Breach of Duty (9780061739637)
Page 28
“I’ll be there,” I said.
As soon as I got off the phone with Rankin, I called Cincinnati and talked to Mary Beth Hinkle. I offered to send tickets so the boys could attend as well.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Mary Beth said. “You’ve already done so much, what with the hotel rooms, and the reception, and all.”
“It’s only money,” I told her. “Your daughter was a hero, Mary Beth. Those boys have every right to be proud of her. This is an honor for her and for them, too. I’d like them to be part of it.”
“All right, then,” she agreed. “I’ll ask them as soon as they get home from school. If they want to come, we’ll let them.”
And so, on a glorious May evening exactly two weeks after Sue’s funeral, we all assembled in the Police Plaza at 4th and James. The Hinkles were there along with Jared and Chris and me, as well as any number of local dignitaries, from the mayor and police chief right on down. There were other relatives on hand as well—surviving family members of police officers who had died in previous years, including a gangly but poised African American teenager named Benjamin Weston whose father, Officer Benjamin Harrison Weston, had two years earlier.
The keynote speaker was a sixty-three-year-old man whose father had died when he was only eight. When he spoke of missing his father—of never having had a chance to get to know him—I knew once again that those kinds of hurts never go away, no matter how old you get.
When the ceremony was over, a suddenly grownup Jared Danielson turned to me and shook my hand. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, about me being like my mother. And I think that’s what I want to do,” he added. “Be a cop. Like her and like you.”
I can’t help it. I’m a sentimental slob. I teared right up.
“Good for you, Jared,” I said.
A little later, someone came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “Mr. Beaumont?”
“Yes.” I turned around. The guy looked familiar, but I had no idea who he was.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been introduced,” he said. “My name is Ross Connors.”
As soon as I heard the name, I realized I was speaking to the attorney general of the state of Washington. He held out his hand. “Glad to meet you, Mr. Connors,” I told him.
“Likewise,” he said, “but please, call me Ross. I’ve been hearing lots of good things about you from some of my folks. Now that you’re retired from SPD, several of the boys on my homicide investigation team…squad…have been asking about you, wanting to know if we could recruit you. Have you ever considered working for us on our statewide hit squad?”
“No,” I said. “Not really.”
“We always have a spot for really experienced investigators. If you’re at all interested, I’d be happy to have the department head give you the sales pitch. What do you think?”
We were still standing on the plaza, but the crowd had thinned enough so that I had a clear view of the spot on the wall where Suzanne Michelle Danielson’s name had been chiseled into the gray granite.
“I’ll think about it, but let me ask you a question,” I said. “Do your people work partners?”
“Sometimes,” Connors answered, “but not necessarily. Why?”
“Because,” I said, “J. P. Beaumont doesn’t work partners anymore.”
About the Author
J. A. JANCE is the New York Times bestselling author of Paradise Lost and Kiss of the Bees. Ms. Jance was born in South Dakota, brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, and now lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona. Readers can visit her online at www.jajance.com.
Other Books by J. A. Jance
JOANNA BRADY MYSTERIES
Desert Heat
Tombstone Courage
Shoot/Don’t Shoot
Dead to Rights
Skeleton Canyon
Rattlesnake Crossing
Outlaw Mountain
Devil’s Claw
Paradise Lost
J.P. BEAUMONT MYSTERIES
Until Proven Guilty
Injustice for All
Trial by Fury
Taking the Fifth
Improbable Cause
A More Perfect Union
Dismissed with Prejudice
Minor in Possession
Payment in Kind
Without Due Process
Failure to Appear
Lying in Wait
Name Withheld
Breach of Duty
Birds of Prey
AND
Hour of the Hunter
Kiss of the Bees
Partner in Crime
Praise for J.A. JANCE
and BREACH Of DUTY
“One of the country’s most popular mystery writers.”
Portland Oregonian
“As always, Jance paints a vibrant picture, creating characters so real you want to reach out and hug—or strangle—them. The dialogue always rings true, and the cases unravel in an interesting, yet never contrived way.”
Cleveland Plain-Dealer
“A disillusioned, cynical hero in the classic hard-boiled tradition.”
Journal-American
“Jance’s artistry keeps the reader guessing—and caring.”
Publishers Weekly
“Not for the fainthearted, this is a rare reading experience.”
Romantic Times
“Believable and intense.”
West Coast Review of Books
“Jance doesn’t disappoint.”
The Gazette (Colorado)
“J.P. Beaumont is a star attraction.”
Booklist
“Solid entertainment…”
Kirkus Reviews
“Any story by Jance is a joy.”
Chattanooga Times
“Jance brings the reader along with suspense, wit, surprise, and intense feeling…She has the great ability to put the reader into the setting in which she writes…”
Huntsville Times
“Jance is an expert at writing rich mysteries filled with as much human decency as skullduggery.”
Publishers Weekly
“Jance just keeps getting better.”
Traverse City Record-Eagle
“Jance always seems to deliver a fresh story using today’s headlines.”
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
“Jance combines a well-rounded sense of humanity with a genre known for its plot-driven dynamics…”
Bellingham Herald
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BREACH OF DUTY. Copyright � 1999 by J. A. Jance. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Excerpt from KISS OF THE BEES © 2000 by J. A. Jance
Epub edition July 2002 eISBN 9780061739637
First Avon Books printing: November 1999
First Avon Books hardcover printing: February 1999
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