“Okay. Arms out to the side.”
I huff, but obey, arms out like a snow angel caught mid swipe in the headlights of Lexi’s van.
“Now, when I tell you to, close your eyes, tilt your head back slightly, and touch the tip of your nose with the tip of your index finger. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I resist the urge to huff again, closing my eyes.
“Use your right hand first. And recite the names of Santa’s reindeer in order while you do.”
“What?”
“Recite …”
“I heard you,” I sigh, touching my nose with my right pointer finger. “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer …”
“Now your left hand,” Officer Heinz says.
I touch my left pointer finger to the tip of my nose. “Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen.”
I open my eyes to find him studying me like I’m a conundrum.
“You forgot Rudolph,” he says.
I chuckle, then deadpan, “He was an independent contractor.”
Officer Heinz approaches me and says, “I’m sorry to say it, Miss Keller, but I’m going to have to take you into the station. We’ll contact the MacIntyres and see whether you are indeed their cousin.”
“You’re … arresting me?”
“Detaining.” There’s a clinking of metal and he produces a pair of cuffs.
“You’re handcuffing me?”
“Are you resisting?”
I stare him down, very tempted to run, but with the way this has been going, I can’t trust him not to fire shots if I flee. And Ithought Brooklyn after dark had its perils. We’ve got nothing on small town Ohio.
“Turn around, Miss Keller.”
I comply, literally biting my tongue while Officer Heinz cuffs me and walks me to his car.
“What a way to start the job,” I mutter as he ducks my head with his strong hand and eases me into the back seat of his cruiser. “Not even day one, and I’ve already checked off the bucket-list item I never knew I had—getting arrested by my future coworker.”
After I’m secured, he goes back to Lexi’s van, grabs my purse and locks up. Then he drives us through town,Jingle Bell Rockplaying through the car stereo.
Behind us, the half-deflated Santa flaps in the wind like he’s questioning all his life choices that led to this moment. I hear you, flapping Santa. I hear you.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I ask when Officer Heinz glances at me in the rearview with what appears to be a smirk.
His expression says he’s enjoying it a whole lot, but I’d be the last to know.
Instead of answering me, he says. “We don’t get much crime around here.”
“So, bringing in the out-of-town offender’s kind of a feather in your cap.”
I swear I see his chest puff about an inch. “Nope. Just doin’ my job, Miss Keller.”
“And your job involves violating ORC 2921.45? Interfering with my civil rights?”
