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Luke crossed his arms over his chest and nodded for me to keep going.
“There’s this one unsolved murder that I’ve been trying to solve for a very long time,” I said. “Well, I say solve it. I’ve been thinking about it non-stop since I was a kid. Have you ever heard of Highway to Haughton?”
Luke frowned. “No.”
“What about Hell to Haughton?” I said.
“Now that one,” he said, grimacing, “I have heard of. The stretch of about ten miles of Interstate Twenty where the young teen girls keep showing up dead? The ones where they don’t have a single drop of blood in their bodies, and they’re sitting on the chair right beside mile markers?”
I nodded. “That one!”
“I know more than most,” Luke said. “Since I’m law enforcement. But since it’s in Louisiana, it’s never really been my jurisdiction. They had one not too long ago, right?”
I was already nodding. “About four weeks ago. Yes.”
“And that was what made you want to be a criminal psychologist?” he asked.
“My friend in high school was one of his victims,” I said softly.
He knew that I had a friend die, and I thought he might know how, but Luke was a busy man.
“His?” he asked.
I sighed. “I think it’s a him, yes.”
“What makes you think it’s a him?” he wondered.
“I’ve watched a lot of murder mysteries, tons of documentaries, spent the last seven years studying to be a criminal psychologist, and I just have this gut feeling that it’s a man.” I shrugged. “I’m probably wrong as f… I’m probably wrong. But… like I said. Just a feeling.”
His lips twitched.
“Feelings are good,” he said. “They keep you alive.” He stood up and walked to a filing cabinet behind his desk.
He pulled out a sheaf of papers, then turned around and handed them to me.
“If you want to, go ahead and fill those out. Now, if you have time,” he said. “We can get this process started. We have a police academy that starts in a month. It’s a three-week, five-days-a-week course that you’ll have to pass to be able to enter the police department. You also have to have a sponsor to attend, which I’ll be more than willing to do with you.” He sat back. “How are your grades with the criminal psychologist degree?”
“Four point oh,” I answered distractedly as I read over the forms quickly.
“No shit?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t really have a life. I work at a cat shelter on the weekends and sometimes during the week. But other than that, I’m boring. I go to school, come home, study. Then I go to sleep, wake up and repeat. Boring.”
He laughed quietly. “Boring is pretty good if you ask me.”
My eyes shone.
Then I started to fill out my application.
It was toward the end of the process that I thought I should tell him what my other reason for applying was.
“I’m also interested in becoming a SWAT team member,” I said, informing him of my desires.
He blinked. “You want to be on the SWAT team?”
I paused, wondering if I should disclose what I really wanted to do.
Then decided, Luke Roberts was a really nice man.
I should tell him my true intentions.
“Honestly?” I said. “I’m not totally interested in becoming part of the team. I’m interested in getting Ford to pose for the calendar so that he’ll donate to my charity.”
Luke blinked again.
Then smiled.
“So all I have to let you do is try out? Then you’ll consider staying?” he asked.
I frowned. “What do you mean I’ll consider staying?”
He gestured toward me.
“You’re in your last year for a master’s in your criminal psychologist degree,” he told me bluntly. “When Ford said that you were coming, at first I wasn’t interested in playing this game. But then he told me what you were going to school for, and I became interested.”
My lips twitched.
“I was going to move to Dallas after this,” I told him honestly. “They have better job prospects, better pay, and I could work for multiple organizations.”
Luke nodded as if he completely understood exactly why I would do that.
“I did some talking with Longview PD, Tyler PD, Shreveport PD, and a few other smaller agencies in the area. We’re interested in sharing you. Your home base would be here, though. Your first priority is Kilgore. They’d be more than willing to pay you extra for your services. And we have great benefits, and excellent retirement,” he countered.
I felt my mouth drop slightly open.
“Umm,” I said, thinking that was more than I could’ve ever asked for.
“There’s been talk about hiring one for years,” he said. “The thing is, we’re kind of small potatoes, and when the opportunity ever arises that we’re in need of someone with your skills, we just call in for help. We’re loaned one from another department. I’d be more than willing to use you as needed, as well as keep you busy as a detective when you’re not needed.”
