Megan
After visiting with Adriana, I phoned Detective Bustamente to give him an update. “I swung by her house for a quick chat. I told her that the footprints wouldn’t hold up under the scrutiny of a good defense attorney and that fact, along with Ryan’s alibi, meant there wasn’t sufficient evidence to make an arrest.”
“How did she respond?”
“She was furious.”
“Furious because she’s scared? Or furious because her plan to get Ryan in trouble isn’t working?”
Hell if I know. “I don’t know what to think.”
“We’ll figure it out sooner or later,” Bustamente said.
“I hope it’s sooner.” Later might be too late.
After speaking with the detective, I made a pass by Ryan’s apartment complex. While his Camaro was in his reserved parking spot, his work truck was nowhere in the lot. Looked like the guy was putting in some overtime.
With a couple of hours to burn until our night shift began, I drove to the Shoppes at Chisholm Trail, a mall located within the boundaries of our beat. To look at the place now, you’d never know a bomb had gone off there the previous summer. Thanks to Brigit alerting on the device, we’d been able to evacuate the food court before the explosive detonated. To this day, I couldn’t figure out why she’d led me to the garbage can where the bomb had been placed. While she was trained to track and sniff for illicit drugs, she was not trained to scent for explosives. Best I could figure, either she heard the timer ticking and was curious about it or she smelled something else in the garbage that had caused her to alert. Either way, her actions saved untold numbers of lives. She and I had sustained minor injuries, but we’d lived to patrol another day.
Given that it was now August, the summer stock had been relegated to the clearance racks to make space for the incoming winter apparel. But given that we lived in Texas, summer weather would actually continue for a couple more months, the calendar be damned. Might as well see if the stores had any cute bathing suits or shorts on sale, right?
Luck was with me. I found a cute bikini in a mint-green color for half price, as well as a pair of shorts and a bohemian print top. I tried them on in the dressing room, turning this way and that to check myself out in the mirror. “What do you think, girl?” I asked Brigit. Ridiculous, since she wore the same outfit—her fur—every day and had little interest in fashion. Even if she did, she couldn’t exactly express her opinion. Sometimes I forgot my partner wasn’t human. Still, she wagged her tail when I spoke to her so I took that as a sign of approval. I decided to get them all. I worked hard. I’d earned them.
As we made our way through the food court with our purchases, Brigit lifted her nose in the air and sniffed her way along. We were passing through an aisle between sets of tables when a male voice called out. “Officer Luz! How are you?”
I turned to see Serhan Singh at the counter of his kebab restaurant, Stick People. Though Singh was from Turkey, he’d embraced American life, and the local sports teams, with fervor. He sported a full beard, jeans, and a Texas Rangers jersey.
“Let’s go say hi,” I told Brigit, changing course. As we headed to his booth, her tail wagged a mile a minute. She knew Serhan. Better yet, she knew he was always good for some warm beef or chicken.
We stepped up to the counter. “Good to see you, Serhan.”
“You, too,” he replied. “I have not seen much of you two at the mall this summer.”
It had been a busy season for me. Between tracking the Berkeley Place Peeper and working an undercover drug sting at the university, I’d been tied up elsewhere the past several weeks. “We’ve had some investigations that kept us from our usual beat,” I told him. “How are your wife and daughter?” I’d never forget their terrified faces the day the bomb had gone off and they’d been forced to flee the mall. The image was seared into my memory.
“Kara’s excited about starting first grade,” he said. “She can’t wait to learn how to read better. She told me that she knows most of the three-letter words now and wants to learn the four-letter ones.”
We shared a chuckle at her innocence.
He looked down at Brigit, who was smacking her chops and drooling so heavily her mouth was a virtual Niagara Falls, forming a small puddle at her front paws. “Would you like chicken or beef tonight, Brigit?”
She responded with a woof!
“Beef it is.” He used tongs to pull three strips of beef from a warming tray and lay them in a cardboard basket. He handed me the basket, along with a napkin. Not that he thought Brigit would need it. She could wipe her mouth with her tongue. But he knew I’d tear the meat into smaller pieces to keep her from wolfing it down and would need to clean up afterward.
“Thanks so much.”
He nodded. “My pleasure. Hope to see you again soon.”
