Waking up just as the sun was coming up, he felt better than he had in weeks.He knew it had a lot to do with Hailey being safe and was happy to find that at some point in the night, she’d gone to her bedroom.He took a long, hot shower and got dressed for the day.He had some things that needed his attention and was happy to be able to get a good start on them.Just as he was looking over his investments, Hailey came into his office.
“I must have needed the sleep.”He said that he had as well.“I’ve been thinking too that while it was comfortable to have the bed that I had at the greenhouse, it certainly is a lot nicer to have a real bed to sleep on.”
“I know what you mean.I took the advice of my brothers and had a custom bed made so that I could fit.It’s difficult to sleep in a king-sized bed when I’m so tall.It’s nice to stretch out too when I want to.”He asked her if she was comfortable in her bed.She told him that she had slept like the dead.“Good.I did wonder if the beds would be comfortable or not.I didn’t think to try them out before I ordered them.”
“It must be nice to have a brand new home.I just love this place.All the added extras that you’ve had put in are really nice.”He said that he’d been thinking about having his own home since he was young.“I guess you knew just what you wanted in a home, too, then.”
“I did.Some of the things that I have were added later, like the warmed floors in the bathroom.That’s my favorite part of taking a shower.Just knowing that my feet are going to be warm when I get out is a blessing.”She said that she’d been enjoying the nice, large shower stalls.“Again, because I’msuch a big man, I didn’t want to have to skimp out on how large my showers were either.It’s nice being able to have the spray hit me on the top of my head instead of in the neck.”
“Yes, it’s like a waterfall when I take my shower.”She sat down in one of the chairs, and he asked her what was wrong.“Nothing.I’ve just been thinking about the things that I saw while I was at the restaurant and how things were changed.I do wonder how he thought moving the bodies around was going to be helpful.Or even legal, for that matter.That’s the one thing that sticks in my head the most.Or for that matter, how he thought that he’d be able to handle a case that big and get away with all the things that he’d done to mess up the crime scene.”
“He’s just arrogant enough to think that he could get away with anything, as he was the chief of police.And most of his department has been arrested too for their part in what went down there.”She said that was good.“How about we not talk about this for a while and go out to have some dinner.I already told Mae that we’d be going out, I hope you don’t mind, but I just want to get out and do something normal for a change.”
“I’m sure that going out with me isn’t considered normal.”He said that he thought that they could have a good time.“I’m sure we will, but you said that with a cook, you’d be eating at home more.What happened to that?”
He laughed.It was fun when she put him in his place, and he wanted to get to know her better.The restaurant aside.There were things about her that he knew already, but he wanted to know it all.
Getting her to get dressed, the two of them decided to have burgers at the local joint.She didn’t have anything to get dressed up in, and he wanted to get that for her.He knew that she’d not like to be a kept woman, but he was willing to go broke to make her happy.
It occurred to him that he could easily fall in love with Hailey.She was everything that he’d ever hoped for in someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.As they were leaving the house, it occurred to him that he was about halfway in love with her, and he had to stop moving or trip himself up.Looking at her when she asked if he was all right, all he could think about was that she could be the one he spent the rest of his life with.
“I’m fine.Something just occurred to me.”She nodded but didn’t ask, and he was glad.It was much too soon for him to confess his love for her, and he didn’t want to scare her off.He decided to be careful from now on until things were settled with the restaurant.He knew that he could wait that long and was happy that he’d been able to come to some conclusion.“I just realized that it’s been a while since I’ve eaten and I’m starving.”
“I am too.I’ve been wanting a burger and fries for a while now and can’t wait to sink my teeth into one.I might even have a milkshake while I’m at it.”He said that she should.“I might.It depends on whether they can make it with chocolate.I so love chocolate milkshakes.”
Dinner was fun, and they both ate more than he thought they would.She had a second burger, and he had three.He’d not realized how hungry he’d actually been until he took his first bite.Skipping breakfast and lunch in favor of getting some work done, he decided not to do that again.It was fun getting work done, but he was too hungry to enjoy his dinner with a beautiful woman.And she was too.
After dinner, the two of them decided to walk around town.They’d walked to town together, and it was fun walking around the little town.They made their way to the Dari Bar to have an ice cream cone.She hadn’t had a milkshake with dinner, and she told him this was her way of making up for it.They walked around town holding hands, and he thought that was just about the best thing that could have happened.Taking her to the door, he turned her into his arms and kissed her.
