"Oh..." Conrad offers him a sympathetic glance and a troubled frown pulls at his lips. "I can understand that, I think. I don't want to be around, myself. It's all pretty, uhm... distasteful..." Maybe that's not the best word to use, but it basically sums things up.

There's a brief pause as Conrad goes over his options to help, here, and he lightly taps his foot on the stone floor. "How about I go-? Uhm. I could go look for it for you?" He's guessing the book is kind of important for Percy to be hanging around, subjecting himself to such misery and grief. He wouldn't be troubling himself otherwise, one would think.