CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Don’t even try it, Pete,” RJ joked. “You and your ball-and-chain will be at that ball just like the rest of us.”
“Why you always calling my wife a ball and chain as if yours ain’t?” Pete asked his Commanding Officer.
“My wife knows I run our household. Your wife don’t know that shit,” RJ said and they all laughed. “Your wife wears the pants in that bitch.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. She doesn’t even wear pants.”
“See what I mean?” said RJ. “She’s so big and bad she can lord it over you in a housedress.” They all laughed again.
They were in Grant’s office for his morning meeting with all of the senior staff, and as usual Grant wasn’t laughing. His meeting with his patrol officers didn’t go so well. They were complaining about the public still hounding them about how they bungled those mass shooting investigations and still hadn’t told them anything definitively. They were blaming all the cops, not the shooters themselves, and not just the cop that shot the shooter they had in custody. They were blaming everybody. And Grant didn’t know what to tell them.
But that was why he was watching his television as he studied that video from the shooting at Karney’s grocery store. His men were joking around. Grant wanted to find answers.
“Why we always got to go to the mayor’s ball every year anyway, Chief?” Carter asked him. “I don’t like being around them uppity mucks like that.”
“Neither do I,” said RJ.
But they all laughed. “Quit lying, Cap,” Carter said. “You fit right in. You’re the mayor’s boy.”
RJ gave Carter a hard look. “Who you calling a boy, boy?” he said. There was a tense moment. Grant even glanced at RJ. Then RJ cracked that smile again Grant’s men laughed at that too.
But Grant replayed that video.
RJ noticed it. “When are you going to give it a rest?”
“When we figure out why we had two mass shootings in one week when we never had any mass shootings in the history of this town. That’s when I’ll give it a rest.”
“Is that consultant filling your head with all that stuff?” Pete asked. “Talk about a ball-and-chain, she’s been following you around all day long like she’s your shadow for the past three weeks. Even after her vicious report came out. Like she has no shame about it. I would have told her to keep her ass out of my sight after what she wrote in that report.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” RJ agreed.
But Grant wasn’t mixing it up with them over Marti. She was off limits. “What’s the deal on those other ladies holed up in that office with the shooter? What did we find out about them?”
“The lady in green is a hair stylist in town with a lot of boyfriends,” RJ said, “but we couldn’t find any connection whatsoever between her and any of the three shooters. Including the shooter holed up in that office with her. We told you that three weeks ago, Chief.”
“I’m not talking about her. I’m talking about the other females in that office with her and the shooter. Before he opened fire on them, yes, he looked at the lady in green. But maybe that was on purpose too.”
They all looked at their chief. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe him staring at her was a way to keep us from seeing who the real target was.”
“ What? ” RJ voiced all of their sentiments because they all found the chief’s suggestion ludicrous. “Why would he do all of that subterfuge?”
“He had to know a camera was in that office,” said Grant. “It’s worth pursuing.”
“Says who?” asked Pete. “That consultant?”
Grant had had it with his disrespect. “You will refer to her as Lieutenant Nash. You hear me? I already told you that.”
As usual when Grant bothered to assert his authority, they always backed down. “Yes sir.”
“Get more detectives on the case to look into it,” Grant ordered RJ as his office door opened and an officer peered inside.
“What is it?” RJ asked. They hated being interrupted during their morning meeting.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir,” the officer said to Grant.
“Then don’t disturb him,” said Pete.
“We just got word, sir,” the officer continued, staring only at Grant, “that Lieutenant Nash has been in a car crash.”
As soon as Grant heard her name and the words car crash, he jumped up from his seat so fast that he knocked his chair over. Everybody in that office seemed surprised. “A car crash?”
“Yes sir.”
Grant was grabbing his coat and hurrying toward his door. “Is she alright?” His heart was pounding.
“We don’t know the full extent of her injuries yet, sir. She’s been transported to Marymount. All we know is that other vehicles were involved, one of which was a hit-and-run driver, and that her car was totaled.”
Totaled ? Grant’s heart was hammering as he gave a hard look at RJ and Pete.
RJ was offended. “It wasn’t us!” he said forcefully.
Grant would kick their asses later if it was, but all he could think about in that moment was getting to Markita. He ran out of his office.
“Do you want me to drive you, sir?” Sergeant Carter was yelling after him, but Grant was gone.
“Damn,” said Pete. “What’s with that? You’d think it was his child or somebody like that who was in that car crash.”
“And for him to look at us like we did it,” said Carter. “We hate the bitch, true enough, but he’s got some nerve.”
“Let’s just get back to work,” ordered RJ and they all stood up. “I’ll find out what I can and give an update.”
“You don’t have to update me,” said one of the senior staff as they walked out of the chief’s office.
“I couldn’t care less,” said another.
But when they all had gone, Pete, who hung back, looked at RJ. “Was it us?” he asked him.
RJ smiled. “The best misdirection ever!”
Pete was confused. What did he mean? He never seemed to know where RJ was coming from. But as long as RJ knew what was going on, Pete was okay with it. He smiled too.