~*~
Daniel couldn’t believe that he was in jail.He’d never had anything in his life but a parking ticket when he’d been sixteen.Now here he was locked up in a jail cell with his other officers, like he was nothing but a criminal.When his lunch was brought to him, he tried talking to the agent who brought it to him.
“Hey.Can you tell me what’s going on?I’m the chief of police around here, and nobody is telling me anything about why I’m in jail.”The man grunted at him and turned away.“I’m going tobe suing all of you when I get out of here.There isn’t any reason that I should be in jail at all.You’re making a mistake, I hope you know that.”
Still nothing.One of his officers told him to be quiet before he got them all in trouble, but he shouldn’t be here.He just knew that it had to do with that thing out at the restaurant, and he was going to make sure that heads rolled about it other than his own.
He’d made mistakes.He knew that.In addition to moving the bodies around—he shouldn’t have done that, he knew—he also messed up the crime scene that was well over his head when he walked in on all the bodies and blood.
Then, when he’d found the meth in the basement of the place, he should have called someone in who could take care of that for him.But he’d already messed up the scene by walking all over the place, and he would have been in trouble had they come in then and seen what he’d done.Christ, he was going to be in big trouble if they figured out only a third of what he’d done to the crime scene.
He’d let his officers run around like they were at home.Eating what had been prepared and fixing themselves something more.He’d thought it was a routine homicide and that he’d be able to figure it out in no time.But the meth…well, that was going to get him arrested.Or, since they’d already arrested him, get him in prison time.He wouldn’t make it in prison; he was just too pretty for that.
“It’s that damned woman named Candy Petree.”She was the only one left alive at the scene that day.Gloria Simon had been the only other person who had been left alive in the whole scene, and she’d overdosed not three days later.He figured that she had taken a great deal of meth for herself or to sell and had done herself in.Candy was the only one, besides his men, who would have known half the mistakes he’d made with the bodies.And they’d better not say a word to anyone, or he’d have their asses on the firing line.
It didn’t bode well that the FBI was in his offices right now.Nor did it seem to be a good thing that they were asking questions of his men.He’d been drilling into them that the way he handled things was the right way, and they’d better not be giving him any backtalk about it.He was in charge, damn it.
Daniel ate his meal but held onto the tray so that he could try again to talk to the agents.They had to know something, and he wanted to know what they did.He’d never been so worried about anything in his life.When the officer next to him, he’d never learned his name, thinking that he was going to fire them all and have his own crew in the stationhouse, was taken away, he knew that he was going to be in big trouble with the law.Not to mention all the men who had been out there with him on that fateful morning.
The call had come in that there were shots being fired at theGoldenSheep.He’d gone down there with five men, thinking it was going to be a prank or something.As soon as he walked through the door and saw the first of many bodies, he called in the rest of his men to follow him inside.
The bitch Candy had been there before them, and they just shoved her into the restaurant right along with them.Mistake number one, as far as he was concerned.Number two had come when he held her on the floor next to the body of the dishwasher for so long, then letting her go.He’d asked for her name and address, but even that had been a fuck up.She would have seen that the bodies had been moved; hell, they were moving them out of the way to get to the stove to cook themselves steaks on the hot grill.
And since there was no way for them to get a good look at the body in the dishwashing area, he’d had it moved to the kitchen so that he could see it better.That was mistake number five thousand, he thought in the grand scheme of things.And that had been in the first half hour of him being in charge of the situation.
When they came to pick up the trays, the officer beside him still hadn’t returned.Asking the agent again about the reason he was arrested got him nothing.He was trying to think of ways to get himself out of trouble since he’d found the meth area that they were using, and going out to the scene daily had netted him nothing but questions on how he’d done things.Once he started lying, the deeper he got into it.Telling them that the bodies were like that when he arrived was something he wishedhe’d never said.Now he had to stick with it, or he’d be in prison for sure.
It was late when the officer returned.Asking him what had been said to him got him no answers, so he resorted to threats.He was still his boss, and he’d better be talking.It didn’t get him anything either when the man just snorted at him.Like he knew something that Daniel didn’t.He probably did.Daniel was in the dark about everything that was going on right now.
