Twelve

“Matt, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Yeah, just a sec,” Matt muttered as he finished the last sentence of the last report for the day. He looked up to see the staff sergeant standing beside the workstation. “What’s up, Jeff?”

“I read your last report on what’s happening at Donnie’s Donuts. Can I ask you something about where you got your information?”

Matt’s heart nearly stopped. He breathed deeply and forced himself to grin as he leaned back in the chair with his body at an angle, stretched out one leg, and slung one arm over the back of the chair. “What do you need to know?”

“Your informant. How did you get her?”

Matt forced himself to breath evenly. “She came to me, actually.”

“What’s she like? How well do you know her?”

Matt’s heart picked up its pace. He didn’t want to talk about how well he knew Sarah. “I don’t know how to answer that. Why do you ask?”

“I see you noted that she wants to remain anonymous when we do the bust. I’m sure we can do that. I was wondering if she could maybe help us speed things up and save the department a few dollars. Do you think she’d be willing to give us a call next time Kincaid walks in, so we can get someone down there right away to follow him and see where he goes? It would help us see where this latest batch is coming from.”

“She doesn’t have a cell phone. I’m not sure that’s a good idea, anyway. I don’t want anyone seeing her placing calls like that from the premises. If Kincaid found out he was being followed after seeing Sarah make a quick phone call, that would put her at considerable risk.”

Matt realized he made a mistake by referring to Sarah by her first name when Jeff’s eyebrows rose. “Point taken. Are you emotionally involved with your informant?”

Matt stared up at Jeff. He knew the department’s policy on a member keeping an emotional distance from a witness, which was what Sarah might later turn out to be should the situation go to court. They always tried to keep informants away from court, but occasionally they did have to use them as witnesses when the case went to trial. If it did in this case, once again Kincaid would have a high-priced and unscrupulous lawyer. Unless they actually caught Kincaid red-handed, which Matt doubted they would, any and all evidence would rest with the only witness, which in this case would be Sarah.

First, the defense would do everything they could to discredit the witness. Kincaid’s lawyer would establish that a relationship existed between the witness and the officer in charge, which was himself. They would then slant the questions and badger the witness to “prove” that the police officer in charge had coached the witness, guiding her in her testimony and actions, to the detriment of the accused. After drawing the only evidence they had into question, the judge would have no alternative but to throw the case out of court. Matt didn’t want that to happen. Not this time.

Sarah had been right when she said his desire to put Kincaid behind bars was personal. But above all else, he wanted Sarah to be safe. Now that there were drugs involved, staying safe would be harder to do.

At this point, he didn’t know from one minute to the next how emotionally involved he was with Sarah. Nor did it matter. She wasn’t a Christian, so he wasn’t about to marry her. The point was he loved her enough to keep his own needs separate. No matter what happened, no matter how she felt about him, he had to keep her safe.

He’d told her to keep out of the closet and stop spying on Donnie, but in his gut, he knew she wouldn’t. The only way to keep her safe would be to keep tabs on her himself. He couldn’t do that if they pulled him from the case and put someone else as the officer in charge.

“The issue here is keeping a civilian safe. She’s an innocent and only doing what she feels is the right thing to do. I wouldn’t care if the informant were male or female. It’s not a good idea to have them making calls like that from their place of employment when it can’t be done in private.”

“I had to ask. Does your informant think anyone else there is involved or just the owner?”

“We haven’t talked about it. So far it’s just the owner.” Nor did he want Sarah poking around. However, Jeff’s question further reminded Matt that Sarah’s last comment had been about watching for other suspicious characters. He hadn’t broached the subject of the other employees, nor had he had time to respond properly. The thought opened up a whole new area of risk.

“Okay. Just wondering. See you next time you’re on dayshift, Matt.”

Matt stood. “Yeah. See you, Jeff.” He quickly turned and walked to the locker room to stow his equipment and change.

Tomorrow was another day. The day he was going to get Sarah to behave herself and stay safe.

