“You possess the uncanny ability to give and then take away in a single breath.”
“I know. Remarkable, right?” She punctuated this with a cheeky grin, sat up, and announced she was hungry. “You want to order pizza?”
26
Sullivan realizedhe must have been in some kind of peculiar trance when Buddy stopped by his desk and waved a hand in front of his face. Blinking, he lifted his head and stared at his fellow officer.
“You okay?” asked Buddy. “You were in a little deep there. Something up?”
Sullivan shook his head. He tapped his chest with his fist. “Heartburn.”
“Heartburn? See? That’s just strange. No one I know ever went catatonic because of heartburn.”
Sullivan shrugged.
Buddy shook his head. “If I didn’t know you grew up in the panhandle, I’d say you were definitely new to the planet.” He took a seat at his desk behind Sullivan. “You been out to the Ridge lately?”
Sullivan swiveled his chair around. “Yesterday. Why?”
“Just wondered. I got wind of something about the mayor’s daughter. His youngest. I thought maybe you might have taken the call.”
“Huh. What did you hear?”
“Well, you know Butz has a sister who’s a cashier out there.”
“Yeah. Heather. So?”
“So she saw Ramsey escort Janet Holloway and a cart full of stuff to the office. Then she got busy and never saw what came of it. I asked Marlena over at dispatch about a call, but she didn’t know anything.”
God bless Chief Bailey, Sullivan was thinking. The man covered all the bases. “Then why are you supposing there was a call?”
“Because it wasRamsey,” said Buddy. “She’s required to call. I’m not familiar with her letting things slide, and she’s not from around here so she wouldn’t necessarily connect Janet Holloway to the mayor. Thought it seemed strange.”
“Maybe so.”
Shrugging, Buddy picked out a pen from the terra cotta flowerpot on his desk and tapped it lightly against the plastic blotter. “You ever get up the nerve to ask her out?”
“Why?”
“Just wondering. Well, have you?”
Sullivan didn’t like lying and besides, Buddy was a ferret. His curiosity was not easily brushed aside. Sullivan doubted Buddy was finished with Janet Holloway. “I asked her to be my plus one at my cousin’s wedding back in July.”
“Your cousin’s wedding? Jeez, Sully, was that the best you could do? And why am I only hearing about this now?”
“You only just asked. It wasn’t exactly a secret.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Well, what did she say? Did she go to the wedding with you?”
“Yeah, she went.”
“And? Don’t make me go full interrogation on your ass.”
As threats went, it was a pretty good one. Sullivan said, “And that’s it. We went to the wedding, had a good time, and we see each other at the store.” All true. As per usual, the devil was in the details, and Sullivan was bent on keeping Old Scratch out of this. He went on the offensive. “You still thinking about asking her out?”
