And she was here to testify that he was good at it. “How do you know … anything?”
“It’s logical. You got a guy who’s been in prison for murder. I’d guess a rough early life, learned a lot of skills necessary to survive. He could get a job anywhere doing enforcement, legal or otherwise, or obtain a ‘position’ as a stud for Ruth Blethyn”—more air quotes—“or work at any number of lucrative jobs. He showed up in Virtue Falls, the piddly-poop outback of nowhere, and he’s working as financial wizard on the rez in Virtue Falls for their new casino. I figured he’d move on as soon as he got the funding set up. Makes sense, right? Then he comes after you. Specifically after you. He sleeps with you and all of a sudden, he’s construction superintendent on the site, working all hours, living in an apartment over the flower shop that’s so small he bumps his head on the hood when he uses the stovetop. And you don’t know if he loves you?”
“Loves me?”
Luis handed her another wad of tissue. “I used to think you were smart. Then you turned me away and that was the first nail in that coffin.”
She laughed explosively. And cried some more. “Last week I had won a brutal election for sheriff and I was on top of the world. Now I’m wounded, women are being slashed, I can’t catch the fugitive who shot up the Oceanview Café, I tried to kill Rainbow—”
“You … what?”
“Tried to help her. I did it wrong. Then I screwed up with the one man who…” She couldn’t continue. She didn’t have the breath. Leaning forward, she wept into Lacey’s fur.
Luis waited until her crying had calmed a little, then handed her a bottle of water. “What are you going to do about getting him back?”
She remembered Stag’s expression when he kissed her on the forehead. That was farewell. “He doesn’t want me back.”
Luis snorted. “Yes, he does. You might have to crawl … But you can fix it.”
Easy for him to say, and considering his track record … She wiped her eyes and her nose. She took a sip of the water. “Speaking of a screwed-up situation, how’s Sienna?” His girlfriend, the woman who had gone out of her way to show Kateri that Luis was hers, even going so far as to fake a pregnancy.
Luis stood up and sat on his desk. “I really did break up with her. I’m a Coastie through and through. Sooner or later I’ll get transferred. Sienna put down roots here and now she’ll never leave. You be careful, Kateri. She’s a smart girl, and ruthless. Before she’s done, she’ll own Virtue Falls and be mayor, and she’s got it in for you.”
“Goodie. Another challenge.” Kateri leaned back in the chair and pressed her hand over her swollen eyes. “Let me try to sort this all out. John Terrance managed to find someone to remove the shot from his butt, stole a boat—another one—and landed somewhere along the coast?”
“When we were transporting Mrs. Blethyn back to her home on the mainland, we found the boat adrift. No John Terrance.”
“Right. So we can assume he’s still alive and holed up somewhere waiting for his next chance to get his revenge on Virtue Falls for a thousand real and imagined slights. Plus—you have once more become Virtue Falls’s most eligible bachelor. Plus—I’m an idiot.”
“Nice summation. That covers it.”
She put Lacey on the floor, hauled herself to her feet and tossed the wad of tissue into his trash. “Thanks for the news, the talking-to and the bottle of water. Now I have to go speak sternly to my sister about breaking and entering.”
That made Luis stand up straight. “I didn’t even know you had a sister, much less a larcenous sister.”
“Not larcenous in the usual sense. But determined to get what she wants.” Kateri’s voice wavered. “Luis, I’ve missed having you as a friend.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
Spontaneously, they hugged.
Unexpectedly, Kovavitc opened the door. He stared, coughed and said, “I thought you two were broken up!”
“We are.” Kateri stepped out of Luis’s arms. “He was telling me I’m an idiot. In a loving way. Like a brother.”
“Geeze, Sheriff Kwinault, why don’t you just cut off his balls?” Kovavitc had a way with words.
Kateri saw Luis’s pained expression and backpedaled. “What I meant to say was I could no longer refrain from flinging myself into Commander Sanchez’s arms, but he nobly fought me off and gently told me we could never be one.”
“Yeah … that didn’t help. He’s still a nutless wonder.” Kovavitc turned to Luis. “Commander, Mrs. Blethyn called to report her car as stolen.”
The radio on Kateri’s sleeve vibrated.
Bergen said, “Sheriff, we’ve got a call from Garik Jacobsen at the FBI. He has the report you’ve been waiting for.”
Luis and Kateri faced off with each other, then each gave a nod and she walked toward the exit, Lacey on her heels.
When she was out the door, Luis turned to Kovavitc. “I deserve a fucking medal for what I just did. I convinced her that she needed to convince Stag Denali they were the ideal couple.”
“You still want to bang her?”
“Yeah.”
Kovavitc punched him on the shoulder good and hard. “Wow, man. You are a nutless wonder.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The trouble with police work was that it was so damned unreliable. One week it was all slashings and car chases and breakins and confrontations and murders. The next week, you were handing out speeding tickets and earnestly explaining the danger of crossing the street against the light.
That sucked, especially when Kateri had a moping dog, a sister who refused to admit to breaking and entering and yet always managed to find Kateri no matter where she hid, a worrisome FBI report, no lover in sight and way too much time on her hands.
Thank God it was Thursday evening. She asked Moen if he wanted to go with her to the quilting group, grinned at his horror, and waved a cheerful farewell to the thoroughly bored and testosterone-soaked police station.
The Scrap Happy Stitchers, a group of ten to twelve regulars, usually women, met in the library, an old hardware store that had survived the earthquake and now housed books, children, maps, crafts, computers, toys, women, men, teenagers … After the tsunami, Kateri had been physically unable to continue in the Coast Guard. Coast Guard policy had put her through a court-martial for the loss of her vessel, and when she was cleared she was medically retired with pay and benefits. So … she became the town librarian. Because no one else wanted the job. Because the pay was crappy. Because she was handicapped and in pain, and the job didn’t require too many hours.