❧

Sarah sighed and looked around her apartment. For the first time in weeks, the whole place was clean, except for the unmade bed and a bit of laundry piled in the corner, which didn’t really count. Because she’d finally managed to catch up and get ahead on her homework and assigned reading, she finally caught up on her housework.

For today, she could read for pleasure. She picked up a book Gwen had loaned her months ago, a Heartsong Presents novel by Gwen’s favorite author. She settled back on the couch and began to read, but she barely made it past the first page when the buzzer for the main door sounded.

When she hit the button, a deep, flowing male voice came over the speaker. “Hi Sarah. It’s lunchtime. I brought food.”

“Matt?” Sarah looked around the apartment one more time, just in case she missed something on her earlier cleaning spree. “Uh, come on up.”

Since she only had to close the bedroom door, Sarah stepped into the hall to wait for Matt as he came up the elevator. When the door opened, the fragrance of pizza radiating from the largest pizza box she had ever seen reached her before Matt did. Balanced on top of the pizza box, were two large cups of flavored coffee.

“What are you doing here? What if I wasn’t home?”

He grinned. Something funny happened in her stomach, making her realize she must have been hungry after all. “Then I’d eat this whole pizza myself.”

“I guess.” She turned around and led Matt into the kitchen.

She took the plates and napkins out of the cupboard while Matt centered the pizza box on the table and placed a coffee at each setting.

“I’m really surprised to see you today. I thought you usually went to the gym on your stretch between dayshift and nightshift.”

“I wanted to see you instead. Do you like anchovies and olives?”

Her stomach churned. “Ugh, no!”

“Good. Me neither. I brought ham and pineapple.” He flipped the box open.

She couldn’t help but smile at him. “How did that call go?”

“What call?” he mumbled as he carefully lifted two slices of pizza to each plate.

“That one that made you run out of here so fast yesterday.”

His eyebrows quirked, then he grinned. “Oh, that. It went well. Great, actually.”

He sat in one of the chairs and folded his hands on the table. This time, Sarah knew what to expect, so she also folded her hands on the table and bowed her head.

“Dear Lord, thank You for this food before us and for friends to share it with. I ask for Your blessings on this day and for every day to come. Amen.”

“Amen.”

He took a big bite. “Good, isn’t it?” he asked through his mouthful.

Sarah only nodded as she ate, not wanting to be rude.

“When I got to the warehouse, I was alone for a few minutes. No one likes to check out robberies in progress in industrial areas all alone, but the other member wasn’t due for five minutes, and I heard movement inside the building. I know five minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but it is when there was only one of me, and I could hear three or four voices inside the building. We never know if it’s just kids checking things out, getting a thrill out of being where they shouldn’t be, or if there are really thieves who know what they’re after and are prepared for the risk they’re taking of being caught. We also don’t know if they’re armed, and if they are armed, if they’re experienced with a gun.”

Sarah pressed her palms to her cheeks. “What did you do?”

“I knew they’d never listen to me if they knew I was alone, so I told them I was going to send the dog in.”

“I didn’t know you had a dog.”

He grinned. “I don’t have a dog. I’m not a K-9 unit. But they didn’t know that. I barked a couple of times, told myself, ‘down boy,’ and then said if they didn’t come out, one at a time with their hands up, the dog was going in. I also called out to the other member that I’d located them. They didn’t know he wasn’t there yet. It was a bunch of kids, and they came out. They never did know I didn’t really have a dog; they thought the dog was back in the car. I had two of them cuffed by the time Rick got there.”

He stopped to laugh and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “You do what you gotta do. Sometimes the good guys really do win.”

All Sarah could do was stare at Matt as he continued to snicker to himself.

She didn’t think he was very funny. The only thing she could think of was how potentially dangerous the situation could have been. Yet, he was unbothered, like it was a normal, everyday occurrence. Maybe for him it was. She had to admire his ingenuity. No one was hurt, and even though he was so badly outnumbered, he single-handedly caught the criminals. But she also knew he’d taken a big risk. If they had looked outside and seen him all alone barking like a dog, the outcome could have been very different.

