He left the pizza. He’d lost his appetite.
Adam waited anxiously beside the elevator when Ruben stopped by the station two weeks later to check in. He’d talked to his partner a couple of times, but hadn’t gone to his apartment. He’d avoided Ruben just as he’d avoided Jillian. No point in putting them at risk, but it had been lonely, and the evenings crept past.
They walked together to Hard Luck’s office and their boss waved them inside.
Ruben had lost weight, but he still filled the doorframe. “Wanted to let you know, the doc gave me the all-clear to start back to work next week. Full duty, he said. It’s hard to believe, but I think I missed this place. Nothing like living with your mother to make the days crawl by.”
“It’s about time. What were you off, three months?”
“Five weeks. It just seemed longer. Anything happen while I was gone?” Ruben sank into the chair across from Hard Luck’s desk and Adam took the one closer to the door.
Hard Luck faced Ruben, never glancing Adam’s direction. “Your partner did a lot of slacking off. Said he was working on the Manny Dewitt case, but he had something else going on he didn’t want to tell me about. You wouldn’t happen to know what it was, would you?”
Adam sat up and blinked in surprise. Had Hard Luck known the whole time?
“All I know is if he said he was working on something important, he was. I got a nice surprise when I arrived this morning. A new guy was on the desk. He said Calvin Marshall retired. I was sure they’d carry him out of here feet first, or in handcuffs.”
At least Ruben was standing up for him. He hadn’t been sure he would.
“That old crook. I had my fingers crossed we’d get rid of him before he brought shame down on all of us. He left here in a hurry, looking like a cat that lost a fight. Surprise, surprise, someone called a few days later looking for a tall, skinny, bald guy who worked downtown. Nobody here could remember anyone who fit that description. I told them to try 61 Reasner Street and ask Central Division, and they went away. I think we dodged a bullet on that one.”
Hard Luck pushed back from his desk and looked Ruben in the eyes, ignoring Adam. “That’s another thing I don’t suppose you know anything about?”
“Like I said, Adam would never let a hint of dirt blow back on this squad, not while you’re in charge. He knows how you value your clean record. And he doesn’t goof off on company time.”
Adam’s jaw dropped as the two men continued to talk about him is if he wasn’t there.
“I know that. It’s why I didn’t dog him about what he was doing. I knew he was up to something when he asked for a picture of Marshall, but I thought he was only doing preliminary background investigation. When he had it figured out, I expected him to come to me with it. I would have helped him. I don’t give a flying crap about my clean record, that’s just my hard luck. When you get back to work, I want you to watch out for him. I don’t want him going all Lone Ranger on me again. We’re a team in this office, and we watch each other’s back. He should have remembered that about me.”
Adam stood and walked out of the room, but not before he heard Ruben’s answer.
“He did, and if he’d needed you, he would have called. Relax, and know you can depend on him to take care of things without any mud splashing back on his fellow officers.”
Adam returned to his desk and didn’t acknowledge Ruben as he left the building. His eyes burned and he began vigorously cleaning his glasses. He deserved everything that had just happened and more. It may have felt like someone stabbed him in the back, but they hadn’t. It was just two old friends reminding him that he should have trusted them.
August was in full swing and the heat was almost visible, radiating off the pavement. Jillian watched Adam mowing the grass as she pulled her car into his driveway. Nearly four months since she’d spoken to him, and she didn’t have any idea if he’d be happy to see her.
His shirt was off and he was covered with a fine sheen of perspiration. He must have given up on his hair because it was buzzed short. Maybe she could convince him to let it grow back out. After all, that was what had attracted her to him in the first place.
He was wearing shorts with old tennis shoes and looked so good she wanted to just sit and watch, but he’d seen her car. When he tried to turn the mower off, she waved her arms and shook her head.
“You only have one strip left,” she shouted, pointing to a single line of tall grass. “Finish up and put the mower away. I’ll wait.”
“Okay.” He nodded, turning to cut the final swath.
He disappeared around the corner, and Jillian heard the gate open and close before the sound of the mower was died away. Her breath caught in her throat as he reappeared in a damp, grass-stained T-shirt. She’d been worrying about this day for weeks and she still didn’t know what to say.
He hiked up his shorts and gave her an awkward kiss on the cheek. “I’m all sweaty,” he said. “I hate to touch you.”
“I have something that might help.” She held up a six-pack of cold beer she’d bought on the way over.
“Good plan. Let’s go inside and see if we can figure out what to do with that.” His hand brushed against hers as he took the beer and turned toward the house.
“Wait. I’ve got something to show you.” She bent into the backseat and removed a pet carrier with a small, yellow kitten inside. “This little fella showed up at my door a couple of weeks ago. I decided you might like him. He’s already been fixed, so he won’t blame you for it. Don’t take him if you don’t want to. I can always keep him, but I don’t have a yard so he might be happier over here.”
Adam went completely still. “That’s very thoughtful of you. I appreciate it. Do you know I saved the pet entry off my old back door? I must’ve known I’d get another cat someday.”
At least he hadn’t thrown her out yet. That was a good start, but they had a long way to go.
