A spark of triumphant relief flicked inside Taya when William looked from Archer. Though it seemed forced at first, his glower lightened as he directed the answers to Archer’s questions at her instead.
	From her peripherals, she swore she saw Archer smirk dryly, but it was so slight it could’ve been a trick of the light. Or an irate twitch at the tea.
	She blinked down in surprise when William reached for her hand in a reassuring gesture. Was she [i]that[/i] obvious?
	She offered him a grateful—if not a touch embarrassed—smile at his reassurances. Once he freed her hand, she stirred the ice in her Coke with the straw, but stopped when William continued.
	Curious, she looked to the door, wondering if he was using the same trick as before, but she didn’t get the chance to tell. Lucy returned and, with practiced swiftness, placed each of their orders in front of her customers.
	“Looks divine, as always, Luce!” Taya complimented as the other woman presented her plate.
	Chipotle sauce was drizzled artistically over a wrap cut in half to show its mix of meats, glistening with grease and other juices. A generous heap of fries waited beside it. She eagerly picked up one half of the over-sized wrap and bit into it, glad for the distraction from the current macabre topic.
	If Eli caught the sass in Lucy’s tone, he didn’t show it. His attention shifted to the cuff of his suit, and he picked a speck of fuzz from it as Lucy left. With a quiet, impatient sigh, he cupped his hands around the warmth of his mug.
	He began tapping the cup, part of his nail clinking lightly against the ceramic as William tucked into his artery-clogging feast.
	 “You’ve got an impressive appetite, I’ll give you that!” Taya glanced to William’s spread.
	She suppressed a sigh as William brought the conversation’s focus back to the murder cases. She returned William’s glance with an easy shrug. That was, after all, why they were there. The opportunity of lunch had been an unexpected bonus.
	Archer’s head tilted in a subtle nod. It was as much of a form of approval as anyone ever got out of the man. And a half-step in a better direction. At the very least, Taya hoped it would prevent the next murder victim from being either Archer or William. She doubted The Laughing Cow would appreciate that kind of attention in the news.
	“They’ve all been animalistic.” Eli stopped tapping the cup. “Based on the patterns of the wounds, most of the damage appears to be caused by claws and fangs. Forensics have identified some saliva found on the victims as belonging to a canine, but were incapable of narrowing down the breed. As they so eloquently put it,” he added with a sneer, “it appears someone collected drool from various dogs and stirred it into one mixture.” Disgust pulled at Archer’s face at the thought of someone going through the effort of collecting dog drool.
	Despite the topic, Taya licked her lips and turned her attention to a packet of mayonnaise at the edge of her plate, trying to hide a grin. The man could walk through a gruesome crime scene without a second thought, but then cringed at something as simple as someone gathering saliva.
	She ripped the packet open, and squirted it's contents onto the plate beside the fries. Dipping a fry into the unusual choice of sauce, she munched on it as Archer continued.
	“The only other DNA found on the victims have been bits of fur. Again, they’re canine, but we've run into some issues there as well. They’re mostly gray or tan, but they couldn’t be definitively identified. We assume this is due to either human contamination, or abnormal degradation, if not both.”