Page 86 of Callahan

Lainey corrected me, “I think you mean,délicieux.”

“It was delicious, in any language.”

“Thank you again for helping me. If this cop thing doesn’t work out, I’m always looking for someone to work in the kitchen.”

Brian chimed in. “This ‘cop thing’ is going to work out great. Plus, he gets medical and dental.”

“Yeah, but here he gets all the pastries and coffee he wants.”

I looked at Brian and winced, “Ooooh, she’s gotcha there.”

“You could probably negotiate a bakery budget with the Chief.”

I turned back to Lainey to see if she had a counter point. Instead, she replied, “It sounds like I win either way.”

Brian said, “Hey, your roommate and I wanted your permission to have access to the camera feed at the back of the bakery.”

“Oh. I guess I assumed you had access to it since you’re the ones who put it up. Which reminds me, I probably need access to it, too.”

Brian’s eyebrows shot to his hairline.

“You haven’t set that up yet?”

She shrugged. “Like I said, I thought you guys had access to it, so I wasn’t really worried about it.”

He shot me a look and shook his head, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“It’s a good thing you’re around to keep her safe.”

Lainey reached in her apron pocket and pulled out her phone, then handed it to me.

“When you guys set yours up, can you do mine, too?”

I held the phone out and said, “Put in your code.”

“Oh, it’s not locked.”

I thought Brian’s head was going to explode.

“For fuck’s sake, Lainey. Put a damn screen lock on your phone.”

“Why? It’s never out of my sight.”

“What if someone steals it?”

“In Haven Springs?”

“Did you ever think you’d get a threatening letter in Haven Springs? Or that someone would get assaulted with a baseball bat in the middle of town?”

She conceded, “Well, no.”

“Exactly. You need to be more careful.”

Lainey batted her eyelashes at the sergeant.

“That’s what I’ve got you guys for.”

Brian took a deep breath in through his nose, then smiled at her like he had no choice but to love her.

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