He stuck his finger between the bars and the kitten immediately began to investigate it. He tilted his head to one side, studying her. “You’re looking good, but something’s different. Are you letting your hair grow?”
“I’m experimenting. I’ve spent so much of my life reacting to others, now I’m trying to see what I like.”
“It looks pretty, but so did the spikes.”
“Covering all your bases, are you?” The relaxed banter felt good after so much time alone. Maybe they could start fresh after all.
He placed a hand over his heart. “I’m a police officer. I’m trained to tell it like it is, not embellish.”
The air-conditioning was a slice of heaven after only a few minutes standing outside. The living room was clean, but lived in, with newspapers on one end of the sofa and a bag of chips on the coffee table.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Adam said. “I’ll only be a sec. I want to get out of this shirt. It’s sticking to me.”
He went into the back room, and Jillian heard the shower, then the buzz of his electric razor. When he returned, he was wearing clean clothes and his hair was wet.
She’d taken the kitten out of the carrier and was playing with it on her lap when Adam sat beside her. She appreciated that he hadn’t asked about Heather. It might take her a few minutes to work up to that.
He grabbed a beer and rolled the cold bottle against his neck. “Okay. Shall we drink to. . . Does he have a name?”
“I’ve been calling him Buddy, however, since he doesn’t come when called anyway, I don’t think it’ll make any difference if you want to change it.”
“To Buddy,” Adam said. They clinked the bottles together.
He took the kitten onto his lap. “What do you think, Buddy? Do you want to live here? I work strange hours, I’m grumpy in the morning, and I might be late feeding you, but other than that, I think you’ll like it. The backyard is full of birds and squirrels to chase. An obnoxious dog lives across the street, but I think you can take him, even at your size.”
Buddy climbe
d up his arm and began to purr.
“I think we have a deal. He wants to stay.” He held Jillian’s gaze. “What about you? Will you stay for a while?” She started to speak, but he hurried on before she could refuse. “You could bring me up-to-date on how you’re doing and the happenings at the store. Is Cara getting along okay? I’ll bet Megan has grown. What about Snake-Eye? I haven’t heard a good Snake-Eye story in months.”
Jillian held up her hands. “Whoa, that’s a lot of questions. Snake-Eye is in rare form. He’s decided to branch out into knife throwing. We had a gully-washer of a rain storm about a week ago, and he was outside looking for the knife he had just thrown so he got a bath of sorts.”
Adam laughed. “Any bath would be an improvement, but I’m not sure a tropical storm would be enough to do the job completely.”
“Megan.” Jillian smiled at the thought of the baby she’d come to love. “I think she grows overnight because I swear she’s bigger each morning. She’s the one I’m going to miss.”
“Is she going somewhere?”
“Cara’s divorce and name change will be final soon and she’s planning to move to another state. Trevor should be in prison for a long time, but she wants to make sure he can never find her. She doesn’t want to be looking over her shoulder.”
Buddy had fallen asleep on Adam’s lap. “The gun and the threats mean he’s going down for attempted murder, not just assault. That should keep him behind bars for quite a while.”
“I know. I heard your testimony at the trial. I was sitting in the back of the room.” Hiding. She hadn’t been ready to speak to him yet. “The D.A. explained to Cara that the fact you’re a police officer and the way you phrased your testimony, recalling exactly the threats he made and the things he did, carried a lot of weight with the jury.”
“Tell Cara not to worry. She won’t have to come back for parole hearings. I’ll keep track of him and show up anytime they even think about letting him out.”
Adam placed a sleeping Buddy on the sofa and reached for his beer. “You realize Trevor never did understand the guy behind the counter that day was a cop. When I testified, he kept elbowing his attorney, asking him why this police officer was testifying about what happened. ‘How does he know what went down? He didn’t see me smack her around. It was just some dopey pot head.’ It didn’t help him any with the jury.”
“I’m going to miss Cara terribly, and she’ll be hard to replace. In fact, I’ve already started looking so I’ll have time to train someone before she goes. But still, you have to question her good sense for hooking up with Trevor at all.”
He grinned. “Snake-Eye told me there’s no mathematics for attraction, and I suppose he has a point.”
Jillian shifted on the sofa, tucking one leg under her and facing Adam. Talking to him felt natural, as if they’d been together on yesterday. “I’ve recognized how tied down I’ve been the last few years. Working six days a week and teaching classes a couple of nights means that I don’t have any life outside the store. At the very least, I need to hire more help, people I can depend on. Not someone like Billy that, sweet as he was, couldn’t be left alone for any length of time.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “So, I haven’t decided yet, but I’m considering selling the store and becoming a nurse. I’ll take some classes first, to see how I like it. The store’s been in our family a long time, and it’s my home, but it has so many memories, both good and bad, all jumbled up together. It’s a big step, so I want to take it slowly.”
“I can certainly see you as a nurse. You’d be a good one. But you’re right. Selling the store would be a big change and you need to take it slowly.” His eyes were soft behind his glasses. “You’ll know what’s right when the time comes.”
She hadn’t realized how much she needed someone she could talk to about what had happened. “I’ve already made so many little changes in the way I do things. I get out of the house more, go shopping, go to a movie. Did you notice I don’t carry a gun anymore? In fact, I don’t even carry a purse. Just put my driver’s license and some money or a credit card in my back pocket. It’s very liberating.”
