Page 18 of An Unfinished Memory

“Gotcha. You’re on the road, then?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then you’ve got a minute. Listen, I’m going to retire.”

Shock made me glad for cruise control. “Retire?”

“The county board will appoint you as my replacement, and then you can run for sheriff next year. I doubt you’ll have much competition.”

The shock turned to acid reflux. I had told Sutton when we first met my endgame was sheriff. After we married, I promised her that once I got into office, I would be home more. No more shift work unless I took a weekend here and there to keep up with what was going on in the field.

Ray had mentioned the possibility of retirement for the last several years.When I retire…By the time I retire… I’ve been thinking about retirement…This was the first time he’d stated that he was going to retire. A year and a half too late to save my marriage.

Would becoming sheriff have helped me stay married, or would I have found myself single and alone sooner?

The main problem had been that Ray had talked retirement, but he’d never done it. The other issue Sutton had thrown at me was that I’d still be gone a lot, playing hero to everyone’s non-emergencies in addition to being there for real emergencies.

“You sure? I thought you were going to try for another term.” The county would never not re-elect him. He was a mainstay.

He grunted. “This is a young person’s game nowadays. I can’t keep up with social media apps and what’s not safe for kids. They’re all not safe, but they’re a fact of life, and I can barely look up the movie times.”

He was more adept than he was letting on, but his adult kids lived in Michigan and Florida and rarely returned home. With his ex-wife in Chicago, it was easier for them to visit her instead.

“We can talk more when you pick me up, but whaddya think? Still interested? I know your circumstances have changed.”

“I’m still interested, sir.” Being sheriff was all I ever wanted. I would be at the top. I’d done a lot to build up the Knight name, and with Barns’s passing and me becoming sheriff, I could do even more. Barns had ruined a lot of goodwill during his life, and Eliot didn’t leave the ranch enough to rectify any of it.

“Good. I’ve been afraid to ask if you changed your mind. It’ll be better for you. Less call, so when you meet someone new, you won’t hear the same old complaints.”

“Right.” Sutton’s complaints hadn’t been the only ones. Most deputies cited the call hours and the consistently short-staffed department as reasons for leaving the department when they found other jobs. The career was hard on families. I’d accepted the facts, but I’d underestimated how much my wife had been willing to tolerate my hours and for how long.

After the issues between me and Sutton and my work, I was looking at a future of being single. I had no plans to repeat a failed marriage.

Four

Wilder

“Where the hell you been?” Eliot sat on the back deck, his boots kicked up on a railing, sandwich in his hand. His usual cranky expression didn’t change just because he was chewing.

“Slept late.” My stomach rumbled. I still hadn’t eaten.

“You never oversleep,” he said around a mouthful. The time difference had worked to my advantage. I gained an hour and wasn’t as tardy as I feared.

“Did today. Then Ray and I had to help Jeremy move his daughter’s car.”

“Why the fuck couldn’t Jeremy do it?”

“Not everyone has a vehicle that can tow.”

“Uh, thetow truck driverdoes.”

“He’s got family in town.”

His mouth full, he gave me an incredulous look. It wasn’t that Eliot didn’t help others, but he wasn’t intown often enough to offer a hand. He didn’t always look approachable either. I didn’t expect him to understand.

I opened the bottle of lemon-flavored mineral water I’d bought at the gas station on the edge of town. “Got any sandwiches left?”

“Make your own. I already had to do your work.”

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