Until they could find a suitable rental, Clay and his family planned to stay in his brother-in-law’s garage apartment. It didn’t have a washing machine, and Debbie’s sister had told them they could use hers while they stayed with them. Currently, he owned only two uniforms, and the one he’d worn yesterday was wadded up in the hamper. Debbie had planned to wash both uniforms tonight.
At the café he had tried to wipe up the coffee from his pants with a damp napkin and then dry it with another napkin, but it still looked like he had peed himself. He considered going back to the apartment with Debbie and having her hand-wash the pants and then drying them with a handheld hairdryer, but he worried that would take too long, and the last thing he wanted was his nosey sister-in-law telling her husband that he had been home for an hour when he was supposed to be at work. All he could do now was lock himself in his office until his pants dried and hope he’d wiped up enough coffee that it hadn’t left a stain. He still didn’t understand what had happened at the restaurant.
After parking the car, Clay removed his jacket. He got out of the vehicle and draped the jacket over his arm, using it to conceal the stain. What he didn’t realize, the coffee hadn’t confined itself to the front of his pants.
* * *
“Good morning, Chief Bowman,” Colleen greeted.
“Good morning,” Bowman said gruffly. “I don’t want to be disturbed. You can put calls through, but I’m not accepting any visitors right now.” Not waiting for a response, he hurried toward his office.
Ten minutes later, Brian and Joe showed up at Colleen’s desk. “Have you seen Chief Bowman?” Brian asked. “We stopped by his office, but no one’s there. And his car’s out front.”
“Oh, he’s there,” Colleen whispered as she looked down the hall, making sure Bowman wouldn’t suddenly appear and catch her talking about him.
“He didn’t answer the door,” Joe said. “And he wasn’t in the break room.”
“Maybe he went to the restroom,” Brian suggested.
“I think he wet his pants,” Colleen whispered.
Brian arched his brows. “Excuse me?”
“He came in and was holding his jacket in front of him, like he was trying to cover himself. It looked super awkward. Not how a guy holds a jacket. And he told me he didn’t want to be disturbed, but I could put calls through. Which is weird. I mean, if you don’t want to be disturbed, why would you be okay with putting calls through?”
“And that’s why you think he wet his pants?” Joe asked.
“No. When he walked away, the back of his pants looked all wet. Not like he sat on something, but like he… well…” Colleen cringed and added, “But please, don’t tell him I told you that.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t say anything,” Brian said.
They all stopped talking when someone entered the front waiting area. Through the window, Colleen could see it was the city manager, so she buzzed him in without waiting for him to request entry.
“I’m here to see Chief Bowman,” Fred told Colleen when he stepped into the front office. He gave both Joe and Brian a nod of greeting.
“Umm… he’s in his office, but he said he didn’t want to be disturbed,” Colleen said.
Fred smiled. “I’m sure that doesn’t apply to me.” Not waiting for a name tag, Fred started toward the chief’s office. Colleen immediately picked up the phone to call Bowman and inform him Fred was on his way.
* * *
After getting off the phone with Colleen, Clay rushed to unlock the office door. He wanted to be sitting behind the desk when Fred walked in, unfortunately he didn’t make it to his desk in time, and he reluctantly turned around and greeted his brother-in-law, who immediately noticed the stain.
Fred arched his brows. “Did we have a problem?”
Bowman laughed nervously, shook Fred’s hand, and said, “I had breakfast with Debbie and the boys, and you know how kids are. Always spilling something. Unfortunately, I don’t have an extra pair of clean pants. Figured they can dry here while I get some work done.” Bowman pointed to an empty chair before taking a seat behind the chief’s desk.
“I don’t know how you and Deb do it with twins. Double trouble.” Fred laughed and sat down. “So, tell me, how are you settling in?”
“Good. Good. Yesterday I walked around town, visited some businesses, introduced myself.”
Fred nodded. “How are you doing with everyone here? Was it strange coming back, this time as the boss?”
“It’s been okay, so far. The only one who seems problematic is Brian Henderson.”
Fred shrugged. “Henderson has been working for the police department longer than anyone else.”
“And he has never really advanced, has he?”
“In fairness to Henderson, it’s my understanding he turned down several promotions over the years. He’s not interested in moving up the ladder.”
“Then he should be more receptive to submitting to my leadership, shouldn’t he?”
Before Fred responded, the office door opened. Bowman was about to reprimand the person barging into his office without first knocking but swallowed his words when Chief MacDonald walked into the room.
Fred stood up and faced MacDonald. “Chief, you’re supposed to be at home, getting ready for your surgery.”
