Page 87 of Diamonds in the Mud

“I’m retiring.” He blurted it out, much like you would bad news, quickly and loudly.

“It’s about damn time.” I laughed. “God, I thought you were dying.”

He glanced sideways at me and then shook his head. “Damn it, girl, you are the best of us.”

I laughed again and nudged his shoulder. “When’s the big day?”

He took a deep breath. “Soon. No one knows but you and Edith. After the other day, well, I need to be with her.”

I nodded. “Agreed.”

We sat there in quiet, the bugs buzzing over the top of the water, the fish not biting, the late summer wind barely blowing the treetops.

“I have someone in mind to fill my shoes,” Randy broke into the silence.

“Not me,” I said quickly.

Randy chuckled. “No, not you.”

“Who?”

Randy glanced at me. “I’m hoping he’ll want to stick around after he’s done cleaning up our town.”

“Jameson,” I whispered.

“I’ll appoint him until there’s an official election. But everyone knows, once you get your foot in the door, you stick. I glanced at his file, and he’s more than qualified. Hell, he’s far more qualified than I was when I took over. About the same age too.” Randy used the back of his hand to wipe a bead of sweat from his brow. “I forgot my hat,” he mumbled.

That couldn’t be right. Randy couldn’t have taken over as chief of police when he’d been Jameson’s age.

She thought about it and then groaned. “I’m old.”

Randy laughed and wrapped an arm around her. “Not yet. Besides, you’ll always be our little girl.” He hugged her.

“I’m glad you’re retiring.” I sighed against his chest. Then, before he could answer, my line tugged and I pulled in the first fish of the evening.

Later, when we walked into the house loaded down with six cleaned fish, Edith and her new in-home nurse, Nelly, were sitting at the kitchen table having tea.

Nelly was a middle-aged black woman who had worked at the hospital for almost a decade before deciding to start in-home services. She had a daughter a few years younger than I was who was in college in Georgia to become a nurse.

The woman’s husband was a deacon at the church Randy and Edith went to. Both of my parents had known Nelly and her family as long as anyone else in town. They liked her, trusted her, and knew she was a perfect fit to watch over Edith until her chemotherapy was finished in three weeks.

“This is a surprise,” Edith said when I walked over and kissed her cheek.

“We caught six fish. I caught four of them,” I said, “which means he’s going to cook them up for us.” I motioned towards Randy, who chuckled.

“That’s the rules,” he said, setting down the cooler with the fish inside and then walking over to place a kiss on Edith’s cheek. “How are you?” he asked her as he looked towards Nelly.

“Good,” both Edith and Nelly said at the same time.

“Talk to me about work,” Edith said, turning to me.

While Randy cooked, I filled Edith in on every single boring detail of my life since I’d seen her last.

Since I couldn’t say much with Nelly there, I stuck to the basics. We had all agreed not to talk about Jameson with Nelly around. Not that we didn’t trust her, but there was a code that cop families went by—don’t share secretive information with outsiders.

As much as Randy and Edith trusted Nelly, she wasn’t part of the family.

We ate grilled fish, rice, and grilled vegetables and chatted about the coming cool season. Nelly filled us in on her daughter’s school and the boy she’d met at the hospital.