“Okay.”
Rad frowned and turned to the garage bay. “You look like shit,” he tossed out.
“Thanks. I feel like it. I’ve been on duty nearly twenty-four hours.” One of the guys’ wives had gone into labor and he’d covered his shift, then there was a four-car accident that took forever to clear.
Rad walked up to a bearded, potbellied guy in grease-stained coveralls. “Jerry. Cops want to check out that silver Honda out back with the busted bumper. Can I give him the owner’s information?”
Jerry wiped his hands on a rag and looked Hunt up and down. “Got a warrant?”
“No.” Hunt waited, noting Jerry just wanted to push back against the law coming into his place of business. He got the same reaction all the time from people who felt like the cops were trampling their civil liberties. AllHunt wanted to do was uphold the law and keep the peace.
Rad continued to act all jumpy. Maybe because of the arrest, Rad didn’t know how to act around him anymore.
“Owner’s name is Steve Thompson. Lives out on Deer Oaks Drive.” Jerry dismissed him and bent over the car he’d been working on when they walked in.
“Any idea how the car got damaged?” Hunt spoke to Jerry’s back.
Jerry didn’t bother to turn around, but answered, “Got rear-ended in a parking lot.”
“And he was okay leaving the car here for days?” Most people needed their car and didn’t want to wait days to get it back. They hadn’t even started working on it.
Jerry turned around, clearly exasperated by the conversation. “His wife is a writer and works from home. He said he’d use her car until I fixed his. Said he wasn’t in a rush when I told him I had several other vehicles ahead of his.” Jerry shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a lot of places around these parts to get it fixed, so he was happy to leave it with me. I’m busy because I’m good.” With that, Jerry turned his back and dismissed him again. “Get back to work on that tire rotation, Rad.”
Rad walked over to the car up on the lift.
Hunt followed. “How’s Angela?”
“Same as always.”
That didn’t really answer Hunt’s question.
“Probably telling her sister a bunch of lies as we speak. I hate it when those two get together. That bitch Cyn is always filling Angela’s head with ideas aboutleaving. That’s not going to happen. Not now. Angela knows her place. She knows what’ll happen if she steps out of line.”
“What will happen?”
Rad seemed to suddenly comprehend he wasn’t spouting off to a friend but a cop. “Nothing. Stay out of my fucking business. You’ve made it clear we aren’t friends anymore.”
“Youbroke that bond when you gave me no choice but to be a cop instead of your friend.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve got no cause to be sniffing around me. What the hell are you even doing here?” Finally, Rad asked the question Hunt expected him to ask the second he saw him.
“I came to see if the guy who used to be my friend had come back. But it feels like he’s gone for good. And it’s too bad. Because I liked that guy. And Angela deserves better than what you’ve become.”
Rad fisted his hands at his sides and squared off with Hunt. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know beating up your girlfriend, scaring her, making her feel less than, is the lowest thing a man can do.”
“What did you say?” Jerry asked, standing by the other car, pointing at Hunt with a wrench in his hand.
Rad glared at Hunt. “You just had to run your fucking mouth.”
Jerry took a menacing step forward. “You hit that sweet woman?”
“Angela is fine,” Rad assured his boss. “It’s not like what happened to your daughter.”
“No?” Jerry asked, taking another step closer. “You didn’t get angry and take your frustrations out on her?Did you leave bruises on her? Did she bleed? What could she have possibly done to make you do something like that to her?”
“We argued. It got out of hand.” Rad read Jerry’s simmering rage and rightfully kept his answers short, so as not to antagonize the man.