“I can’t imagine why.”
“He probably won’t be charged for selling information, but he’ll never be in law enforcement again.”
“I guess that’ll have to be good enough,” Tom said.
Browning clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Come on in. I have that box right here. I just need you to sign for it and affirm that you’ll deliver it to Ms. Pozniak.”
“It’s West,” he corrected him. “Legally now, from what I understand.”
“Right.” Browning sat down and slid some papers across his pristine desk. This guy was organized. No wonder he was moving up quickly. “Nice of you to take this stuff personally. I’m sure it’s a difficult situation for her.”
“Yeah.” Difficult. Tom glanced at the cardboard box. It wasn’t much of anything, from what Tom had seen on the evidence sheet. The box was sadly small. He signed all the paperwork and left with the box under his arm. He had a week to drive it out to her, but he planned to leave this afternoon.
Mary was waiting by his car when he returned to the marshal-service building. “I heard,” she said. “You doing okay?”
“I’m fine, but you’re the one who’ll have to give up the acting-supervisor gig when I get back in a week,” he said, pushing her affectionately away from the door of his SUV.
“You know I don’t care about that.”
“Don’t pretend you haven’t loved being in charge,” he said.
“Well, if it had to be someone,” she said with a smile, “then I’m thrilled it was me. Are you leaving tomorrow?”
“Today.”
“Oh. Okay, just...”
“What?” he asked.
“Be careful. I mean, I don’t know what you’re hoping for, Tom, but...”
He wasn’t hoping for anything. He just wanted to make things right for Isabelle. “I’m only trying to make amends for what happened.”
“You don’t need to make any amends,” Mary snapped. “You risked everything to help her!”
“Mary,” he said. They’d had this discussion a dozen times. “She’s had it a lot rougher than I have. She didn’t do anything wrong, and she lost everything except her actual life, and she was damn worried about that, too.”
“That wasn’t your fault!”
“No. But I didn’t exactly restore her trust in people, did I?”
She shrugged. “Whatever. You’ll do what you want. Just say hi to Jill for me while you’re out there.”
“You just said hi to her two weeks ago.”
Mary’s cheeks flushed. “She was in Cheyenne for a meeting. She picked me up here, and we had dinner. That’s all.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“We’re taking it slow,” she protested. “Both of us.”
“That’s smart,” he said.
“Yeah.” She looked away. “But a little frustrating.”
Mary walked away while he was still laughing at her. Not that he had any good reason to laugh. He knew all about frustration.
Tom drove home to change into jeans and a green button-down that Mary had once said made his eyes look nice. He grabbed the bag he’d already packed and hit the road for Jackson.