19. Luke
Luke
“Yes, Your Honor,” I said.
The judge repeated her question to Juliet. “Do you believe the agreement laid out is fair and reasonable?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
And within a few minutes, I was officially a divorced man.
Juliet and I had filed an uncontested divorce agreement.
She got to keep the majority of the equity in the house while I kept my retirement account intact.
No kids, no pets, no joint accounts. It wasn’t until we started the discussions on how to split our assets that I realized how little we actually shared.
As much as I wanted to put the blame on Juliet for our failed marriage—and she certainly wasn’t without fault—I had to admit that our marriage was built on attraction, expectation, and convenience from the very beginning. It was never about love.
I wanted so much more for myself now. I wanted to want someone. Wanted to spend my days and nights with someone. To share our lives fully and completely.
I wanted Scarlett .
I hadn’t felt like I did with Scarlett since I was in high school, chasing after girls and getting my heart broken. Juliet could never have broken my heart because I had never given it to her. Scarlett, on the other hand, just her friendship alone meant more to me than anything.
Thinking about Scarlett, her tight body under mine, her pouty lips open and inviting, made me want so much more than friendship with her.
Juliet followed me outside after our case was adjourned.
“How are you holding up?” I asked her as we stood on the front steps of the courthouse, the autumn sun fighting to warm the cooling air.
“I’m good. It needed to happen.” She shrugged.
“True. Not just with this though. In general. Are you doing okay?”
“Tired, sick, scared… so you know, just peachy.” She cracked a small smile at the end.
I ran my hand through my cropped hair, pulling in a breath. “Is Monroe… Matt… treating you right?”
“We don’t have to do this, Luke,” she said.
“Listen, I know it’s uncomfortable. Trust me, I get it,” I said. “But it’s a small town, Jules. We’re going to run into each other. I work with the father of your child. I’d rather be on good terms than not.”
“Matt’s been really good to me. To us,” she said, her hand rubbing small circles on her belly.
It was still pretty flat, but I was starting to see the beginnings of a bump developing.
My eyes homed in on the movement until Juliet dropped her hand.
“I’m sorry, Luke. It shouldn’t have gone down the way it did. ”
I huffed out a laugh. “Probably not. But it did. Now we just need to deal with it like adults.”
“Oh, like punching each other in the face at a bar?”
A smirk tugged at my cheek. I tried to school my features, but I couldn’t stop it. “I mean, he did have it coming.”
She shook her head but didn’t say anything.
We stood together in silence for a minute, processing the end of our lives together.
This was probably the most civil conversation I’d had with Juliet in months, if not years.
Apparently, all we needed was to no longer be tied to each other for us to see each other as people again.
“Well, bye, Luke,” she said.
“See you around, Jules.” I watched her walk to her car. It felt like the last step to this whole damn affair. As she drove away, all I could think was that I was finally a free man.
* * *
After going home to shower and change, I showed up at the station a few hours later for the start of my shift.
I was talking to Danny Souza when the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.
I turned to the entryway to see Scarlett stepping past Monroe in the doorway.
Her hair was tamed into a neat bun, and it looked like she was wearing makeup that made her eyes pop even more than usual.
She sent me a tentative smile as soon as she saw me, and it made my chest feel tight.
Behind Scarlett, Captain Langston also walked in.
He clapped Monroe on the shoulder as he passed.
“Wilder, Monroe, just the people I needed to see. My office, please,” Chief Williams called from his doorway .
I caught eyes with Matt and was met with a quick brow raise. Matt followed me into the chief’s office, each of us taking a seat at his desk.
“I need additional detectives for a case that’s come up. I want the two of you on it. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, sir,” I answered.
Matt hesitated for a beat. “No, sir. Not a problem.”
“Speak now, Monroe. If you can’t work together without someone cracking a rib, I need to know before I send you out into the streets.”
“No issue. I’m good,” he said.
“Good. We’ve had a series of break-ins at local businesses in the past few months.
