LITMIR.BIZ

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      After a few minutes I saw Michaels look through the small window of a utilitarian, fake wood door. The door swung open and he strode across the room sitting on the bench facing me. He was grim-faced.

      “What happened?” he said his voice sounding like thunder.

      “It’s nothing, just a stupid accident on my part. I was just hoping I’d have my house back. Surely it hasn’t taken them this long to take a few finger prints.”

      “Come in to my office and I’ll tell you about it.”

      I followed him down a hall, around a corner and then down another hall. My skin prickled. I could feel eyes on the back of my head. People peered around corners and stuck their heads out of doorways as we walked by. What’s with these people? I was sure they were used to seeing all sorts of people walk down these halls. What was so interesting this time? Sure, my clothes were torn and I looked like I’d been in a fight with a giant pincushion, but all the looks seemed odd to me. Michaels didn’t seem to notice. He stopped at his office, entering through another fake wood door with a little window in it. Everything was utilitarian. His desk had stacks of files on one corner. All the walls were beige just like the rest of the station. He had a plant on his filing cabinet but it needed some real sunlight. Two chairs faced his desk. There weren’t any photos on his desk or pictures on the walls. He closed the door behind us and looked at me. Reaching out he touched the tear in the shoulder of my t-shirt taking in the rips, the scratches and the black eye.

      “Now tell me what happened.”

      “Nothing happened. Nature just hasn’t been very kind to me this week. First I got carjacked and kidnapped and shot at. Then I hiked up into the hills. I was so lonely and the mountains felt so empty. I usually like it up there, but this time I couldn’t stand it. Then the fog closed in and I spent a whole day stuck in a little rat hole on the mountain. I tried to hike out on the third day and I slipped on a rock in the fog and fell into a thorn bush and here I am.” I shrugged, all part of being Cassidy “Trouble” Callahan. “But my house is still taped up and I can’t do anything and I don’t want to go back up there. I can find a place to stay but I was hoping my house would be there and…” I was babbling and was ashamed of it.

      He reached out and I saw a big hug coming and then he checked himself. Instead he studied me. I felt his gaze go right through me and I toughened up inside. I adjusted my stance.

      “Have a seat.”

      I sat in the chair facing his desk while he folded himself into the other one. He turned it to face me. I was glad because I didn’t want that big desk stretching out between us.

      He began, “Oscar didn’t show up till this morning.” Thank goodness for fog and thorn bushes, I thought. “Jefferson and Rubio were watching your house and everything went according to plan. He had a stolen car and a bank bag like Silva. He’s being questioned.” Michaels remembered something and walked around the desk, opened a drawer and removed a small object. He handed me my cell phone. “We took this off Silva at the trailer park. I don’t think he had a chance to call Oscar about the change in plans because picking up Oscar was easy.”

      “Then why are they still investigating?”

      “They should be done soon. When Oscar came to your house a neighbor walked up. They tried your door, walked around the side of the house. They waited for the neighbor to clear out before they nabbed Oscar. Let’s go see if they’re finished. Maybe I can get them to speed things up a bit.”

      “I need to get back to my car anyway. Shadow is out there.”

      I felt the eyes on us again as we exited the building.

      Shadow started barking as soon as I stepped into view. He danced around on my car seat, wagging his tail and barking. I took him out on his leash and made him sit in the back. Michaels climbed in and we took off.

      It didn’t take long to get to my house and there was little conversation as we rode along. Michaels seemed to be thoughtful. Like most guys, he probably preferred to drive. As we pulled onto my street they started taking the crime scene tape down. I pulled into the driveway and we all got out. Shadow ran for the front door.

      “The window is fixed,” I pointed out.

      “I thought the house should look normal when Oscar arrived. I didn’t think he’d stop if the place looked violated so I called a glass place and it was fixed the next morning.”

      We entered the house and a sense of familiarity settled over me. I picked up a lamp that had fallen over and fingered the dent in the wall where my foot had almost penetrated when Silva threw me across the room. I found the plate that held Silva’s steak in the far back corner of my bedroom. It looked like Shadow finally got his dinner. I put the dishes that had been left out into the dishwasher. Things weren’t too bad, considering. I went out to the backyard and dragged the A-frame away from the back fence. If Silva could jump the fence from up there, Shadow could easily. Michaels glanced around the backyard.

      “I need to mow.”

      “Nah, I wouldn’t worry about that yet. You have a lot of other things you need to do first.”

      “Like what?” I asked, curiously.

      “Doesn’t all this bother you? You know we have teams of guys at the station. When someone has some violent crime committed against them they go in, find out how to help the victims and they put a work crew together. Sometimes it’s something easy. There’s a burglary and the victims would feel better with just a motion detector light. We install one for them. Maybe they were attacked from some creep hiding in their bushes. We can take out their bushes so they feel safe coming home again. That’s one reason it was easy to get your window fixed.”

      “I think I’ll be fine,” I said, curling up in a corner of my couch.

      “Do you have someone who can come stay with you?”

      “I’ll be fine, really. Silva is caught. Oscar is caught. My window is fixed. My lamp didn’t even break and I’m surprised at that, the way I hit it.” Oops. Too much info. His expression softened and his eyes saddened. Next question, could he put all this behind him? I thought he’d be used to this, that it was routine police policy: get the job done, put it behind you. Now I wasn’t so sure.

      “No, I don’t have someone who will come stay with me. We were stationed out at the base. I was Marines, Jack was Air Force. We were only married a short time. Does the name Jack Callahan mean anything to you?”

      “Yeah,” he said, “He was a test pilot out there. A lot of the guys at work have friends out there. They spoke highly of Jack. Lots of them attended his funeral when his plane went down.”

      “That was my Jack. My stint with the Marines ended shortly after we were married. We were worried, with him in one service and me in another that we’d get shipped in different directions so I didn’t sign up again. He was career so here’s where we stayed. We bought this house. Jack crashed. Now I’m in limbo. I’m doing okay for now. I’ve just been spinning my wheels, building junk for my backyard, training Shadow, camping a lot. Eventually I’ll have to get a job, but I don’t know what kind that would be. There’s not much use for a cowgirl, Marine, tracker.”

      “The pictures on the mantel?”

      “That’s Jack and me. Some of the pictures are of my mom and dad, sister and brother-in-law and their two kids. That’s my family. They live in the central part of the state. They have a big ranch. They’ve all got each other and I’ve always been a loner.”

      “You shouldn’t be that much of a loner.”

      “How’d it go with your girlfriend?”

      “My girlfriend?”

      “The one you were going to cook dinner for.”

      “You know I don’t really have a girlfriend.”

      “I do?”

      “Cassidy,

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