“It’s just as well that you don’t have a car because for the time being you’re going to have a police escort everywhere you go.”
“Great.”
“Think of it as a personal car service.”
“Sure, okay.” I gave him a smile that I knew didn’t look very happy.
“Look, last night didn’t go the way it should have,” Hurley said. “You caught me off guard with your news, and I didn’t react very well.”
“You reacted fine under the circumstances. It wasn’t at all how I wanted you to find out.”
“I realize that. And though I was hurt at first, I also realize why you didn’t tell me over the phone. You wanted to be able to judge my reaction face-to-face.”
I nodded and gave him another wan smile.
“And I understand your reluctance, given the comments I made about Kate and Emily. Having a nearly grown child I knew nothing about thrust on me out of nowhere definitely threw me. But you and I . . . that’s different. I—”
“Food should be ready in five to ten minutes,” Richmond said, returning to the table.
Hurley sat back in his chair, his expression grim, his lips tight. I cursed the timing, desperate to hear the rest of whatever Hurley was going to say.
Richmond settled into his seat and leaned forward the same way Hurley had moments before. “So here’s what I’m thinking,” he said. “The two of you have a thing going on, and it’s causing problems because of the conflict of interest issues.”
I opened my mouth to deny that there was a thing going on, but Richmond held a hand up and spoke before I could. “Don’t bother trying to deny it, Mattie,” he said. “Everyone on the force knows it. You may think you’re doing a good job of hiding it, but you might as well try to hide a mansion behind a rose bush.” I clamped my mouth shut and frowned. “Don’t worry about it,” Richmond said, seeing my expression. “No one is going to report it. We’re all rooting for the two of you, and now your being pregnant adds a whole other level to this thing. Are you planning to get married?”
“No,” I said before Hurley had a chance to respond, though he did make a face that communicated his displeasure.
“Okay, but clearly you plan to stay together on some level, right?”
Hurley and I stared at one another, but neither of us said anything. After several seconds of silence, Richmond rolled his eyes and said, “Trust me, you will continue to see one another. You can’t help yourselves.”
We both gave him sheepish looks.
“So here are my thoughts on the matter. I’ve enjoyed being back at work, and now that I’m trying to maintain my new girlish figure, it helps if I stay active. My early semiretirement created a vacancy that Chief Hanson never filled, hoping to trim the budget overruns. But sadly, the workload has increased, and he knows that there is too much for the current staff to handle. He did some figuring and realized that he’s paying out more in overtime than what it would cost to hire on another full-time detective. So I talked to him about coming back to work on a more permanent basis, and he agreed. It means deferring my retirement income, and there are a shitload of hoops we’ll have to jump through to do it, but he feels certain he can get it approved.”
“That’s great,” I said, genuinely happy for Richmond but unsure just how he thought it was going to help me and Hurley.
“Plus, there’s another piece to this. The chief applied for a grant a while back when the scuttlebutt about the evidence tampering in Milwaukee came out, and he got it. He plans to announce it this morning. Starting today, we will have a videographer on staff who will be training all of us on how to videotape our scene investigations, evidence collection, and off-site interviews. There will be enough cameras for Jonas and each detective to have one initially. The use of audiovisual evidence eliminates most of the tampering and conflict of interest issues. You’d still have to make sure no one sees the two of you handling evidence or interrogations without a video, but other than that, you should be able to work together without any problems, especially if we work as a team of three. I can function as your chaperone.”
Richmond winked, sat back in his seat, and folded his arms over his chest, looking smug. Hurley and I continued to stare at one another as we digested Richmond’s information. Someone yelled out Richmond’s name from behind the front counter, meaning our food was ready. “Be right back,” he said, and he got up to fetch our meals.
“This could work,” Hurley said once Richmond was gone.
“It could,” I agreed. I knew it might mean no more sneaking off for a quickie during the day, but given that we now had Emily in our lives and another kid on the way, I felt sure those episodes were coming to an end anyway. Suddenly it felt as if someone had lifted a heavy weight from my shoulders. “We can keep our jobs,” I said.
“And still work together.”
“It will be nice not having to hide anything anymore,” I said, the relief I felt clear in my voice. While I seem to have a knack for sniffing out subterfuge, I suck at being a part of it.
“Yes, it will,” Hurley agreed. “We can be open and honest and in everyone’s face. Hell, Winston, we could even get married.”
I sighed and gave him a weary look. “We’ve been over this, Hurley.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You think I’m being trapped into something I don’t want to do.”
“I can’t help but feel that way, Hurley. If I wasn’t pregnant, would you be proposing to me right now?”
He opened his mouth to answer, and I sensed a knee-jerk response about to come out.
“Be honest, Hurley,” I cautioned before he got a word out. Then I pinned him with a laser-eyed focus.
He stared back at me for two blinks, and then his mouth closed into a tight-lipped grimace.
“See?” I said.