Lest someone slip in Brigit’s drool, I wiped the floor with the napkin and led her outside. I parked my rear on a bench to feed Brigit. She snatched each piece of meat from my hands as soon as I tore it off. It was a miracle I didn’t lose a finger in the process.
After visiting the mall, I drove to Forest Park and threw a Frisbee for Brigit, letting her get some exercise and have some fun. She ran after it, catching it every time as it began to come back down to earth. She even caught my bad throw, which ended up in the branches of an oak tree, falling down through the limbs like a pinball.
As we played, a smiling redhead came up the walk, a black Lab at the end of her leash. Brigit trotted over to meet the dog. Both of their tails wagged as they greeted each other.
“Hi,” I said to the woman as I bent over to pet her dog. “Who’s your pretty girl?”
“That’s Shae,” the woman said. “She’s sassy.”
As if to prove the point, Shae bent down on her front legs, her rear in the air and her tail whipping back and forth as she attempted to engage Brigit in play. Brigit mirrored the gesture, adding a frisky arf-arf! as she jumped back and forth on her front legs. The two engaged in a playful dance for a few seconds before a squirrel scampering between two nearby trees drew their attention away.
“Enjoy the rest of the day!” I called to the woman as she and her dog continued on their way.
We spent another quarter hour at playtime before it was time to head to the station. “C’mon, girl!” I called to round up Brigit. “Time for work.”
We arrived a few minutes early for our shift. Brigit and I waited in the parking lot for Derek to arrive. Our fellow officer Summer pulled into the lot not long after us. She drove an adorable white Miata with a colorful pink Hawaiian lei hanging from the rearview mirror. She had the top down, enjoying the night air. Not that it was cool, by any stretch of the imagination. But when the daytime highs had hit 104 degrees, the upper eighties felt virtually arctic.
Summer’s name fit her perfectly. She was a bubbly blonde with bouncy curls. Like me, she’d joined the force right out of college, though she had three years’ experience on me. Unlike some officers, who became jaded after dealing with lawbreakers day in and day out, Summer somehow managed to remain an optimist, retaining her faith in humanity.
How she managed to maintain her sunny disposition these days was beyond me. After Derek Mackey had lost critical drug evidence and a dealer had gone free as a result, the W1 captain no longer trusted the Big Dick to work alone. Nobody’d wanted to pair with the jerk and, unfortunately, Summer had drawn the short stick. Until such time as Derek proved himself again, she was stuck with him. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.
When Summer spotted us, she waved and tapped her horn. Beep-beep! I raised a hand back at her. She pulled into a spot and activated the convertible top. It rose and arced over her head, slowly coming to a close.
“Hi, Megan!” she sang as she hopped out of her car. “Hi, Brigit!” She walked over, knelt down, and gave my furry partner a nice scratch and a kiss on the head.
“Hey, Summer,” I replied. “Before you head out on patrol, I n-need to speak with Derek.”
She looked up. “About what?”
I told her about my visits last night to Adriana’s house and Ryan’s apartment. “Derek handled an earlier call at Miss Valdez’s place. I want to get his read on her. We’re not sure she’s on the up-and-up. She avoided eye contact with me and seemed a little squirrelly.”
On hearing the word “squirrel,” Brigit looked up and glanced around, seeking the rodent I’d mentioned. Seeing none, she cast me a dirty look for my poor word choice and let out a sigh.
Summer stood. “What about Ryan Downey? Did he seem trustworthy?”
“Not particularly. Other than the Big Dick, I’ve never seen a guy so full of himself for no apparent reason.”
Summer offered a hmph. “So either one could be the bad guy, then.”
“Exactly.” I told Summer that the night crew needed to make extra passes by their residences tonight to keep an eye on things, and provided her with the addresses. “If you see anything suspicious, let me know. Okay?”
“Sure will.”
We jumped back as Mackey’s shiny black pickup careened into the lot, tires screeching. What an ass. I was tempted to write him a ticket for reckless driving.
He braked to a quick stop in the spot next to Summer’s car, the rubber truck nuts hanging from his trailer hitch swinging wildly. He slid out, bleeped the door locks, and went into the station to clock in. When he came back outside, he sauntered over. “Let’s go,” he barked at Summer, swinging an arm to point to her squad car on the far side of the lot.
She was unfazed. “Not yet, buckaroo.” She smiled sweetly. “Officer Luz needs to speak with you first.”
