Page 44 of Bears Behaving Badly
“Right.”
“Granted, we suck at it,” David added.
“But maybe we should put out the word that you and I are on a leave of absence? Though I’m not sure how that would—” A thought struck her, and she turned back to Bob. “Who?”
“What?”
“Who’s the ‘higher-up’ who told you to shut us down at the scene?”
“I didn’t talk to him personally, but the order came from Judge Gomph. One minute I’m getting ready to have lunch and the next Gomph’s office is yelling at me to rescind your Order of Protection ASAP.”
“What you just said makes no sense.”
“She’s right. The call would’ve had to have come in before 10:00 a.m. Who’s eating lunch then?”
“That’s not what I meant, David, but good point. But how could it be Gomph? He knew where we were going. I told him in the hearing, and he was fine with it. Why would he do such a thing after the fact?”
“Dunno, but he’s been stomping all over the place, and I’ll tell you what, he’s super pissed. And I’m beginning to figure out why. Hell, ’til this week, I didn’t even know he had feet. I always see him sitting down.” Bob had gone from horrified to put-upon to resentful to sulky to smug. None of them were good looks. “So you’d better have your shit together for the hearing today.”
“What? That can’t be right. We have another day! He said—”
Bob shrugged. “Changed his mind, didn’t he?”
Yes.
Why?
Chapter 17
“Youknowwhy,” David said as he took a left at the stoplight as they headed back to Mama Mac’s to pick up Caro for court.
Annette sighed. “Yes, I suppose I do. And after all that, we didn’t have a chance to talk about the disgusting pictures we found.”
“Waste of time. Bob’s focus is on keeping his head down and staying the hell out of the field, and that’s on agoodday. He hates the job, he’s scared of half his own caseworkers—”
“Oh, half.” Annette waved away the exaggeration.
“Including you.”
“Well, yes.”Don’t preen,she scolded herself. That’s not a compliment.“But that’s not such a trick.”
“He’s not gonna care,” David repeated for emphasis. “He’s gonna hide, and when he can’t do that, he’ll muddle like a motherfucker. I’m wondering ifhedidn’t set Caro free. Or at least sicced the garage gang on us. It’d be up his alley, wouldn’t it? Making trouble but keeping clear?”
“Hmmm.” Bob wasn’t a bad person, exactly, though he wasn’t in danger of winning any humanitarian awards, either. He was a common enough creature: a burnout killing time until his retirement, one who put forth minimal effort. Less, if he thought no one was watching. He liked things to be quiet and uncomplicated and clean, and he was in one of the worst jobs in the world for someone who treasured such things.
“But the garage thing happened just before the hearing. So I don’t think that was Gomph. He didn’t know anything about Caro at that time. The hearing was for Dev.” Which was awful, because that meant there weretwomoles. At least.
David’s hands flexed on the steering wheel as he thought out loud. “So we grab Dev and bring him to court, but someone makes a try for us in the ramp. And someone else lets Caro free. Then we get to court, where Gomph says things in front of a court stenographer to get them on the record. But after we leave, unofficially he blocks our access to the scene. He figures we’ll be like Bob, happy to have something off our plate. Or he figures even if you don’t like it, you won’t buck the system. And then he…what? We’re missing something.”
Annette snorted. “Several somethings, I’ve no doubt.”
“Does he hear we went to the scene anyway? So he comes over to IPA to chew us out? Or worse? Which is when Bob starts paying attention, because infuriated judges make everyone nervous, especially ones who can trample you in an elevator?”
“That makes a certain sense. But…” But Gomph never so much as raised his voice. But the most upset she had ever seen him was during the kale shortage. But he’d always been an advocate for the Shifter children who came through his court. She was sure he was a good man. “It’s difficult to believe.”
“Annette. You’re too good.”
She sat back in the passenger seat and crossed her arms over her chest.Not this nonsense again.“I don’t think there’s any such thing.”