MacDonald absently shook Fred’s hand, gave Bowman a nod of greeting, and glanced around his office. He noticed the missing photos, nameplate, and other items out of place. “My surgery’s not until Friday. I just thought I’d stop in and see how everything is going.”
Fred sat back down, and MacDonald took the empty chair next to him while Bowman remained sitting at the desk.
“Everything is fine,” Bowman said.
Leaning back in the chair, the chief crossed one leg over the opposing knee while focusing his attention on Bowman. “I understand there was an incident with the Marlows yesterday.”
“What kind of incident?” Fred asked.
Bowman shrugged. “It was more of a misunderstanding. Mrs. Marlow was wandering around in the back offices without proper identification, and when I asked who she was, she refused to tell me.”
“From what I understand, you grabbed her by the wrist, a little too tight. And she asked you to let her go because you were hurting her, and you wanted to arrest her,” the chief said. “I might add, she is eight months pregnant.”
“The woman just walked into this office without so much as knocking. I didn’t know who she was,” Bowman insisted.
“I think Clay’s right. It sounds like a misunderstanding,” Fred said.
* * *
Colleen sat alone at the front desk when a woman she didn’t recognize walked up to the window separating the offices from the front waiting area. “Can I help you?”
“Is Brian Henderson here?” the woman asked.
“Yes. You want me to call him?”
The woman nodded.
Colleen picked up the phone. “Who should I say is calling?”
“Tell him it’s Camilla Henderson.”
Colleen smiled. “Oh, are you Brian’s sister?”
Camilla shook her head. “No. I’m Brian’s ex-wife.”
* * *
Brian was tempted to tell Colleen he didn’t want to speak with his ex-wife, but he was curious about what she had to say. Plus, if she was really planning to stay in town, there was no way he could avoid seeing her, and he had also been married to the woman for a quarter of a century.
After being buzzed through the door and issued a name tag, Brian led Camilla to the break room, passing the chief’s office, its door still closed. Once in the break room, Brian shut the door and then asked Camilla what she wanted.
Still standing, Camilla smiled at Brian and glanced around the room. “Can we sit down and talk?”
Brian shrugged and then motioned to the table and chairs. They each sat down.
“I’m sorry about how I acted when I saw you the other day,” Camilla began.
Brian wanted to ask her if she was sorry that she had hit Heather, but he realized that wasn’t fair, since he understood Camilla sincerely believed Heather had hit her first. “I imagine it was a tough day for you. I know you were close to Homer.”
Camilla nodded. “I also feel guilty that I haven’t been back for so long. But I didn’t want to see him like that.”
“I hadn’t seen him for a long time myself.”
“I’m also sorry I was such a bitch when you’d go over to play cribbage with him. I think I was just jealous.”
Brian shrugged. “Water under the bridge, as they say.”
“You know, you look great, Brian.”
“Thanks.” Brian knew Camilla wanted him to extend the same compliment. After all, she looked good. She looked younger than the last time he had seen her. Instead, he asked, “Why did you want to talk to me?”
“Like I said, I just wanted to apologize for the other day. Now that I’m moving back, I figure we’ll run into each other from time to time. No reason for it to be awkward or a bunch of drama like the other day. Thought we could come to a truce of sorts. Perhaps someday get to the place we can be friends again.”
“No drama would be nice.” Brian smiled.
“I haven’t seen many people since I got back. Is Joe still here?”
“Yeah. He got married last month.”
“Really? What about the chief? I heard about his wife. Did he ever get remarried?”
“No. In fact, he’s out on medical leave. He’s having a knee replacement surgery. He’ll be out for a few months, at least.”
“Does that mean you’re the acting chief?”
Brian shook his head.
“Did you turn it down?”
Brian smiled. “No. I would have filled in for the chief. In fact, I’ve been acting chief several times since you left. But the powers-that-be decided to bring in someone else. Do you remember Clay Bowman?”
Camilla stared dumbly at Brian. “Who?”
“Clay Bowman. He used to work here.”
* * *
After they finished their discussion, Camilla told Brian he didn’t need to escort her back to the front office. Alone, Camilla walked down the hallway until she came to the chief’s office, its door still closed. She glanced up and down the hallway, wanting to make sure no one was coming. Camilla reached for the doorknob, turned it, found it unlocked. She swung the door open.
Had Camilla arrived ten minutes earlier, she would have found Chief MacDonald and Fred Lyons with Clay, but they had both left, and Bowman remained, sitting behind the desk. Bowman looked up the moment the door opened, and once again he was prepared to reprimand whoever had entered his office without knocking, but he was not prepared to see Camilla Henderson standing in the doorway.
“Hello, Clay,” Camilla purred. She stepped all the way into the office, closed the door behind her, and said, “We need to talk.”