The concept scared her witless.

Matt took a sip of his coffee and lowered the cup to the table. “While I’m here, I was wondering if we could talk about what’s going on at Donnie’s.”

“I thought we talked about this yesterday.”

He helped himself to another large slice of pizza. “Not really. Besides, last night I was talking about the case to the staff sergeant. He asked a few questions about my informant. That’s you.”

Sarah nearly forgot to breathe. “Informant?” she squeaked. Visions of filthy and desperate junkies with long, unwashed hair making clandestine meetings with undercover cops all dressed in black flashed through her mind. She was none of the above.

“Jeff, he’s one of the staff sergeants, mentioned about coworkers. He reminded me that we haven’t talked about everyone else who works there. If other employees might be involved or have seen something, it’s not a good idea to poke around and ask questions. Yes, we want to know, but if you start asking people, your cover is blown. And with the likes of Kincaid, that would be very dangerous.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what she had done. She had just admitted, in not so many words, that figuratively she was going to stay out of the closet, but she hadn’t intended to stop looking for information that would lead to Kincaid’s arrest, even if that meant Donnie would go down with him. Not only was the money laundering illegal, the source that money was coming from was drugs, and now Donnie was selling drugs too. She couldn’t not do something when she had an opportunity to stop an ongoing problem to society. She thought of all the children she would be teaching when she finally finished at the university and how badly children and teens could get messed up on drugs. She would do whatever could be done to get the pushers off the streets.

“All you can do is watch and listen. If you hear other staff talking and something comes up that sounds suspicious, tell me about it. Then the police can decide if it means anything. I guess what I’m trying to say is, all I want you to do is keep your eyes and ears open and don’t do anything else.”

“And stay out of the closet.”

“That’s especially where I don’t want you to go.” Matt lifted a piece of pizza to his face and opened his mouth.

“But what if I need the broom?”

Matt froze. He sighed, closed his mouth, and lowered the pizza to his plate. “You know what I mean. By the way, while I was out today, I bought you something.” He leaned to one side and patted a cell phone on the side of his belt. “And I bought this for me.”

While he was still sitting crooked, Matt pulled a small velvet bag out of his pocket.

Sarah’s breath caught. The bag he held was specifically for jewelry. As he untied the silk string, she saw the outline of something round at the bottom of the bag. The only round piece of jewelry she could think of was a ring.

She didn’t want a ring from Matt. A ring meant emotional connection. Commitment. It implied a relationship. She didn’t want to get involved in a relationship that had no possibility of a future. She couldn’t contemplate a life of being married to a man who one day might never come home from work. Therefore, she wasn’t going to let such a relationship begin.

It didn’t matter what kind of ring it was. Even if it were a simple mood ring. She couldn’t accept it.

Before she could think of a way to turn him down that wouldn’t hurt his feelings, he poked two fingers in the bag, and groped inside. Slowly, he started to pull his fingers out. Along with his fingers followed a gold chain.

Sarah allowed herself to breathe. As he repositioned his grasp on the bag, she recognized the logo as that of a well-known, fine-quality jewelry store. The logo and the bright shine of the chain told her it was real gold. A chain, she could accept, although she felt hesitant about accepting something so expensive.

She didn’t know why Matt would want to buy her something so fine, especially jewelry. He’d kissed her once, but that had been under emotional duress. They didn’t have the kind of relationship that warranted expensive jewelry. Still, she couldn’t not accept it. Even though Matt, the cop, frightened her, she was becoming increasingly fond of Matt, the man. Out of uniform, she liked him very much.

As the last part of the chain appeared from the bag, so did a round pendant about the size of a penny, dangling from the chain. It appeared to be a locket, because it had a small clasp on one side. However, the gold color of the pendant didn’t shine the same way as the necklace. On the locket’s case was a strange embossed pattern more suited for a child than an adult. Considering the cost and beauty of the necklace, the size and quality of the locket didn’t match.