Hurley frowned. “Just because I might not have proposed to you right now if there wasn’t a pregnancy in the picture doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have done it eventually, or that it’s not the right thing to do.”
“Then there’s no rush, right?” I said. “So let’s give it some time. For now, and until after this kid is born, let’s table the topic, okay?”
“But I—”
“Here we go,” Richmond said, arriving with our meals while I again cursed his timing. He gave Hurley his egg, bacon, and croissant sandwich, gave me my garlic bagel with cream cheese, and then set down his own plate, a healthy egg-white omelet with mushrooms and onions. We all dug in with gusto, and the conversation ceased for several minutes.
About halfway through our meals, Richmond said, “So what do you guys think about what I told you? This is good news, no?”
“It is,” I said. “But I’m curious. When you say everyone knows about me and Hurley, just who do you mean? Does the chief know?”
“He didn’t come right out and say so, but I expect he does. All the officers and dispatchers know, so if the chief doesn’t know now, he will soon enough.”
“And you don’t think it will cause any problems?”
“Not with the videos in play, and not if Hurley and I team up with you. It basically eliminates all of the conflict of interest issues.”
I smiled at Hurley, but he didn’t smile back. Apparently he was still sulking over the marriage thing. Richmond finished his breakfast and said, “I imagine the two of you have some things to discuss. Steve, I’m sure you won’t mind keeping an eye on our girl here, will you?”
“Not at all.”
“Good. Then I’m going to head over to the station and get things started. I already paid for the meals. Breakfast is on me today. The chief plans to announce his news at eight-thirty, and I have an interview on the Ames case scheduled for nine, and a lawyered interview with the Ames family at ten. So you guys can take some time and talk things over. Steve, when you get over to the station I’ll brief you on the Ames case to get you up to speed.”
“Great, Bob. And thanks, both for breakfast and the rest of it. I appreciate it.”
“What?” I said, starting to feel uncomfortable.
“I’m just taking in the sight of you. I really did miss you these past two months.”
“I missed you, too.”
Hurley leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table. “Look, I get that you don’t want to get married yet, and I get why. I’m willing to back off on that for now, but I want you to promise me you’ll keep an open mind about it. And I also want you to promise me you won’t cut me out of your life. Whether you believe it or not, I’m truly delighted that we’re having a kid together. I’m excited about being a father. And regardless of what happens between the two of us, I intend to be a big part of this kid’s life. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said with a smile.
“Good.” He glanced at his watch. “My place is only five minutes from here, and we have nearly an hour before the chief’s announcement. I don’t suppose I could convince you to come by for a quick, um, reunion, so to speak.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively for a second, and then his expression froze. “Wait, you can still do that, right? I mean with the baby and all.”
“Oh, I can still do it,” I said. And I wanted to more than anything. “What about Emily?”
“She’s in school.”
“They let her come back after being gone so long?”
“I enrolled her in school down in Chicago while we were there. So she didn’t miss much. She’ll have to do some extra stuff here to get caught up, but I think it will do her good. And since she’s in school, my house is empty.”
“We wouldn’t want the house to get lonely,” I said, feigning innocence.
“No, we wouldn’t.”
We were out the door twenty seconds later.
Chapter 20
“So you and Hurley worked things out,” Dr. Maggie says to me. “That’s great.”
“You’d think so, but it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped.”
“How so?”
“Well, for starters, there’s the new videographer, who looks like she stepped right out of Vogue. She’s this gorgeous, twenty-something redhead who’s built like a model.”
“Ah, I see. You feel threatened by her.”
“Wouldn’t you? I mean, look at me. I look like a beached whale. I can’t take a bath anymore because I can’t get out of the tub, and I haven’t colored my hair in five months. I’ve got roots longer than Alex Haley’s. Not to mention that my hormones have me vacillating day to day between a barely tamed shrew and a screaming bitch on wheels. Who would you pick?”
“Has Hurley started a relationship with this woman?”
“No, at least I don’t think he has. But that hasn’t stopped her from trying.”
“So she’s been making a play for Hurley?”
“Oh, it’s been more than a play. It’s more like the unabridged edition of War and Peace.”
“Have you talked with Hurley about it?”
“No. I don’t want to look like some insecure, jealous dink, even if I am one. Besides, if I bring it up, I’m afraid he’ll propose again.”
“Why? Did he ask again?”
“No.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to marry him?”
“I am, at least for now. I’ve already explained my reasons to him and to you. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for you people to grasp.”
“Maybe it’s because ‘we people’ can see how much you love the guy, and how much he loves you.”
“It’s not that simple,” I grumble. “Things have happened. Besides, if he loves me so much, why hasn’t he said so?”
“Is that what’s holding you back at this point? That he hasn’t told you he loves you?”
