The Partner. Kay David

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СКАЧАТЬ final hug, they went their separate ways, Crista the one elected to drive Risa home. They headed down an almost deserted Main Street, winding through Rice University until they came out at the freeway again.

      Crista glanced in her rearview mirror then over at Risa. “You did the right thing tonight, so I hope you don’t start second-guessing what happened.”

      “I won’t,” Risa said woodenly.

      “Yes, you will,” Crista replied. “You already are. I heard what you said to Melinda.”

      “I didn’t know what else to say.” Risa stared blindly out the window at the passing buildings. “I had to say something.”

      “So you’re okay with how it went down?”

      “I’m okay with it.”

      The rest of the twenty-minute drive was silent until they pulled into the driveway of the modest town house Risa had bought the year before. She said, “Thank you,” and started to climb out, but Crista’s voice stopped her.

      “You better prepare yourself, Risa. This could get rough, you know. I’ve seen the system chew up and spit out a lot of folks, and sometimes the truth gets lost in the process, especially when the IA guys get involved.”

      “I know there’ll be a dog-and-pony show, but I’ll get through it. I’m a cop’s daughter—remember?”

      As the words left her mouth, Risa winced. God, her father… He was sure to know what had happened by now. He was even more connected since he’d retired than he had been in the past; he heard the department’s latest gossip before Risa.

      “All I’m saying is you have to look out for yourself, okay? No one else is going to do it for you.”

      Risa stepped out of the car then glanced back through the open window. “I’ll be all right.”

      Crista nodded then Risa turned and went up the sidewalk, the Jeep’s lights shining on her as she unlocked the door. Inside the sanctuary of her home, she closed her eyes and lay her head against the front door, a weariness sweeping over her that quickly found a path all the way down to her bones. Her eyes were dry, though. She wouldn’t cry, because she couldn’t. She’d been just a child when her last tear had been shed and she could still remember her father’s mocking voice as it had slid down her cheek. “Buck up, Risa! Taylors never cry.”

      “Taylors never cry,” she repeated softly in the dark. As if waiting for an answer, she paused, but there wasn’t one, so she straightened and walked into the kitchen, going directly to the refrigerator. She wasn’t a big drinker, but she kept some beer on hand for her friends. Pulling a Tecate out, she popped the can open and was lifting it to her mouth when the phone on the wall rang shrilly.

      “Ed Taylor, Senior” flashed across the caller ID screen, and her hand hesitated over the receiver. Two more rings sounded before she picked it up.

      She said hello and her father answered her, his gruff greeting followed by a heavy, accusatory silence. She hated the games he played and usually she fought them, but tonight Risa didn’t have the strength. Something about life-and-death situations took it right out of you, she guessed.

      “You heard the news,” she said into the void. “Thanks for calling to check on me.”

      Her voice held a tinge of sarcasm, but like always, her father ignored it. “Bobby told me what happened.”

      Bobby was his former partner, and he was as attached to his police scanner as he was the oxygen tank he had to drag everywhere, years of cigarettes catching up with him. Risa had been surprised her father hadn’t come down with cancer himself, just from sharing a cop car with the guy all that time.

      “Well, Bobby’s always got the goods.” She could hear her father’s television in the background. It stayed on 24/7. “I guess you know everything, then.”

      “I know you’re alive and your partner isn’t.” He stopped there, his unspoken censure obvious.

      Your brothers wouldn’t have gotten themselves into this kind of situation. I always knew something like this was going to happen. You’re supposed to back up your partner, not get him shot. What the hell have you done now, Risa?

      She had never measured up. And she never would.

      Swallowing her defensiveness, she gave him the details, leaving out Luke’s inebriation. Her father would be the last one to let it slip, but if the truth got out, Risa feared Luke’s family might be in danger of losing all they had left now—his pension. Should the medical examiner run a drug-and-alcohol scan, which he probably wouldn’t without cause, then the chips could fall where they did, but Risa wasn’t going to bring the subject up.

      “I’ve got it under control,” she concluded tightly. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

      “I don’t have anything to worry about regardless,” he answered. “This is your bag, Risa. You gotta carry it by yourself.”

      “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want to do anything to make the family look bad.” Her father had left the force with all the right medals pinned to his chest, and her brothers were equally well regarded. The four of them were known as cop’s cops. Risa lightened her tone. “Gotta keep the Taylor rep, you know.”

      He spoke without hesitating, his criticism slicing her heart in two. “I think it’s too damn late to worry about that now.”

      CHAPTER THREE

      NOON HAD COME and gone when Grady Wilson wheeled his two-year-old Porsche Boxster into the police headquarters parking garage and made his way up the ramps to his assigned spot. The car was his only extravagance, but he frequently left it at home for weeks at a time, driving an old Volvo to work instead. Sometimes it wasn’t worth putting up with the gibes he got whenever one of the guys saw him in the Porsche. This morning he’d decided he didn’t really give a big rat’s ass.

      Picking up the Taylor/Rowling file from the seat next to him, Grady rubbed his eyes and sat for a second. He’d stayed up all night, reading the records he’d downloaded after coming home, and he felt like hell. When this case was over, he should head somewhere down in the islands, like Jamaica. He needed a break. Maybe he needed a permanent break.

      Locking the car, he reached the elevator and punched the recall button, thinking of Trudie, his ex. Seven years ago she’d walked into his office late one night and said he was married to the job so he didn’t need her, and she’d left. She hadn’t given him a chance to defend himself, but that hadn’t really mattered, because she’d been right.

      And nothing had changed since then. Grady still didn’t have a life outside of work. He was forty, but he felt like a hundred. He couldn’t remember when he’d had his last date, and he was daydreaming more and more, his mind wandering when it should have been concentrating. Sometimes he imagined himself as one of the monkeys he’d studied while getting his Ph.D. They’d literally worked themselves to death for the food pellets he and his first-year psych students would give them.

      Grady continued to labor as hard as the animals had, but the satisfaction that had once made the sacrifices worthwhile was nothing but a memory now. He wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, but that had definitely become the case.

      After getting СКАЧАТЬ