Chapter 19
?
Mack added, “You were pretty funny back there.”
Doreen turned to him, raising her eyebrows. They were almost back to Devon’s house. “I don’t know about funny.”
He glanced over at her and grinned. “Honestly, you’re making a heck of a name for yourself. When we can’t even go out in public without getting noticed, you know that you’ve got a problem.”
“I don’t have a problem,” she replied. Then she frowned and asked him, “Do you?”
He shrugged. “It’s kind of weird.”
“It is odd to have people recognize me, but that’s mostly because of the animals being with me,” she muttered. “Still not exactly anything I expected to happen in my life.”
He chuckled. “No, I’m sure wasn’t. Yet it seems to have worked out pretty well for you. And you definitely have a knack for getting people to open up and talk to you, but I don’t know whether it’s just because they’re really angry with you, and things slip out, or something else altogether.”
“I wonder about that myself,” she muttered. “It’s not exactly how I thought this work would go.”
“Of course not,” he agreed, smiling, “but it is definitely how a lot of our work goes.”
“I am really grateful that things are going as well as they are.”
Mack shook his head. “I keep saying this, but we really do know how to do our jobs, you know?”
She frowned. “But I repeatedly told the crowd back there to contact you guys with any information. … Are we back to you guys feeling like you’re being made fun of?”
“Not necessarily,” he replied. “Yet I’m well aware that a lot of people don’t like the police and that we do tend to have a bad reputation.”
“I don’t think that’s fair,” she muttered. “You guys do a heck of a job.”
“Well, thank you,” he quipped in a half mocking tone.
“I mean it,” she stated, eyeing him seriously. “Maybe the public needs to see you and the others in action. Honestly, anybody who doesn’t see how much work you’re doing really doesn’t have any idea.”
“No, they don’t,” he agreed, “and unfortunately we’re constantly up against the townspeople due to lack of info and just bad PR.”
“I can get away with all kinds of stuff because I’m not part of the police department,” she pointed out, with a smirk.
“Exactly, and you are making my point for me … again,” he noted. “So, while you do your crowd-pleasing antics, a lot of people in town continue to think that we don’t do anything.”
She frowned, not sure where he was going with that. “Are you asking me to stop?”
“Stop what?” he asked, turning to her.
She thought about it and replied, “Stop being me.”
“No,” he said instantly, “that is definitely not what I want. But I don’t really want everybody to see the police as a support system for you either.
I get it, really. For a lot of people this is just plain fun, but, for us, we’ve put in a lifetime of effort trying to make as many of these collars happen as we can,” he explained, “and we don’t want anything to undermine our authority. ”
“Of course not,” she replied, frowning. “Did I make it sound like you guys don’t do your jobs?”
“No,” he said, “but the locals still look at it in that way.”
“I don’t want everybody thinking the police are the bad guys. That’s just not fair,” she stated immediately. “You guys do an incredible job.”
“Thank you,” he muttered in a humble tone that had her looking at him in concern once again. He smiled. “It’s fine. It’s just, with you around now, we are more aware of this disparity, how the town has no idea that we have whole teams working on crimes in Kelowna.”
“I’m not looking for credit or accolades,” she began, frowning.
Mack interrupted, shaking his head. “Speaking for myself and not the captain, I don’t care that anybody in particular gets the credit,” he began. “I do care that the police don’t get bashed about it.”
“That’s very fair,” she agreed, her mind buzzing, wondering how to make it right.
He added, “I’m not looking for you to fix this. Just whenever you’re making statements, consider the other people involved. I don’t want everybody at the station to feel like you’re a glory hound, trying to take all the credit.”
She stared at him in shock. “I would never do that.”
“Not everybody knows you like I do,” he added.
She sighed. “I’m so sorry, and I feel terrible.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel bad,” he told her, with a kind smile. “I’m mostly doing this because the captain would want me to.”
“Of course,” she replied, “but I don’t know how to make it right.”
“There’s nothing to make right,” he said. “Just remind the townspeople that you’re doing this with the help of the police.”
“In a way I feel like I’ve been put into a mascot position.”
He thought about it and then chuckled. “That’s not a bad way to look at it.”
“Maybe,” she conceded, “but I would also like to think that I had something more to offer beyond being a designated pet to the police department.”
“Ooh, ouch,” he muttered. “Is that how you see it?”
“This particular case is different because I wasn’t asked to join the investigation because the captain wanted me. While I respect the captain, he was more or less blackmailed into asking me for help.”
“Maybe,” he noted, with a nod, “but we will deal with it as we deal with everything.”
“I guess.” She knew she sounded forlorn, and that was how she felt.
“I’m not trying to upset you,” Mack said. “Let’s just try to keep the spirit of cooperation alive and well between the local authorities and the locals.”
“Oh, I like that,” she replied immediately.
Smiling, he nodded. “Good. Now let’s go in and take a look at this house.”
As they exited his truck, she asked him, “Do you have a partner you want to bring in on this?”
“No, we’re too short-staffed for that at the moment.”
“Is that a regular thing?”
“We have someone on paternity leave, and we have a couple other issues ongoing too,” he shared, “so not necessarily normal for us, but lately it happens more often than not. And that’s just life,” he added.
“Everybody is entitled to have time with their families.” And, with that, he led the way to the front of the house.
She followed along with her animals. As soon as they got to the front door, Mugs immediately started sniffing, like he was all about business now.
Mack frowned down at him.
“I don’t know what he’s after,” she noted, “but it started as soon as we got here.”
“Once again, that makes me think he would probably make a great drug-sniffing dog.”