It started small, had all the hallmarks of bored teens looking for a rush, but, as you know, they’ve been increasing in frequency.
Geller’s place has been hit twice now. Let’s get to the bottom of this before it continues. ”
Ray Geller owned the only pharmacy in town.
If his place was being targeted, that meant more drugs were out on the streets and getting into the wrong hands.
We would need a list of every other break-in in the last six months.
What were the commonalities? Did it always happen at night?
How did the perp get in? Same method every time? How many people were involved?
“Find every police report related to the break-ins. Get them together into a single case file. I want this resolved, now,” Chief Williams said. He dismissed us back to work. I left his office and sat at my computer so I could get started.
“What?” I asked Matt. He had followed me to my desk but hadn’t said anything.
“How do you want to handle this?”
On my own .
I didn’t say that out loud though. I’d told the chief that I would be able to work with him, so I would. Besides, it made me feel better knowing that I had a close eye on him while the threat to Scarlett was still out there.
“I’ll take the first three months moving forward, you take the last three months moving backwards, and we can meet in the middle.
Let’s try to get this wrapped up today so that tomorrow we can start asking questions,” I said.
He nodded his agreement but still didn’t move back to his seat. “Something else?”
“How’d things go today?” he asked.
I leveled a hard stare at him. There was a time when that question would have made perfect sense. A friend and colleague checking in on what would most likely be a hard day. That time had long since passed.
“Shouldn’t have asked,” he said, his hands raised in front of him.
“I’m surprised you haven’t talked to Jules yet.”
He scratched at his jaw, looking more uncomfortable than before. “I did. She said it went fine, but that’s all she would say.”
“That’s all there is to say. We already knew how we wanted this to go.
We agreed on the terms. There was no drama, nothing of note happened.
Judge banged her gavel, and now we’re divorced,” I told him, sitting back in my chair.
“Congratulations, you are no longer an adulterer. You’re just an asshole. ”
Matt scowled before turning around and walking away, letting me get back to work.
The reports were starting to blur into each other after staring at my screen for the last few hours.
I had found four break-ins in the three-month timeframe I was looking into.
I got up to stretch my legs and hit the restroom.
As soon as I turned into the small hallway where the bathrooms were, I nearly collided with Scarlett.
“Hey,” I said. My gaze bounced between her eyes, her freckled nose, and that sultry, pouty mouth of hers.
“Hi.” She bit her lip. I could see the nervousness in her eyes.
After spending three days together, we hadn’t seen each other since the other day when she left for work and I went back to my place.
We talked every day, but our schedules weren’t aligned until today.
We were taking steps toward becoming something else, but I couldn’t tell if that was what she wanted.
“How are you feeling now that a few hours have passed?” she asked. I had texted Scarlett after I got out of court this morning. She was one of the first people to know that my divorce was official, along with my brothers.
“I’m good. My brothers are planning a thing tomorrow night to celebrate,” I said with a laugh. I didn’t think anyone was more excited for my divorce than my brothers. Except, now that I was standing in front of Scarlett as a free man, maybe it was me.
“Divorce parties are a thing, apparently.”
“Apparently. We’re going to Harpoon’s, and I know you’re not working tomorrow night, so I had better see you there.” Honestly, if it were up to me, I would be just as happy sitting on Scarlett’s couch playing card games, but my brothers wanted to show their support, and I appreciated it.
“Are the other ladies coming?”
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“I don’t want to crash your guys’ night.” She shrugged .
“I’m not sure who’s going to be there, but you wouldn’t be crashing anything. You’re invited, Letty. I want you there.”
Her eyes searched mine. The pull between us was magnetic, and I knew she could feel it too. She smiled softly, her lashes fluttering for a moment before she blinked herself out of my gaze.
“Okay. I’ll try to stop by for a drink.” She winked as she walked past me. I reached my hand out slightly, just enough to graze it down her arm on her way past. I was rewarded when I heard her breath hitch.
I was playing with fire, and I liked it.
