hurt in his eyes, a hurt she would have sworn she couldn’t ever cause him.
“It doesn’t matter if it was violent or not,” her father continued. “A cop can’t have an ex-con as a partner.”
She rolled her eyes and watched as the sedan came to a stop because the cat had decided to leave that side of the street for better prospects. The cat sauntered across the road. Yeah, it was jaywalking, too, and like Dixie, she couldn’t even give the cat a ticket. “You’re acting like he spent years in a federal prison. It was six weeks in minimum security because he was a dumbass.”
“I don’t care if he wasn’t guilty,” her dad argued. “You’re not going to get back to NYPD with him at your side.”
She stopped and turned his way. “What?”
“One of the reasons I wanted to come here in person was to discuss your future. I’ve talked to Joel. He knows now that what he did was wrong. At the time he thought it was best for your career if he didn’t let you file that report.”
“You thought I shouldn’t file that report, either. Do you know you were wrong?” The old anger threatened to bubble to the surface. God, she’d thought she’d gotten over this.
Her father sighed, a long-suffering sound, and he pinched the place where his nose met his eyes. It was his “I’m getting a headache” expression. “We’re all trying to keep up with what’s acceptable and what’s not, Roxanne. Women officers back in my day wouldn’t have had a problem with what your supervisor did.”
“Yes, they did. They were just too scared to talk about it. They knew damn well they would lose their jobs. Those women had to go through what they did so I don’t. I get that you think the world has changed, that suddenly this generation is less tough than the one before. I’m not. I simply will not allow myself to be treated that way. The funny thing is you’re the one who taught me that. You taught me how to stand up for myself and then betrayed me when I did it.”
Her father’s eyes flared but she was saved by the fact that the sedan was now backing down the street.
“I did not betray you,” her father was saying.
But she was getting out of the car. Unlike the current driver of the slowly reversing sedan, she wasn’t going to chase a car down in reverse, nor would she make a crazy U-turn on this fairly narrow street.
Besides, she didn’t even have to walk fast to catch up to the creeping sedan. Karen Travers was the one behind the wheel, and it looked like her daughter was sitting in the passenger seat. Ah, she remembered Ashlyn Travers well from the other night. Karen was roughly forty-five, and she was a stalwart presence at most town functions. She was famous for her pecan pie.
And apparently her bad driving skills.
“Mrs. Travers.” Roxie raised her voice and patted the hood of the car.
“Mom!” Ashlyn yelled as she pointed Roxie’s way. “It’s the police. Great. You are a freak who got the po-po on us. What is wrong with you?”
Karen’s eyes were wide as she turned and caught sight of Roxie. She stopped the car and the window came down. “I’m so sorry, Deputy. Was I doing something wrong?”
This was one of those moments where she brought out the “dumbass said what” face she’d perfected over the years. “On this particular street, we usually drive our cars in a forward motion, Mrs. Travers. And by usually, I mean always. It’s illegal to drive backward down the street.”
Karen shook her head. “No. Sometimes you have to do that. Did you see that cat?”
Ashlyn’s eyes rolled so far in the back of her head, Roxie was surprised they didn’t simply make their way back around. “Oh, my god. Please don’t say it. Please don’t humiliate me like this.”
Roxie looked back up the street and the cat was on the other side of the road, licking one paw like she didn’t have a care in the world. “Is there something wrong with the cat?”
If there was, she might need to call Zep and they would have to work together. That wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Maybe the cat was attacking people and they would have to chase it down.
Although the cat didn’t look like it had a problem. The cat was still sitting at the end of the street, licking her paws and