“Don’t yell at him, Jack. We should be glad that he gets them before they sneak into the house. You know they terrify me.” Kim poked her head in, the chili she was cooking perfuming the air. He couldn’t wait to chow down after a twelve-hour shift at the park. She taught dance classes part time and sold her baked goods several days a week. The plan to open a hotel was on hold for now, but not completely off of her bucket list. “Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes, hon.”
“Okay, baby. I’ll be ready by then.”
He found his pliers and headed out the garage door and around the house to the back porch. Dropping to his knees, he started fixing the fence Diesel had made a mess of, all over a silly ass mouse. Diesel came shamefacedly around the corner, looking at him from the corner of his glimmering eye. Truth be told, Jack couldn’t stay mad at him for too long. He tried, but often failed. Diesel was simply too loveable. To make matters worse, the wolf and Kim were like best friends now. She’d even gotten angry when he tried to kick Diesel out of their bedroom not long ago because he’d have sworn the wolf was watching them as they made loud, vigorous love. It felt like a peeping Tom getting his rocks off when the beast eyed them. But she’d insisted Diesel wasn’t paying them any attention, and it was all in his mind.
“Diesel, you see what you did? Leave this fence alone! I mean it. It’s a wonder you didn’t destroy the tomatoes like you did last year when you ran through them after that squirrel.”
Diesel lay down beside him, and rolled over on his belly…
“You really are a piece of work.” He chuckled. He kept working on the fence, making good progress, when he could’ve sworn he heard a car pull into the driveway.
Is Kim expecting company? Maybe she has a pickup for a delivery for those cookies and pretzels she baked this morning. He tossed down his gloves and the pliers and made his way back around to the front of the house, Diesel hot on his heels. There, parked in the driveway, was a burgundy Ford truck. The driver’s side door slowly opened, and he couldn’t believe it…
Officer Mickey slipped out of the driver’s seat like snot from a sick kid’s nostril.
“Hey, Jack.” He waved weakly. “How’ve you been?”
“Better before the likes of you got here.”
The man smiled rather sheepishly and jammed his hands in his pockets.
“I’d like to talk to you for a minute, if you don’t mind.”
Jackson stared at him for a bit, then hollered out for Kim.
“Kim! Honey! Can you come get Diesel?”
The door that led into the garage from the house popped open, and Kim appeared with her hair tousled over one shoulder and an oven mitt on her hand.
She peered at him and the man, then whistled for Diesel to come over.
“Come here, boy… come on now.” Diesel followed her inside. Kim hesitated at the door for a spell, then closed it.
Jack crossed his arms and looked him up and down. He hadn’t seen the guy in over three years, and if he didn’t see him for an eternity, that still wouldn’t be enough time.
“I heard you got a promotion, Jack, and I wanted to congratulate you.”
“Mmm hmmm. That’s not why you’re here. Shouldn’t you be using this time to mess up some more missing person and murder cases? Or maybe visit your old boss in prison. Sweeney and his son I am sure wouldn’t mind more visitors and a gift of ramen noodles. Send my regards to Goose Creek Correctional Center when you stop by, and you best believe, when Sweeney comes up for parole in twelve years, I’ll be there to protest it. Brian got a seventy-five-year sentence, comes up for parole in twenty years—but that’ll never happen. Nevertheless, I can only pray someone shanks the hell out of him like he did my son before his time is up.”
Mickey had the decency to blush and start fidgeting.
“Why in the hell are you here? The truth this time.”
“I’m moving on, Jack. I’m moving to Anchorage. Got a new job lined up for me there. I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”
“And? Why should I care? They should’ve fired you when they fired the others. You want me to sing you a goodbye song on my invisible guitar?”
“No, but I wanted to clear something up before I left. You have every right to be angry. I know what happened with Chad wasn’t right. I knew it wasn’t right when you first started coming to the precinct, wanting help.”
“Then why in the hell did you join in on the bull, huh? Make things harder for me? You think I liked going down there talking to you guys? Like I didn’t have better things to do with my time? I am a father who lost his child to a senseless murder. Being mocked by you and the other clowns down there was a real joy. Then I had to relive every agonizing detail in court. Look at picture after picture, hear those testimonies, witness statements, and look at Brian’s evil face. That’s the last face my son saw—the Devil’s. The FBI presented other things I didn’t even know. Disturbing things. Your department lied over and over in the police reports. You withheld evidence! My boy had been tortured by that maniac, and his friends who were with him were too afraid to say a word. The entire police department covered it up to save Sweeney’s boy. What about my boy, huh? What about CJ? Chad Jackson Currant!”