Page 25 of Code of Courage

CHAPTER11

On Monday Danni called Mara to tell her she’d decided.

“Real estate? Danni, you can’t be serious.” The disbelief in Mara’s tone vibrated over the phone.

“What’s wrong with real estate? Set your own hours, make good money. I think it’s doable.”

“I think you’re crazy. You always wanted to be a cop. And for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been a good one. What will happen to Hesed? You need to come back to work.”

“Hesed has a stellar board running it. And Jess is in good hands. Gabe’s on the case.”

“Then you haven’t heard the latest. Gabe’s been pulled from the investigation.”

“What?”

“The details are hush-hush, but the rumor is he made an arrest that went sideways.”

“Sideways, how?” Danni tried to picture Gabe doing something wrong and couldn’t. He took the job seriously and he was good at it.

“Yen was in on it with him and she’s been suspended.”

“Whoa.” Danni’s mind was spinning. Yen was another straight arrow. “What on earth happened?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Danni, you need to come home.”

+++

Out of sorts after her call to Mara, Danni did something she didn’t want to do: she called her partner, Matt Shaver. Matt had only been her partner for two years, ever since she moved to homicide. The move had been an adjustment for her on so many levels. Her marriage had just broken up, and she’d lost her longtime partner Dylan Reece when he retired and moved to Tennessee. Then there was learning the ropes in homicide. She and Dylan had been partners in the field and in detectives; they worked well together and were great friends. It had been difficult to adjust to a new partner. Matt was a good cop, but his personality was the opposite of laid-back Dylan. He was often snarky and sarcastic. Even after two years she couldn’t say she and Matt meshed. The conversation she’d had with him when she left, telling him she’d quit, still resonated in her thoughts.

“Bet you won’t quit. Bet you a paycheck you can’t stay away. You bleed blue, Danni. You’ll come back. I know you will.”

Hating to admit he was right, she called him.

“Well, what a surprise. Not.”

“Yeah, yeah, gloat all you want. I heard something disturbing, and I need to know if it’s true.”

“It’s true.”

“You know what I’m talking about?”

“Of course, everyone is talking about it. The 911 telegraph is buzzing like a field of beehives. It’s messed up.”

“What’s going on?”

“Madden has gone nuts. All of a sudden cops are the bad guys, while criminals go free. Fox arrested an out-of-towner, a bad actor from New York, and Madden blew a gasket. Even issued a formal apology to the guy.”

For a second Danni was speechless.

“You still there?”

“Yeah, I just... I’m trying to digest this. Was there a use of force?”

“A twist lock. The guy got in Fox’s face while he was investigating Jess’s shooting. Fox twisted him up and arrested him. Madden says he overreacted. The citizen was just expressing concern, nothing more.”

“Concern?”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Matt said, and in her mind’s eye Danni could see him waving a hand back and forth as he often did when he thought something was nonsense.

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