He leaned his head back and laughed. “You’re the only person I know that would think not carrying a gun was rebellious.”
“What about you? What have you been doing?”
“Well, my brother and his wife had their baby, a little boy.” He took a picture off the bookcase and handed it to her. His mother was grinning and holding a baby with red cheeks and black hair that stood straight up. Jillian ran her thumb over the picture and smiled. No question the baby was a Campbell.
“My father came for a few days and helped me do some work around the house. We poured a cement platform for my tool shed and refinished the back deck. That weekend we went to Ruben’s place on the lake and made him a new two-burner cooker, a much better one than he originally had. Later, we all went fishing on his boat.”
He took a long pull on his beer and looked at Jillian. “I took my dad to the restaurant you and I went to. I told him my friend liked the spinach ravioli. Later he asked me if he was going to get a chance to meet my friend. He looked disappointed when I said that didn’t seem likely. I was pretty disappointed myself.”
Jillian squeezed his hand. She hated causing him pain, but she’d needed the time to heal. The last months had been a roller coaster of emotions. “Tell me about Ruben. Is he back at work?”
“Ruben moved back to his apartment and is working full time. It’s made me appreciate the importance of a partner I can depend on. The Toe Jamb nickname seems to have been forgotten, thank goodness. For a while, I was afraid I was going to have to transfer to another department, maybe another city.”
Jillian held her breath, afraid to ask the next question. “I hope you didn’t get into any trouble because of that sergeant.”
He studied the beer bottle in his hand. “No one’s ever figured out what happened with Calvin Marshall. The stories get wilder with each telling, everything from he inherited a fortune to he killed a man in a fight over drugs. The truth never even made a blip on the radar screen. He went to rehab, but he’s still a prick, just a clean and sober prick.”
Buddy yawned and stretched, then fell back asleep. Adam shifted. “I’ve kept my ears open, and there doesn’t seem to be any investigation about your house. The meth lab story‘s been accepted.”
“They asked a lot of questions, but no one acted concerned. It felt routine. I sold the lot, but it took everything I made to clear it off, so there was no profit to arouse suspicion.”
He stood and grabbed her hand, pulling her off the sofa. “Come on. Let’s sit on the deck and enjoy the refinishing job that almost killed my back and knees.”
As he opened the door, the warm wood of the deck gleamed and welcomed her. An ancient oak put most of the surface in shade and a breeze cooled the air. She immediately noticed he’d added a second Adirondack chair.
They sat, side by side, holding hands and watching a blue jay eye them suspiciously.
Jillian gave his hand a squeeze. She needed to know, and the only way to find out was to ask. “You’re avoiding my question. How are you dealing with everything that’s happened?”
“Like you, one day at a time. I saw Heather with my own eyes, and she’s still hard for me to accept. The things I did—letting Snake-Eye leave, going after Marshall on my own, and my God, blowing up a damn house—I wouldn’t have considered before she entered my life. Yet, I don’t regret any of them. In fact, I feel freer now. I don’t look at everything as black and white. I’m still my father’s son and believe in rules, but I can see shades of gray.”
Adam looked into her eyes, and her heart lodged in her throat. “You still haven’t told me about yourself. How do you feel about things? I’m assuming you haven’t heard anything from Heather.”
“Not a peep. I’m adjusting. I spent half my life trying to piss her off and the other half trying to appease her. Now I have to make decisi
ons based on what I want to do, and that’s harder than it sounds.”
“You’ll get it right, I have faith in you.” He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles.
“I went to the cemetery last week and took flowers to Heather’s grave. I sat on the ground and talked to her. It was strange, but I got the most comfortable feeling. I have to believe there’s special forgiveness for someone who dies so young. The air had been very still, and suddenly there was a warm breeze, and I felt everything was all right—she’d found a good place, probably with Mom and Dad. I think she’s happy for the first time in a long while. So now I don’t need to feel guilty about trying to find some happiness for myself.”
Adam wiggled his eyebrows at her. “In that case, why don’t we go back to my room and see if we can find some happiness right now?”
Jillian slapped his hand. “Not so fast there, Romeo. My plan was that we take it slow this time. Actually get to know each other first.”
“I can live with that, as long as I’m in there somewhere. You know I love you, Jillian. I never realized how much until I thought I’d lost you. Waiting for you has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But it was worth it, if it brought you back to my door. And I’ll wait longer, if I need to, but my plan is that we work on building a life together.”
The protective wall she’d build around her heart crumbled and tears came to her eyes. “Keep up that kind of talk and you might get lucky.”
He grinned. “I kept your toothbrush, just in case.”
Read other books by Susan C. Muller
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Susan C. Muller’s The Witch on Twisted Oak
Chapter One
The full moon called her name with increasing urgency, but she didn’t move until the sounds of sleep-laden breathing filled the house. She padded silently across threadbare carpet. When she reached the kitchen, her steps echoed—click, click, click—against worn linoleum and she paused, but the rhythm of the house didn’t change.
The Secrets on Forest Bend Page 26
