Page 19 of Shadows of Before

“Where do you park?”

“In the last two rows.”

“Where there are no cameras.”

This sucked. His tone was…accusing. Still, she needed this job. “Chief, it’s not my fault that I park where I should.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess I didn’t realize what the demotion did to your circumstances.”

She said, “I had to sell my house and my new car.” She didn’t know why she told him that. She was just so frustrated…

“Hell.”

She leaned forward. “Will I ever get to be a detective again?”

“If you handle your situation well.”

“It’s not my fault Landry is out to get me, either.”

“You think Landry slashed your tires?”

“I didn’t say that. But somebody left a dead bird in my front seat during one of my night shifts.”

“And mostly cops would have been around.”

“My conclusion. About the birdandthe tires.”

“What did Kirkland say?”

She cleared her throat. “He agrees with me.”

The chief leaned back and stapled his fingers. “Let me think about all this.”

Kate left the office confused. When she got outside, her phone rang again. Oh, good. The garage. “Kate Donovan.”

“Katie, we put on four new tires. Your car is ready.”

“All right. I’ll be over soon, Larry.”

“Um, we can have somebody pick you up.”

“No, thanks. See you then.”

She called an uber again. Because the cost of it didn’t matter, compared to the cost of four new tires. How was she going to pay for them?

Once she reached the garage, Larry said, “That’ll be $500 for the least expensive tires. And Kate, you should have better ones than the least expensive.”

“I know, Larry. Thanks for doing this.” She pulled out a credit card she hated to use. Maybe she should get a second job.

* * *

“I got one.”

Wearing a Buffalo Bills cap and sunglasses, Diego stood at the edge of his boat, grabbed his pole from its perch and began to reel the line. The fish squirmed in the water but Diego held firm. As he reeled it out of the water, Will got the net and held it out for him. He detached the line and the fish fell in.

Will pushed back his own Buffalo cap. “A big walleye. She’s a beauty.”

“Dinner tonight. You come over.” Once Diego put the fish in the boat’s well, he said, “Time for a beer.”

---