pack for—”

Roy shushed her partner, then glanced at Park with something almost like fear in her eyes. “We should get to work,” she said quickly. “I really think you should go now. Both of you.”

Well. There couldn’t be a clearer dismissal than that. Cooper bid them goodbye and Park followed him outside. They called ahead to the restaurant and there was a twenty-five-minute wait for a table, so Cooper and Park decided to take their time and walk there. Park was quiet as they left the zoo—lost in thought, his hands shoved so deeply into his pockets that his shoulders hunched, giving him a sort of wounded, vulnerable look.

Cooper hesitated, then snuck his hand into the crook of his elbow. Park looked at him, surprised. “What? As long as I’m strolling the streets with my beau, I might as well look it.”

Park smiled and shook his head, but tucked his arm a little tighter, holding Cooper close. “You’re good with them, Dionne and Roy,” he said after a couple moments of comfortable silence. “They like you.”

Cooper shrugged. “I excel in short increments. Like a polar plunge.” He felt Park stiffen under his hand.

“That’s not—do you really think that?”