She nodded.
“They either put chains on their tires or park over on the next block,” he replied. “Next weekend, weather permitting, a couple more streets will be left unplowed for sleigh rides.” He looked around. “This is my favorite part of the town’s Christmas season.”
“I can see why,” she smiled.
“You warm enough?”
“Perfect.”
“Good. So, what did you mean when you said you’d been conditioned to think cops were the enemy unless they were on the payroll?”
She looked at him with an arched eyebrow.
“You really gonna do this? Interrogate me on a beautiful candle-lit street in the middle of a sleigh ride?”
“Um, yep.”
She took a deep, reconciled breath. “My former boyfriend, the one I told you about, we kinda grew up together. When he was a teenager, he became involved with a large crime family in New York and never left it. I’m sure my years of mixing with the criminal element helped me to figure out what Charles and Peter were up to. Unlike Stephie Banyan, though, I can’t plead ignorance. I-I knew who my boyfriend was and what he did.”
Eli fell silent for several seconds while he absorbed what she shared.
“Were you—did you—” he began.
“Go on crime sprees with him? No,” she answered.
“But—you’re not with him now. You live in Columbus.”
“Yeah, but we were together for a long time. We still would be if he hadn’t dumped me. That’s the kind of lousy person I am. I’m just a gangster’s broad.”
He thought for several more seconds, then shook his head.
“I don’t buy it. Even if he hadn’t dumped you, you wouldn’t have stayed with him.”
“You can’t say that. How could you know that?”
“Because I know you. You’re not a lousy person, Goldie. Maybe you stayed with him out of habit. You said it yourself, you grew up together. Maybe you were blinded by love. Maybe it was a little of both, but youdohave a moral compass, and a good one! You had the sense to move away.”
“About that,” she started to say, “I didn’t really have any control?—”
“Plus, look at what you put a stop to in this town single-handed,” he cut in. “Like you said, your past actually served you well. You sniffed out things nobody else did.”
“Yeah, well… there’s somethin’ about this town that makes ya care, y’know? Sparkledove has been good for me.”
“Then stay,” he suggested.
She looked at him, surprised.
“What?”
“Stay.”
“I can’t do that, Eli.”
“Why not?The Wingis going to need a new editor, it puts more distance between you and old problems, and the whole town knows and likes you.”
“I can’t stay.”
“Why?”