He slid his chair closer to hers. “Turn around, and I’ll put it on you.”

She didn’t turn around immediately. Instead, she watched Matt, with his large fingers, fumbling with the dainty clasp. Sarah knew she could open it easier than he could, but she didn’t want to spoil the moment for him.

When he finally managed to open it, he held the necklace open. Sarah squirmed in the chair so her back was mostly toward him so he could drape the chain around her neck and refasten the clasp.

“I want you to wear this, especially when you’re at work.”

She raised one hand and pressed the locket to her chest. The chain itself was virtually weightless, but in comparison, the locket felt quite heavy. She found it very odd that Matt would choose such a fine chain, and, to put it bluntly, pick such an ugly, mismatched locket.

“Thank you. This is such a surprise. Is there a picture of you inside?”

She ran her fingers along the grain of the pattern. She didn’t want to like Matt, but she couldn’t help herself, she did. She hoped against hope that he had put a picture of himself inside.

“Nope. No picture. It’s a transmitter.”

Sarah’s fingers froze in the center of the locket. “It’s a what?”

“Open it. Can you feel the little button in there? That was the only locket I could find that would fit the housing. I glued it inside.”

As instructed, she flipped the clasp. She craned her neck and tried to focus on what should have been a picture. Sure enough, a small metal casing with a red button in the middle was glued inside the locket.

“How romantic. . . ,” she muttered.

Once more, he patted the cell phone, then reached for another piece of pizza. “If you push that button, I’ve got the receiver here. It’s set to vibrate and not ring so I can wear it when I’m on duty. If I can’t attend, I’ll radio for backup, and someone else will come. Just remember, with no ability for voice transmission, you have to understand that if you push it, I’ll assume you’re at Donnie’s Donuts, and that’s where I’ll go. The vibration-only kind was the only one that would fit inside a small locket. The ones that can transmit a voice are too big to hide.”

Visions of the commercial for infirmed or elderly people living on their own, wearing similar things around their necks, flashed through her mind. She reached up and ran her fingers through her still-brown hair.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Matt wiped his mouth with the napkin and dropped it on the plate. He’d eaten at least half a large pizza by himself, just for lunch. “Say you’ll wear it every second you’re at Donnie’s Donuts, and if something happens, you’ll push the button.”

She snapped the locket closed. “I will.”

Matt stood. “Great. Before I go back to bed, I’ve got a few things to do to get ready for work tonight, so I’ve got to go. You can finish the rest of the pizza.”

Sarah stood as well, and followed him to the door. Just as the last time when she saw him out, as she reached for the doorknob, one of his feet blocked the way, so she couldn’t open the door.

He reached down and gently lifted the locket and ran his thumb over it. “I’m worried about you, Sarah. This has mushroomed into much more than simple money laundering. If Kincaid is supplying drugs to Donnie, he’s supplying elsewhere. With his history, this could be the catalyst to a very big drug operation.”

Still touching the locket, Matt used his other hand to tip up her chin. “Stay safe, Sarah,” he muttered. His head lowered, and his eyes began to flutter shut. “Please stay safe. For me.”

She couldn’t help it. Before their lips met, Sarah had already closed her eyes. When his mouth covered hers, Sarah thought her knees would buckle. He kissed her so sweetly she had to hold onto his waist for dear life.

Too soon, he pulled away. “See you around sometime,” he mumbled as he opened the door and left.

Sarah stood with her feet frozen to the floor, staring at the back of the closed apartment door.

Once again, she touched the locket and ran her fingers over the pattern. Her eyes started to burn, and she blinked to keep them from overflowing. Coming from Matt, the locket, such as it was, truly was the most romantic gift she’d ever received. Even though it was only meant to wear to work, she wondered if maybe she’d never take it off.

She turned around and walked into the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror, wearing the locket.

The transmitter really was totally concealed and inconspicuous. Just like something out of a James Bond movie.

And that gave Sarah an idea.