It was the afternoon following one of their cases, and Lloyd still had a thought or two about it that he wanted to share with Shea. He found the other man in the computer lab and gave a quick greeting as preamble before launching into his theory.
Or started to, anyway. What he saw on Shea's computer screen rendered him speechless (for at least five seconds, which was rather impressive). "What—what is that?"
Shea looked up from the monitor and grinned. "I looked you up, man."
"You googled me?"
"Well, you weren't telling us what got you 25 years and curiosity got the better of me," Shea replied, huge grin still on his face. He returned his attention to the monitor. "Your school's paper was the first hit. They really had a field day with you – guess you weren't so popular while you were there." He scrolled down the website. "I especially liked the cartoon this student drew – his art's shit but the punchline is hella funny."
"You…" Lloyd began, voice low and quivering, "You didn't have any right to do that. That isn't your business."
Shea looked up and blinked. He wasn't sure if Lloyd was going to try to hit him or burst into tears, but either way, he looked furious. "Hey, take it easy." He held up his hands in a gesture of appeasement. "I just wanted to know who I'm dealing with. I don't have your special shrink powers to tell what someone is all about. Which you use way too often, man. Even Jules is gonna kick your ass one day if you aren't careful."
Lloyd let out a slow breath. It reminded Shea of a balloon deflating. "It's embarrassing," he finally admitted. "Even taking into account my gambling compulsion, I shouldn't have gotten caught up in that. I never should have ended up in jail, let alone maximum security. I'm too smart for that. I have an IQ of 210."
"Yeah, and I've got a fly honey at home, and I still ended up here." Shea sighed and shook his head. "Past is done, Lloyd. You don't have to hide stuff from me, I'm not gonna judge you." He flashed another grin. "You're still a racist asshole with no social skills."
"Factist," Lloyd replied automatically, but he seemed mollified. "I'll see you later, Shea."
Shea waited for him to leave the lab before pulling out a pad of paper and pencil and painstakingly copying down the URL of the website. His computer time was almost up and he wanted to be sure to include it in a letter to his girl.