Page 69 of Out Of A Fix

“All of us? I didn’t hear you mention Griff and Dar.”

“No. No I didn’t.”

“What happened there?”

“I think she wasn’t sure what to do with them. I mean, you, that’s romantic, she gets to sleep in your bed and⁠—”

“God.”

“And Tatum, Shelly was looking forward to doing mother-daughter things with her. The boys were harder for her to think about.”

“I could never have anyone in my house who didn’t love all my kids equally.”

“Of course not. But Shelly had this picture in her head, while at the same time dealing with this huge loss, and like I said to Tatum earlier, she’s wanting things to be the same so she can step in and be the mother. Now, I don’t know what kind of relationship she had with hers, and maybe there’s shit to work out there too, probably is, family trauma is common as hell, but really, none of that has anything to do with you. I’m explaining because that’s how I did it when I was a detective. I had to know the why.”

“But it doesn’t matter, does it? The why, I mean. You catch the bad guy, and they’re tried for committing the crime. The why makes no difference.”

I smiled. “You sound just like my old captain. Jesus, I can’t tell you how many times he said the same thing to me.”

“You drove him nuts.”

“Absolutely,” I assured him with a grin. “He hated me.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, no. It was hate. Believe me.”

“This fixer job suits you better, doesn’t it?”

“It does. Now I know the why from the start.”

“Okay, so it sounds like Shelly acted like she did because of her loss.” He retook his seat across from me.

“That’s exactly right. I assured her that once she feels better, she and I can have a talk.”

The expression on his face told me he didn’t love the sound of that.

“What’s wrong?”

“I should be included in that, don’t you think?”

“No, sir. I will go through everything with her, and as far as she’ll know, you’re clueless, so she won’t be embarrassed or humiliated. You will have chalked up today to her being overwrought from taking care of her mother and then losing her.”

“It’s like it never happened.”

“Yes. She gets a do-over,” I concurred. “Two weeks from now, when she sees you at the store or comes by for a visit, I will have talked to her, and she’ll know that everything Caitlyn said was bullshit and that you would like to be friends if she’s amenable.”

He leaned his chin on his fist. “Why would Shelly ever believe any of that in the first place?”

The answer, I thought, was simple, and I was sure it would come to him in a moment.

“You’re lookin’ at me like I’m an idiot.”

“I am not,” I insisted, but he was right. I was.

“Because she wanted me and my daughter.”

“That’s right,” I said, meeting his gaze. “Good old-fashioned wishful thinking.”