* * *
I grabbed the keys to one of the department’s undercover SUVs and strolled over to Matt’s desk.
“You ready?” I asked.
Matt and I needed to head into town and start asking questions. Lucky us, getting to spend eight straight hours attached at the hip and shoved in a car together. No wonder Chief pulled us aside to check our amicability first.
Besides the four break-ins I found, Matt had six more in the most recent three-month timeframe.
That was ten break-ins in six months that were primarily underinvestigated.
Shit like that pissed me off, but with the accusations rolling around in my head, I had to wonder if it was really a coincidence.
“Yup. Ready when you are.”
“I wouldn’t be standing here with keys in my hand if I wasn’t ready,” I replied .
Our first stop of the day was Geller’s Pharmacy. Not only was it the only business to be hit twice, but it also had the most danger associated with the thefts.
Ray Geller greeted us from behind the counter when we walked in. His gray hair was thinning with age, the lines in his face getting more pronounced as the years went by.
“Luke, Matt. Are you here on official business or personal?”
“Official business today. Do you have a few minutes to talk about the recent break-ins?” Monroe asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on back to my office.” He turned to his employee, Jamie, and asked him to cover the counter for a while.
Ray’s office reminded me of Wyatt’s. There was madness in the mess that only the person who worked with it understood. He shuffled some papers around and gestured for us to take a seat.
Ray walked us through the first break-in about six months back and then the one from the other night.
Both times, a window had been smashed to gain entry.
The thieves moved quickly, the blaring alarm not deterring them in the slightest. He had footage of both incidents that we reviewed.
I would need to go through it again, look for more clues with a closer eye to the details, but at first glance, there wasn’t much to go on.
Matt and I left Ray an hour later and headed to the next business on our list.
We heard a similar story from Jeannie Roston.
Calla Bay Candies didn’t have anything with street value, unless the perps were peddling rock candy as a new form of drug, but that didn’t prevent her storefront from being raided back in April.
Another smashed window. Quick in-and- out cash grab.
Jeannie’s camera footage looked like it was recorded in 1974, it was so damn grainy.
There was nothing useful we could gain from it, but we obtained a copy of it as evidence.
One thing was clear from the three events we’d investigated so far: they were definitely committed by the same small group.
The two earlier incidents had three perpetrators, all in black clothes from head to toe, while the most recent one only showed two people.
Monroe and I headed out again after we wrapped up Jeannie’s interview. The only sound was the static of the radio as we drove along in silence.
“You hear anything from Winters about the Redmond case?” Monroe’s question broke that silence.
“Wes is doing his own investigation. It has nothing to do with me,” I replied.
“I thought you were working with him. Trying to dig up dirt to get Redmond off.”
“What the fuck makes you think that?”
My pulse quickened, but I didn’t let it show. He was clearly against Wes’s investigation, but what lengths would he go to to stop it? Would he threaten Scarlett for joining the fight?
“Just know you guys are close,” he said. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, not bothering to respond. “You think there’s any truth to the rumor that someone on the inside isn’t as clean as we’d like to believe?”
I could hear it in his voice. This act to seem casual.
Nothing to see here, just making conversation.
Bullshit. He was trying to figure out what I knew. What Wes knew. This wasn’t some chatty bullshit to pass the time while we drove to the next business on our list. He was fishing, but he wasn’t getting shit from me .
“Hadn’t even heard that rumor. But I’ll tell you this, if someone on this force is dirty, I won’t stop until the whole fucking place is cleaned up.”
I spared a glance at Monroe from the side of my eye. He was nodding along, like my answer was exactly what he was hoping to hear.
I didn’t trust his head nod, and I didn’t trust him.
Whatever was going through his mind right now, I hoped he understood that I was dead serious when I said that I wouldn’t stop until that dirty cop was out.
I would never have let something like this go, but now that they’d brought Scarlett into it, failure wasn’t an option.
If Monroe was involved in any way, he should be damn scared of the consequences.