“How’d it go?” he asked.
“I told Briana that I was sorry. She forgave me. We both know that she’ll never really get over this. It’s sad.”
Yuki knew that Len hadn’t believed in this case, but he had believed in her. And she had absolutely misjudged Marc Christopher. She was never going to get over that.
Len said, “You know what the great pitcher Satchel Paige once said?”
“Tell me. I’m ready,” she said.
“‘You win a few, you lose a few. Some are rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.’ That’s what you do and have always done. You dress for all of them. This is what rain feels like.”
“Thank you, Len. I appreciate that.”
“See you in the morning, Yuki.”
CHAPTER 96
THEIR APARTMENT WAS empty when Yuki came through the door.
No surprise. It was still early. She thought of calling Brady but didn’t want him to blow her off. I’m tied up here. Can I call you right back?
She kicked off her heels and dropped into her favorite chair. She called Arthur, Cindy, Lindsay, and Claire, then she turned off the ringer on her phone.
She wasn’t hungry or tired, so she took a bath, refilling the tub with hot water and bubble bath until she was finally just done.
She dried off with the plushest towel she owned, pulled on a white cotton nightgown with buttons at the neckline and a sprinkling of lace at the hem, and got into bed. It was almost seven o’clock.
She woke up to a weight at the side of the bed. Brady. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Darlin’, are you sick?”
“I’m wrung out. Unbelievable day. What time is it?” she asked.
“Eleven fifteen, something like that.”
“Oh, man,” Yuki said, “I only meant to take a nap.”
“You need anything? Hot dogs? Ice cream?”
She smiled at him in the dark. “No. I’m good,” she said.
She heard Brady unbuckling his belt, throwing clothes over a chair, saying he was “gonna hose off the day.” When he came back, naked and damp, he said, “Scooch over a few,” and got under the covers. He took Yuki into his arms.
“You smell good,” he said.
“I soaked for an hour in lemongrass and citrus. I have to do that more often.”
Brady said, “I heard a rumor that your case collapsed. Lindsay told me. Don’t be mad at her.”
“It’s okay. I was going to call you but figured I’d catch you in the middle of something.”
“I deserve that. But you know how it is.”
“Not really, Brady.”
She pushed away from him, creating a foot of distance between them. “I don’t know. So why don’t you fuckin’ tell me?”
“I will. You go first,” he said. “Your case. What happened? Are you going to be all right with it?”
“Nope, no way, no chance. I’ve reached the end of my patience, Brady. Tell me what’s going on with you or hit the couch until further notice.”
He rolled onto his back, thumped the pillows into his desired support level, and said, “I’m sorry, Yuki. I couldn’t tell you anything. I was under a mayor-mandated Chinese wall. Politics played a part in this. And the immediate future of my job and the direction of the SFPD are under scrutiny, and have been for the last three months.”
He turned to face her. “You understand where I’m going?”
“Not at all,” she said. “I lost my decoder ring.”
“Ice cream,” he said. “If I’m going to break my solemn oath to the brass, I’m doing it while eating butter pecan.”
CHAPTER 97
BRADY ROLLED OUT of bed, and Yuki’s mood dramatically shifted, from fear of a broken marriage to alarm for her husband.
What could have affected his job as well as the entire police department?
Was Brady in trouble? Had he gotten embroiled in some kind of scandal? Was he being tried by the deep state of Internal Affairs? Beyond that, she just couldn’t imagine.
Brady returned to their bedroom with a bowl of ice cream, handed her one of the two spoons, and got under the covers.
Yuki gripped his forearm with her free hand. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Okay,” he sighed. “Here it is. The whole ugly mess. Remember last year when a half dozen cops in Robbery disgraced the department?”
“Sure,” Yuki said. “A gang of them were holding up check-cashing places and Western Union outlets.”
“That’s right. Citizens were killed, bunch of them. And while these dirtbags were robbing cash stores, they also robbed a major drug kingpin’s distribution depot.”
“Kingfisher. I remember all of it, but how does this figure into your job?”
“It figures into Jacobi’s job.”
“Jacobi?”
“That Robbery crew was a scandal. God punished most of them, but that’s really not enough. Someone in the hierarchy of the SFPD has to take the fall for a division full of corrupt cops. Head of the crew is locked up for life. Head of Robbery was let go, but that’s not really enough.”
“So you’re saying that this is going to fall on the chief?”
Brady said, “He’s not going to be officially blamed, but he’s going to be retired out. And everyone in the department will know why.”
He pushed ice cream around with his spoon. Then he said, “I had to testify about all those bodies at the OK Corral. Made me sick to have to talk about that, knowing I was making the case against Jacobi. I really love the guy.”
“What does he know?”
“He knows it all. Every day, after the day shift punched out, I’d go up to his office,” Brady told her. “We’d talk about every case in all the squads, go over personnel, and discuss plans for how things are going to go forward. He wants me to take his job.”
“He wants you to take over as chief of police?”
“He doesn’t get a vote. He can make a recommendation, maybe.”
Yuki felt closer to her husband than she had in months, and she even understood how badly he’d been feeling, how overworked, the weight he’d been carrying. What her hurt and anger hadn’t allowed her to see before. And she understood finally that Brady’s distance didn’t have to do with her. With them. And why he had had to keep it to himself.
Their arms were tightly around each other. There was no distance between them now.
“How is he taking this?” she asked.
“He says he wants to retire, but I’m sure this isn’t how he wants to do it.”
Yuki asked, “Brady, if they put you up for the job, will you take it?”
“I don’t know, darlin’. I like the job I have. But who would come in as chief? Levant? Or some new sheriff comes into town. That would be a game changer. I’m standing in for Jacobi while they figure out who’s going to replace him.”
“Starting when?”
“Any minute. Could be tomorrow or next week at the latest. Hon?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so out of it. I’ve been working two jobs and depressed beyond belief. I’ve been dying to talk to you.”
She said, “It’s okay, love. I understand now. I feel so bad for what you’ve been going through.”
After Brady put the bowl on the floor, Yuki reached her arms up and put them around her husband’s neck.
He held her close, kissing her deeply, then pulled away to fumble with the little buttons at the collar of her nightgown. When the buttons frustrated him, he pulled the slip of cotton up to her waist. She put her hands between his legs.
Brady’s breathing was loud in her ears and she was burning up when he said, “Are you going to tell me about your day?”
“No, and you can’t make me.”
He grinned at her as he tugged off her panties and said, “I could just eat you up.”
“Say please.”
He laughed and said, “Please, please, please, baby, please.” He pulled her legs over his hips, telling her how much he missed her and loved her.