He cut her a harsh look and turned to me, his lip twitching in a sneer. There was no love lost between the two of us. He’d never forgive me for Tasering him in the groin last year. But, hell, he’d asked for it by making one crude comment too many and pushing me over the edge.
While I’d like to say I regretted my momentary lapse of judgment and self-control, it would be a lie. How could I regret the incident that ended my partnership with a grade-A shithead and resulted in me being teamed with Brigit instead?
Derek and the chief of police were tight. The two were hunting buddies and spent time together regularly outside of work. As a result, the Taser incident had been kept quiet, the chief realizing I could bring his golden boy down with me if I repeated the filthy comments Derek had made. Still, Chief Garelik had given me an ultimatum. Pair with a K-9 or turn in my resignation. At first I’d been hesitant. I wasn’t sure a dog would make a good partner. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Brigit was loyal and dedicated, and she had special skills that enabled us to do things other partners could never accomplish. She was a good listener, too, always having a ready ear when I needed to talk things out. And she performed watchdog duty at home, too, which was an added benefit. Taking care of her 24/7 tied me down a little and I didn’t enjoy having to pick up her poop, but these sacrifices were small compared to what she brought to my life.
“Well?” Mackey snapped. “What do you want, Luz?”
“You handled a call a while b-back,” I said, “at the home of a woman named Adriana Valdez. Do you remember her?”
“I only remember the hot chicks,” he said. “Even then I never remember their names.”
Derek’s charm knew no bounds. Blurgh. I figured a few details might jar his memory. “Her car alarm had gone off in the middle of the night and she suspected her ex-boyfriend had thrown a tennis ball at her car. Does that ring a bell?”
“Now I remember.” A lecherous grin spread across his face. “She was the chica with the tight little—”
“Besides that,” I snapped, “what were your thoughts?”
He grunted. “She was getting her panties in a wad over nothing. Even if her ex did throw a ball at her car, it was a harmless prank.”
Summer and I exchanged glances. A lunk like Derek wouldn’t understand how a woman might feel threatened to know her ex had been cruising by her house, keeping an unwelcome eye on her, showing that he harbored enough resentment to want to cause her some grief.
Though I doubted this conversation with Derek was going to yield any useful information, I might as well see it through, right? “Did anything make you believe she’d set off her car alarm herself?”
“That’s a stupid question.” He frowned. “Why the hell would she do that?”
Summer and I exchanged another glance. Derek was clearly not a deep thinker. Like me, he wanted to make detective someday. I doubted he had what it took. He was more physical than intellectual, with more bravado than brains. He was much better suited for SWAT than investigative work.
I didn’t bother explaining to Derek that it was possible Adriana might be trying to frame her ex. All I said was, “There was another incident at her place last night. We need to keep a close eye on her house and her ex’s apartment for a while. I’ve given Summer the addresses.”
With a jut of his chin in acknowledgment, Derek turned to Summer. “Let’s roll.”
“Head on to the cruiser, cowboy,” she said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Whatever.” He walked off, heading toward their squad car.
I eyed her. “Is there something else we need to talk about?”
“No,” she whispered, a naughty gleam in her eye. “I just like pushing Mackey’s buttons. He hates those pet names I keep calling him, and he hates to wait for anyone.”
I held my palm out at my waist and she gave me a discreet low five. Slap. Seeing our exchange and not to be left out, Brigit raised her paw. Summer gave Brigit a low five, too.
Brigit and I set out on our shift. I wrote a speeding ticket, directed traffic around a fender bender, and raised a hand in greeting to a group of junior high kids gathered in the parking lot of a small neighborhood pizza place. “You kids be careful, now!” I called through the open window of my cruiser. Of course what I actually meant was, Don’t do something stupid or I’ll be back here to bust your asses.
I cruised by Adriana’s and Ryan’s places a dozen times that night, but the only suspicious thing I saw was a small gray possum sneaking out from under Adriana’s porch. The nocturnal beast must have been what Brigit was trying to get at earlier. The possum’s movement activated Adriana’s new motion-sensing lights, turning a spotlight on him as if he was starring in his own Broadway musical. The little creature froze, his expression reading What just happened here?
The lights inside Adriana’s place went off around eleven. Ryan’s place went dark around midnight. Good night, folks. Sleep tight.
