Page 33 of Dead Serious Case 4 Professor Prometheus Plume
“Daniel,” he rumbles in that quiet way of his. “So you remembered the way home, then.”
I take a slow breath, biting back any remark that might start another argument. The problem with Dad is that he genuinely isn’t being sarcastic, but that doesn’t mean he’s rolling out the welcome mat, either. He’s simply stating what he sees as a fact.
“Tristan and I are going away for the weekend and as we were close by, we thought... I thought I’d stop by and see you.”
I hear a scoff behind me, and I’m not certain which sibling it came from, but Dad doesn’t say anything. He just continues to watch both Tris and me.
“This is Tristan.” I tug him closer and Dad’s gaze dips to our joined hands. “He’s my boyfriend... my partner. We live together.”
I figure what the hell, I might as well make it clear that Tris is not just my boyfriend but someone important and permanent in my life.
There’s another loud scoff followed by a tut of disgust from someone behind us, but as I’m about to turn and say something to whoever it is, Tris gives Dad one of those sweet smiles of his and leans toward him, offering his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr Hayes,” he says. “Daniel is an incredible man. You and Mrs Hayes must be very proud of the man you’ve raised. I know he’s very highly thought of at Scotland Yard, and our friends just adore him.”
I’ll give my dad his due; he reaches out and shakes Tristan’s hand, studying his face all the while, but Dad’s expression is still something of an enigma to me. He’s the only one I’ve never been able to read. Finally, Dad gives a nod as a response and releases Tristan’s hand.
Not the friendliest greeting in the world, but I’ll take it over what I was building up in my mind.
I turn to face some of the others and give Tris brief introductions to the rest of my siblings, their wives, and my niece and nephews. Mark and Jack give him warm smiles and handshakes, while Ellen nods and hums, but the book barely moves. Nick nods in his direction and predictably, my other brothers treat him like something stuck to the bottom of their shoe.
Gritting my teeth and ignoring them, I turn to Mum last. “This is my mum. Mum, this is Tris.”
She stands and smooths down her skirt, giving him a small, nervous smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs Hayes,” Tris says.
“Oh now, love, please call me Shirley.” She takes Tristan’s hand but she doesn’t so much shake it as just hold on gently. “It’s really nice to meet you.” She turns back to my nephew, who’s sitting on the old floral sofa watching us. “Scooch up, Nicky love, and let your uncle and his...boyfriend,” she adds softly, “sit down.”
When Nick moves, we settle on the sofa and Mum smiles at us. “I’ll make some tea.”
“Thanks, Mum.” I swallow past the lump in my throat, letting myself feel how much I’ve missed her.
“Ruth,” Mum says as she turns to my sister-in-law, “why don’t you bring the kids to the back room and we can putFrozenon for them while the adults talk.”
Ruth nods looking a little relieved, probably wanting to be out of the line of fire now that all of us are in the same room again. Her gaze flicks to Gareth as she slides their son off her lap. Sending him a pleading look to not start anymore trouble, which he seems to ignore, she sighs and bends down to scoop up my niece, removing the drool-coated TV remote she’d been banging her drum with but has switched to chewing enthusiastically.
“I’ll come too.” Susie groans as she hauls her swollen body out of the chair and rubs her belly. “I need to pee again. This one needs to stop jumping up and down on my bladder.”
Susie takes my little nephew Joe’s hand and leads him from the room, following behind the others. She throws me and Tristan a small smile when she passes, as if not quite sure how she’s supposed to act around us considering the wall of disapproval emanating from my older siblings on the other side of the room.
The whole thing is all kinds of awkward as Tris and I sit there in silence, the room again going quiet once Mum and the others leave.
“So, Tristan,” Mark says, breaking the staring match between me and my older sibs. “What do you do?”
“Oh, um, I’m a pathologist, although over the past year or so I’ve specialised more in forensic pathology.”
“Pathology?” Gareth pipes up with a snigger. “What, you do blood tests? Like a nurse?”
“That’s a phlebotomist,” Nick speaks up from beside me.
“What?” Euan shoots a look at Nick as if surprised he’s spoken.
“A phlebotomist collects blood samples, a pathologist performs post-mortems. If he specialises in forensic pathology, I would assume he does post-mortems for deaths classed as suspicious.”
Tris beams at Nick as if he’s a prize student. “That’s right.”
“Post-mortems? Like autopsies?” Euan looks disgusted. “That’s a bit creepy.”