“A little.”
“No point in me apologizing since I don’t plan to change my ways. You’ll have to get used to it.”
In response, Ramsey swung a leg and tapped him lightly on the shin with the toe of her sneaker. “You’ll have to get used to it,” she said. “No plans to change.”
“You know you’re assaulting an officer.”
She grinned. “You could arrest me, but you have to call dispatch and I have a report to write.” She started to slide off the table, but he laid a hand over her knee, and she allowed him to halt her progress.
“How have you been?” he asked, searching her face again but differently this time. He hadn’t seen Ramsey since leaving her at her door after their bike outing. No texts. No phone calls. He drove past her house a few times when he was on patrol but even in the car it felt a little like stalking. She didn’t have a Facebook page, but then neither did he.
“Fine,” she said. “You?”
“The same.”
“I’ve called the station at least once on every shift since I last saw you, but mostly it was Butz who came out.”
“Yeah? He never said a word.”
“No reason he should. It was all routine.” She told him about the woman she hadn’t charged.
Sullivan whistled softly. “A juvenile probation officer who is also a klepto. That’s not routine.”
“No, and I don’t know that she’s a klepto.” Ramsey’s eyes narrowed on Sullivan’s face. “I see your wheels turning. Stop trying to figure out if you know her. It’s unlikely that she’s local. I don’t think she would have told me anything about her job if that were the case, and I wouldn’t have told you.”
“You let her go.”
“Not sure I can explain it except that I was trying to understand her. Not the right thing to do. I’m no therapist; anyway, she already has one of those.”
“Does Paul know what you did?”
“He hasn’t said anything. He’d only know if he watched the monitors. He wasn’t around when I brought her in.”
“Do you ever think that you might get fired for your protocol violations?”
“Sure. That’s always a possibility, but I don’t worry about it. I’m fairly confident I’d land on my feet. Don’t forget. Chief Bailey thinks I could be officer material.”
She said this last flippantly, and Sullivan called her on it. “You still think the chief was pulling your leg?”
Ramsey hesitated. “No, not exactly. It just strikes me as vaguely ridiculous.”
“Hmm. See, I find it odd that you might be the only one it strikes that way. General thinking at the station is that the chief is onto something.”
“Obviously I haven’t put it out of my mind,” she said. To her own ears she sounded a shade defensive and wondered why. More carefully she added, “I’m mulling it over. There are things I have to consider that you know nothing about.”
“I’m sure that’s true.”
Ramsey saw that his smile was at best a shadow of itself. “I’m sorry,” she said. “For all kinds of reasons, it has to be that way. If you can’t accept it, can’t accept me, then you should tell me.”
“For God’s sake, don’t sell the Bruno Mars tickets,” he said, deadpan.
She couldn’t help it. She laughed and felt lighter for it, which she was certain was his intention. “I won’t. Yet.” She crossed her heart and then removed his hand from her knee. “Still have that report to write, and it’s weeks yet until the concert. Plenty of time to unload those tickets.” She neatly avoided the arm that reached out to capture her. “You can’t stay here. I’ll walk you out. My paperwork is in the loss prevention office downstairs.”
Sullivan followed her lead. He had it in mind that if he timed it right, he could probably steal a kiss at the bottom of the stairs. As it turned out, her timing was better.
She trapped him in the stairwell.
16