As I rolled through Ryan’s apartment complex again around two in the morning, Brigit whined to let me know she needed a potty break. “I hear ya, girl.”
I parked in an unreserved spot in the center of the lot and let Brigit out of the cruiser, not bothering to attach her leash. At this late hour, no one was out and about. The only sounds were the rhythmic chirp of the crickets and the hum of the air-conditioning units as they battled the heat and humidity.
Brigit followed me to a small grassy area between Ryan’s building and the one next door. After squatting to relieve herself, she sniffed around the bushes and trees, checking things out.
As long as we were out of the car, we might as well perform a more complete surveillance, right? I softly called for Brigit to follow me, and we tiptoed up the stairs to the landing outside Ryan’s apartment. Tonight, his porch was clear. The newspaper had been removed, along with two bricks I’d left when I collected the other one for evidence.
Had he cleared his porch to prevent Adriana from taking something else she could use to implicate him? Who knew? Certainly not me.
Only the two of them knew the truth.
Too bad I wasn’t a mind reader.
* * *
I worked the night shift the rest of the week and continued to cruise by Adriana’s house and Ryan’s apartment every hour or so. On one of my rounds, I crossed paths in the apartment parking lot with a patrol car from a private security company. The white sedan sported a single flashing orange light on top and the company’s logo, which approximated a police shield, on the front doors. I rolled to a stop and stuck my hand out the window to get the driver’s attention.
The car pulled up next to me and the window lowered to reveal a man who looked to be in his late sixties. Despite his age, he was nonetheless in trim shape, with a thick head of gray hair and alert eyes. “Everything okay, Officer?”
“Just wanted to see if you’d noticed anything unusual the past few days.”
“As in…?” He paused and raised his brows, inviting me to fill in the blank.
“Unusual activity late at night? Someone sneaking around, or coming and going at odd hours?”
“Haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary,” he said.
I cocked my head and eyed the man intently. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure thing.”
“Keep a close eye on unit 206,” I told him. “The guy who lives there had a recent breakup and there’s been some strife between him and his ex.” I reached into my breast pocket and pulled out my business card. “If you happen to notice anything odd, let me know.”
“I’ll do that.” He took the card and slid it under a strap on his visor.
With that, the two of us went about our business.
Other than another possum sighting at Adriana’s house, nothing out of the ordinary caught my eye. No calls came in, either. Whichever one of them had thrown the brick had apparently decided to behave himself or herself. With any luck, their situation had resolved itself and whoever had been acting out had decided to stop being petty and get a life.
While I hoped Adriana and Ryan were moving on, I was beginning to think Seth was moving in. He’d showed up with fresh bagels Thursday morning as Brigit and I returned home from our shift. While I dozed with a box fan running to drown out the noise, he mowed and trimmed the lawn as Brigit and Blast played in the yard. When I woke in mid-afternoon, I found him in my bathroom shaving, getting ready to head to the station. He wore only a towel around his waist and a thick layer of shaving cream on his face.
I leaned against the door frame, admiring his muscular physique. No doubt about it, Seth was quite a catch. Unlike Ryan, Seth had obvious reasons to sport a big ego. Fortunately, he didn’t.
His gaze met mine in the mirror. “Are you ogling me?”
“Maybe.”
He held the razor aloft and arched a brow. “Want me to lose the towel?”
“I want you to wash the towels. And then do the dishes and sweep and mop the kitchen.”
He scoffed in jest. “Fixing you waffles Monday and taking care of your yard today wasn’t enough? I’m beginning to feel taken for granted.” He sent me a wink and went back to shaving.
I continued to watch him. Although we’d become very comfortable with each other, there was still a lot about Seth I didn’t know. He tended to be short on details, and didn’t like to talk about anything too emotional. I’d learned to read his signals, though. The set of his jaw. The distance in his gaze. The vertical lines, or lack thereof, between his eyes as he thought. And damned if I didn’t want to know more about him, to meet the grandfather who’d raised him, the man he’d continued to live with despite their obvious antagonism. Heck, Seth and I had been dating for months. It was due time, right? Still, I knew he had to get to the station and didn’t have time for what might be a prolonged debate. I’d soon find a more opportune time to broach the subject.
“Careful with that chin dimple,” I warned.
He cut me a sexy smile as he ran the razor down his cheek. “Always am.”