“Sure,” she said without hesitation. “Whatcha got in mind?”
“A day at the beach.” The beach was what, back in high school, the four of us called Skinny Dip Falls, which is a half-mile hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway and easy to get to.
“Awesome! I’m in.”
“I’ll swing by around ten. We can pick up some snacks on the way.” I’d wait until tomorrow to tell her about Chad. If I got into it now, we’d be on the phone all night. After disconnecting, I stared at the opposite wall, but it wasn’t my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend filling my mind. It was a man with whiskey-colored eyes and a killer smile.
4
~ Dylan ~
“Hope she loses the boyfriend,” Tommy said. “The dude’s an ass.”
I hoped she did, too. “She seems like a smart lady.” Not to mention downright sexy with those deep green eyes and long hair that reminded me of red and dark gold autumn leaves. Without thinking, I’d touched her, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear before remembering Tommy was sitting in the cruiser watching us. Not like me to forget my surroundings.
We got back to the station a little after the shift change. Jansen was still at the front, and I’d never seen a grown man pout before. It wasn’t pretty. His bottom lip was sticking out a mile. He lost more points.
“Night, Chief,” Tommy said before disappearing down the hall.
“Later, Tommy.” I wondered how long it would take my cops to figure out if I called you by your first name, it meant I liked you. Or maybe they’d just assume I went with Tommy because he was so young. It was a little game I’d played in Chicago, and only my partner had figured it out. That was back when I still called Jack by his first name, but those times were done. I did my best not to think of my ex-partner by any name these days.
“Who relieves you, Jansen?”
He leaned back in his chair and stuck his thumbs underneath his belt, or tried to. After some thumb fumbling, he finally gave up and crossed his hands over his beer gut. “Payton.”
“And where is Officer Payton?”
“Here, Chief.”
I turned. Kim Payton stood at the end of the hallway. Word had spread that I was here if she was calling me chief without an introduction. Her uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and I gave her a nod of approval. She was on my list of possible saves.
Yeah, I had a list with two columns. Not that I was going to make any changes immediately. I needed to get the lay of the land, but my instincts were pretty good, and I’d already divided up the department into two groups. Gone and not gone. I’d give the gone ones a chance to change my mind, but so far Jansen wasn’t doing a good job of securing his future with the Blue Ridge Valley Police Department.
“You’re relieved,” I told Jansen, ending his punishment fifteen minutes early. See, I’m not that much of an asshole. I can be generous when the mood strikes.
“Do we lock the front door at night?” I asked Payton after Jansen waddled out.
“Never have.” Eyeing the messy desk, she frowned and began tidying up.
“Then let’s start with the nightly shift change. Too many crazies out there these days, and there’re only two in here after eleven, the duty officer and a dispatcher, right?” She nodded. “We’ll get an intercom installed so if someone comes by at three in the morning, we can check them out before opening up.”
“Good idea, Chief.”
Oh, I’m just full of good ideas. They had no clue. “Post a notice that I want everyone here Monday morning at seven for a brief meeting. Make sure the word gets out.”
“On it.” She pulled a sheet of copy paper from the desk and started writing.
I gave Officer Payton a point for her easy slide into accepting me as her new chief. I had a tendency to operate out of the box, like this points thing. It was something I’d started as the head of vice in Chicago when I’d had a problem child. The kid thought since he was the nephew of the commissioner, he could do as he pleased. I sat him down and told him he had three months to earn thirty points or I was transferring him out of vice and back onto the street. I don’t remember how I came up with the idea, and no one was more surprised than me that it worked. He ended up being one of my better detectives. He was happy. I was happy. The commissioner was happy.
The difference now was that I wasn’t going to tell my new department they were either getting points or losing them. Last thing I wanted was a bunch of cops kissing my ass. Each of my Blue Ridge Valley officers had six months to earn sixty points. How hard could ten points a month be, especially since I planned to be generous at giving them out?
Come time’s up, I planned to sit down with each one and discuss where they stood. Then the problem ones, I’d give another six months to get their act together…except for Moody and Jansen. I was pretty sure they’d be gone before sit-down time.
“See you Monday, if not before,” I told her as I walked out. I didn’t look back, but I slowed my steps until I heard the click of the lock. That earned her another point.
After I got home, I sat at the kitchen counter and pulled out the notebook I’d already created, a page for each of my officers, and entered the first points I’d awarded. Already I was having fun.
Finished with that, I swiveled on the bar stool and eyed the stack of boxes pushed against one wall of the living room. Nah. Not tackling those tonight. I had all day tomorrow and Sunday, having decided I wouldn’t make another appearance at the station until my official start day on Monday. I’d stirred things up enough, so I’d give my cops two days for all the gossip about me to die down.
