his skin and knuckles smacking her cheek and the bridge of her nose came a millisecond before the sting of pain.
For a moment she thought she hadn’t even had time to close her eyes, and was astounded that someone’s hand could be faster than a blink. Then she opened her eyes and oriented herself. She was against the door. Kyle was staring straight ahead, both hands on the wheel. She blinked through welling tears and looked out the windshield, thinking. Now they were pulling up to the I-95 entrance and she could make out the blur of colored traffic lights going from green to yellow. She felt the car slow, felt for the door handle and clack! The locks snapped down. He’d anticipated her move, flipped on his siren and lights and swung through the red light, gathering speed onto the interstate. She knew she’d made her big mistake. Now she was scared.
CHAPTER 22
Turnkey” sandwich. Maybe the food was better than the prison wit. I had coffee and watched the morning hustle. There were lots of ties and an equal number of wonderful women’s dresses. There was an energy around the place, people moving, bumping, saying hello or even avoiding eye contact. A guy shuffled a briefcase from one hand to the other to dig for change. A woman watched the eyes of the cashier, waiting for them to catch hers and take an order. A too loud guffaw sounded from the knot of three suited men, causing the rest to turn and look. People moved with purpose and checked their watches. In my semi-isolation I had lost some of my people-watching skills. It had been a constant when I’d worked a beat, watching, and not always just for the pickpocket working his way through the tourists or the smack dealer hooking up with a new face on the corner. You had to have a suspicious eye as a cop. But you also had to remind yourself that ninety-nine percent of what went on around you were folks just living, working honest jobs, filling their spot in the world. You got jaded if you weren’t careful and did something stupid or just burned out. Richards’s words were still stinging. She was right. She was the cop. I wasn’t. But I resented her implication that I’d gone home and fallen back into the brotherhood of see-no-evil. I’d gotten jaded and left. The shadows followed, but I had left.After I left Billy I went across the street to the Barrister’s Bagel and had breakfast. They had a special on a “Locks &
I bought another large coffee to go and walked back to the jailhouse. I was on the outside bench when O’Shea came through the doors, automatically looked up into the sky and took a deep breath of air, and then spotted me.
“Thanks, Max,” he said, shaking my hand, “and your friend Manchester.”
His eyes were red-rimmed. He’d only been in overnight but looked like he’d lost weight. His clothes carried a stink that flashed me back to Philadelphia lockups that we as officers only had to stand for a few minutes and then joked about back in the squad rooms.
“You all right?” I said, watching his face.
“You see that bitch, Richards, standing in the back of the courtroom?”
I just nodded.
“Took that fucking gloat off her face, your boy Manchester did.”
“He’s good,” I said. “You need a ride home? Want to get something to eat? It’s almost noon.”
O’Shea nodded and walked with me.
“What’s with that guy’s stutter, anyway?” he said after a few moments. “He puttin’ that on for a sympathy factor or what?”
“Does he look like a guy who needs sympathy?” I said, sharp, snapping to Billy’s defense even when he didn’t need it.
“No. Shit, no. He kicked their ass,” O’Shea said and took my tone and let it go.
We got to my truck and as soon as I started the engine I hit the automatic windows and pulled out of the parking to get some air circulating. I got on Andrews Avenue and headed north. O’Shea put his arm out his window.
“Back in the world. Isn’t that what the cons say?”
“Yeah.”
“Christ, only one night and you can feel it,” he said. “I can’t understand why they even take the gamble.”
I looked over at the side of his face when he said it. She was wrong, I thought again, shifting more of my doubt. O’Shea wasn’t the one. When I got to Sunrise Boulevard I started east and then threw a U-turn