CHAPTER 73 - Rita

CHAPTER 73RitaIT HAS BEEN A DAY SO BUSY, NO ONE’S HAD A MINUTE TO EAT, SO WHEN Joe and I found ourselves at the station at seven twenty-two p.m., we were ravenous.Cal Ferris is in the hospital, uniformed officers guarding his door. Mrs. Ferris was found bleeding and unconscious on the beach and is currently in a hospital on the coast. She managed to break a couple of her husband’s ribs and give him a pretty good blow to the head before he shot her twice. Luckily, his aim was off, and she’ll survive.Bob just finished a press conference in which Joe and I participated. The media, starved for information, could barely control themselves and jostled for room on the sidewalk in front of the station. Then they scurried away to file their stories or wait for their on-air cues.Mrs. Bradley was checked out at the hospital and released to her family after giving her statement from her bedside. There’ll be more questions later, but for now, we’ve got plenty to do.Agent Metz left to grab dinner with her parents, and Chase is on his way home to his wife and son. Lauren is busy in the squad room, head bent over her keyboard, a half-finished ham and cheese deli sandwich next to her.Joe and I head over to Mac’s. I’m limping slightly on my sore ankle but hope a couple glasses of wine will help soothe the pain. There are a few of the guys from the station hanging over the bar, laughing and blowing off steam. We’re all relieved that Mrs. Bradley was found relatively unhurt and our man is in custody. No one looks up or notices as Joe and I slide into the last booth in the corner.We order mozzarella sticks, a large pepperoni and black olive pizza, a couple of salads, and a bottle of wine. I sip, and the alcohol hits my depleted blood stream quickly, filling my veins, making me feel tingly and light-headed. I grab up a slice of pizza and take a huge bite. I’m starving.Joe leans back and laughs.“What?”“Nothing. I’d just forgotten how nice it is to work with you, Rita.” His smile reaches his dark eyes.I swallow. My hair has fallen out of its bun and hangs in a tangled mess over my shoulders. At least the gray is gone. But I’m sure my mascara is smudged, and the sleeve of my white blouse definitely has a smear of Mrs. Bradley’s blood from her injured fingers. I sit up and smooth my hair back.“Yeah. It’s nice to have you here.” I sip my wine. “I guess you’ll be wrapping up and moving on to your next assignment.”“Pretty soon, I’m sure.”Is he thinking about what happened after we finished our last case together? I feel heat rush to my face. As much as I don’t regret what happened between us, I feel like I’m past that kind of recklessness now. It’s not what I want. But I don’t want him to disappear for another six years either. I huff out a breath. You’d think by now I’d have my life figured out.“What?”I shake my head. “Just thinking. Some case, huh?”He smiles. “It was a wild ride. But the outcome was right.”He picks up a mozzarella stick, bites into it, and leaves a long string of cheese trailing down his chin. I resist the urge to lean over and wipe it off.“Remember when we questioned Arthur Knoll?” he asks. Knoll was the perp in our last case. “And he said that he didn’t kill his wife, that she killed herself?”“Yeah. What an idiot. He was covered in her blood, and she’d been shot in the back three times.”“Then he said the dog shot her, and he had some elaborate explanation of how that happened.”“Yeah. The dog hated her guts apparently.”We both laugh, and I’m feeling the effects of the wine and the letdown of the stress. Tears wet both our cheeks as we can’t stop laughing, and even the cops at the bar turn around to look.