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Holly looked up the word. “‘Consort: Keep company; associate; harmonize.’” She looked up at Taggert. “Yes, I do think it is proper.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Taggert said.
“What, exactly, did you have in mind, Irma? And please be direct.” Holly
smiled a little.
“I mean that it has come to our…my attention that you, an unmarried woman, are living with a man.”
“I live with a dog named Daisy,” Holly said.
“All right, sleeping at his house from time to time.”
Charlie Peterson spoke up. “Now wait a minute, Irma…”
Holly held up a hand. “It’s all right, Charlie. Irma, I will tell you that I am a grown woman, and I conduct myself by my own ideas of proper behavior, ideas formed in a happy home with good parents and in the Baptist Church, with which I do not always agree. Unless you wish to make a formal charge of misconduct, that is all I have to say on that subject.”
Taggert was about to reply, but Charlie Peterson would not be stopped this time. “Irma, your comments are improper and irrelevant to these proceedings,” he said. “Unless you have relevant questions to ask, it’s time for you to be quiet.”
Taggert clamped her jaw shut and turned red.
John Westover spoke up again. “Holly, are you aware that there is a city ordinance against landing an aircraft on our beaches?”
“I am aware of that, John. I think you may be referring to such a landing last Sunday afternoon.”
“I am.”
“The landing took place about a mile outside the city limits.”
“Oh,” Westover said, glaring at Irma Taggert.
“I was flying just off the beach at low altitude with a friend at the controls when I observed what appeared to be a burglary in progress. We landed on the beach and investigated, rousting the burglar, who fled in a white truck. I called in a bulletin on the truck, then we took off from the beach and searched further for the vehicle from the air. As it turned out, there were too many white trucks in town for the search to be successful.”
“I understand,” Westover said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to criticize.”
“Thank you, John. I should tell you that I was sufficiently impressed with the aerial search experience to think that, at some time in the future, it might be a good idea to investigate the possibility of having a police aircraft, if the need exists, and if such a program could be cost effective.”
“Interesting idea,” Charlie Peterson said. “I have a question, Holly. What do you think of Orchid Beach and your department so far?”
“I think Orchid Beach is an extraordinarily good place to live and work, and I think that the department I have joined is extremely well organized and trained. My father has retired from the army and has come to live here, and that gives me a family again, which I had begun to miss. I want very much to continue in the chief’s job, and I hope for your favorable action on my application.”
“Thank you, Holly,” John Westover said. “I think that concludes the interview. We expect to make an early decision, and we’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you, John. Thank you all.” Holly stood up and left. Alone in the hallway, she stopped and leaned against a wall for support. Her heart was thumping, and she had begun to perspire.
CHAPTER
35
H olly was sitting at her desk half an hour later when she looked up and saw John Westover and Charlie Peterson enter the squad room and walk toward her office. They’d made a decision, she thought. The two men stopped a dozen feet from her door, talked for a minute, then separated. John Westover went down the hall toward Hurd Wallace’s office, and Charlie Peterson headed for her door. Uh-oh, she said to herself, the chairman of the council is going to see Hurd, and Charlie is going to break the news to me. This doesn’t look good. She waved Peterson into her office.
Peterson took a chair. “Well, Holly,” he said, “we’ve spent the last hour rehashing all the applicants, reviewing qualifications and discussing the interviews. As John said, it came down to you or Hurd Wallace. John is in Hurd’s office, now, to tell him of our decision.”
Holly took a deep breath and said nothing. In the moment that passed, she decided to resign from the department rather than work for Wallace, and she realized that she had not given a thought to what she would do afterwards. Maybe she’d go to law school.
“The discussion was…vigorous,” Charlie said. “Ted Michaels weighed in at some length with his opinion, and it was clear that we were divided. Frank Hessian was the swing vote, and I think what bore the most weight with him was the opinion that Chet Marley had, in effect, expressed when he hired you.”
Holly let out the breath in a whoosh.