“More or less,” I tell her. It isn’t the only reason, or even the primary one anymore, but I’m not ready to tell her the rest of the story yet. “I mean, if he can’t say that to me, it makes it all the more obvious that he’s simply offering to do the deed because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. That’s not a good way to start a marriage.”
“No, I suppose not. So what sort of relationship do you see the two of you having in the future?”
“Well, there’s our working relationship, of course. And we are very good together in that regard.”
“In that regard? What other regards are there?”
“Well, there’s the sex. We seem to be quite good in that department, too.”
“So where are the problems?”
“I think I’m in love with him, and he’s in like with me,” I say, verbalizing my fear for the first time.
“You’re afraid.”
It wasn’t a question.
“What, exactly, are you afraid of? If you were to accept Hurley’s proposal and get married, what would be the worst-case scenario?”
“That we’d end up hating one another. And we’d be forced to still work together, and parent together . . . it has the potential for being very awkward. I know, because it’s extremely awkward with David, and we don’t have a kid together.”
“How would you feel if Hurley married someone else?”
I shot her a look of horror. “Why would you ask me that? Have you heard something?”
Maggie smiles. It is the same patient, beneficent smile she uses on me all the time, and today it is pissing me off because I feel as if she’s treating me like a child. The fact that I may be acting like one shouldn’t figure into the matter. She’s a shrink. She should know better. “No, I haven’t heard anything. I’m simply trying to get you to explore your feelings more deeply,” she says.
“I seem to be feeling them too deeply already.”
“I disagree. I think you’re burying them. You’re avoiding your true feelings.”
I open my mouth to argue the point, but I shut it again quickly because I realize my objection would have been an automatic one with no real thought or consideration behind it. And some tiny little voice inside me says she’s right. She seems to sense my capitulation and repeats her question.
“How would you feel if Hurley married someone else?”
“Devastated,” I admit, tears welling in my eyes. “I would feel devastated.”
“Then why don’t you just accept his proposal? You love him, don’t you?”
“I do. More than anything.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“It’s complicated,” I say, exasperated.
“You won’t marry him because he hasn’t said he loves you?”
“In part, yes.”
“What’s the other part of this equation?”
“Some other things have developed.”
“And they are?”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to discuss that yet.”
Maggie cocks her head and looks at me, eyebrows raised. I know she is hoping the silence and her expectations will wear me down, but I’m determined to do this my way.
“Okay,” she says after half a minute of silence.
“Let’s move on, and we’ll come back to this later. Tell me how things progressed once Hurley came back. What happened with your work relationship?”
“It got very interesting.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one, the Ames case drove us crazy for a while. Richmond and Hurley hit a few bumps trying to figure out how to work together, and when they threw the new videographer into the mix, it only complicated things. Plus we had all these state troopers traipsing in and out of the PD, fighting for desk space, computer access, file storage, and such. The same thing was going on in my office, where new faces were popping up all the time, and those of us who worked there started to feel like we no longer belonged. Arnie became apoplectic trying to get the Ames case evidence processed after the Madison techs that Henderson brought in
took over his lab space, so he finally just gave it all to the new guys and let them process both cases. I found people sitting at my desk and using my computer every time I went into the office. Things between me and Henderson remained uncomfortably awkward, and whenever we had to do an autopsy, I begged Arnie to assist since he was at loose ends anyway. I kept myself busy by switching my work hours so that I spent time in the office in the evenings when I had better luck finding my desk available.”
“And then there was that guy I killed, Roscoe Schneider. I assumed that once the state guys cleared me that would be the end of it.”
“But it wasn’t?”
“Not even close. It turned out that Richmond was wrong when he said it didn’t look like Schneider was working with someone. The state troopers found a handwritten note in Schneider’s car that had my home address, my work address, and my work phone number on it.”
“So this Schneider guy wrote down your address and phone number. How does that imply another person was involved?”
“Because they also found a roll of hundreds inside a bag that was in the car. There was a note wrapped around the bills that said the balance would be paid when the job was done. The handwriting on that note matched the handwriting on the other one. They also found a newspaper clipping from a few months back that showed a picture of me. So it seems there is someone out there who wants me dead, and I still have no idea who it is or why. My nerves are as frayed as Rubbish’s scratch board.”
“That has to be scary.”
“It is. Hurley has people on the force guarding me whenever he can’t be with me. At first he was paying them out of his own pocket, but I finally convinced him that we should share the cost.”
“You mean you have guards?”
“I have someone watching my every move.”
“Even now?”
“Yes, even now. There is a cop outside your office as we speak, waiting to escort me back home.”
“You sound like you don’t think it’s necessary.”
“I’m not sure it is, and to be honest, if it was just me I had to worry about, I would have ditched the guards months ago. But now I have this one to worry about, too.” I rub a hand over my bulging tummy, and the kid gives me a kick. I’m not sure if it’s a protest, a gesture of understanding, or simply an attempt to change positions.
Stiff Penalty (A Mattie Winston Mystery) Page 17
