“Nothing wrong.” Garreth buckled on his gear belt. “He had a few too many in honor of Rich Wiltz and I gave him a ride home.”
Her face relaxed but still reflected uncertainty. “You could have called me.”
“Why bother waking you?”
“What about the van?”
“After my shift I drove it to your place. Martin thought you’d worry not seeing it there in the morning.” Garreth settled the belt more comfortably on his hips. “He says you worry too much about him.”
Her face tensed again. “What else did Dad say about me?”
Before she finished the question, Garreth had a lie and innocent expression ready. “Nothing. Why?”
She let out her breath. “No reason. Thank you for helping him.” After a moment of hesitation, she smiled and added, “Let’s be careful out there.”
The mantra they all had now, thanks to Hill Street Blues, but not what she first considered saying, he thought. Still, watching her hurry out, the warmth in that smile was enough, reassuring him the last frost had melted.
Though what he really wanted, he decided as the week wore on, was the key to dealing with Duncan. No need to be buddies but working together would be more comfortable without this intermittent flare of resentment.
As on Wednesday, when Sue Ann dispatched Duncan to a domestic between a mother and daughter. Duncan radioed back, “I’m not getting between those two wildcats again. Let Seven work his voodoo on them.” And later he pulled up beside Garreth outside Gfeller Lumber to say, “Were the Ketzners fun? Though I don’t suppose they gave you any trouble.”
In fact they had, being so angry they fought his control. It had been a tightrope walk, focusing alternately on mother and daughter, always on the edge of losing them…until the daughter obeyed his suggestion to go to her room. A retreat punctuated by a slamming door as she left his control.
“You know,” Duncan said, “you’re so good at this, you’re probably going to end up handling all the domestics. Unless you teach me the secret, too.”
Garreth sighed. “I’ve told you, I don’t know why people and dogs respond to me the way they do. Maybe I have an authoritative voice.”
“Okay.” Duncan spread his hands. “Keep it to yourself. But that’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.”
After Duncan left, Garreth banged his head on the steering wheel in frustration…and went off to take a report on Halloween decorations stolen from a yard. Something they would probably have to deal with several times in the next two weeks. The up side: the address let him cruise past Anna Bieber’s house afterward.
Anna stood on her porch talking to a neighbor woman at the bottom of the steps.
Garreth pulled to the curb and climbed out. “Hello, Mrs. Bieber. How are you doing this evening?”
Anna peered at him. “Do I know — oh, you’re the young man looking for his grandmother.” Her brows rose. “What are you doing in a police uniform?”
He smiled at her. “I like Baumen so well I decided to settle here.”
Her forehead furrowed. She seemed about say something when his car radio came on. “Baumen Seven, we need a welfare check on Hattie Cromer at 203 East Maple. Her daughter in Victoria has been trying to call her for several hours without getting an answer.”
“Excuse me, ladies.” Garreth touched the brim of his cap and hurried back to the car.
Hattie Cromer proved to be fine, just minus her hearing aids…taken out to change the batteries and left out because she had not thought she needed them the rest of the night.
Sue Ann sent him from there to the Lutheran Church for a fender bender. Like the other churches in town, St. Marks had a Wednesday evening service. Tonight, unfortunately, Christian forgiveness had not extended past the service for the choir soprano shrilling at the baritone who backed into her T-bird.
While radio traffic indicated Duncan took a report at the Phillips station on a customer who used the self-service pumps and drove off without paying, Garreth answered a noise complaint and without vampire compulsion, had the young man working on his motorcycle shut it off for the night. Then he listened to Duncan go on high band behind the Co-op while he refereed neighbors over the one neighbor’s dog, whose barking the other neighbor claimed was keeping her baby awake.
The next time he passed Anna’s, her house had gone dark.
Not that he had any excuse to speak to her again tonight. His hope lay in tomorrow.
11
The evening began with promise.
Maggie invited him to eat with them on Sunday. “We like going to early Mass, so we have the rest of the day free. Come over at ten for waffles and my Uncle Leo’s homemade sausage, the best sausage you’ll ever eat.”
He accepted, despite the daylight time and food he needed to weasel out of eating. The invitation counted the most, making him feel accepted.
Out on patrol, traffic moved smoothly. He saw no sign of Scott Dreiling’s Trans Am. No one reported stolen Halloween decorations, though a dog did break out of its yard to attack a scarecrow at the neighbor’s house. The dog followed Garreth back to its yard. Its owner agreed to restore the scarecrow. Problem solved without further action necessary…giving him freedom to locate Dorothy Vogel’s Vega at Dillons.
Luck continued to smile. Duncan radioed a request they meet and Garreth suggested the parking lot of Gfeller Lumber, from which he could watch the Dillons and Walmart exits.
Duncan wanted to crow about locating the driver who had taken off from Phillips the night before without paying. “And I did it with a partial tag number and clerk at Phillips just remembering it was a light colored Galaxy.”
Garreth only half listened to the long narrative of how Duncan ID’d the car and driver, watching the exits south of them. He caught the end of the recitation, though, and gave Duncan the praise he wanted…and deserved. “Good work. What does the guy say about not paying?”
Duncan snorted. “That he ‘forgot’ because he was thinking so hard about getting home.”
An orange Vega wagon pulled out of the Walmart lot and turned up the highway. Turning onto Pine gave Dorothy a straight drive across town to Anna’s place. Garreth set a clock in his head. She never hurried, in case her mother wanted to pause along the way to say hello to a friend, so he had a few minutes before he needed to be there…time enough to avoid arousing Duncan’s curiosity by rushing off.
“Is the Phillips manager prosecuting?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. Got to set an example.” Duncan chuckled. “Mr. Absentminded has to pay for the gas and the fine for not paying in the first place.”
Garreth put his car in gear… “Expensive fill-up. Again, great job.” …and with a salute, pulled out onto the highway.
He timed his pass at Anna’s house so Dorothy had pulled into the driveway and begun taking bags out of the open back. Anna was disappearing in through the side door of the house.
He parked, telling Sue Ann he would be on high band, and climbed out of the car with his portable radio. “Mrs. Vogel, can I help you with those?”
Dorothy looked around, took a moment to recognize him, then smiled. “Mother’s ancestor hunter. She said you’d moved here and joined the police. Is this the serving part of serving and protecting?”
Garreth smiled back. “Yes, ma’am. Which bags would you like me to take?”
Between them, they managed everything in one trip. The side door opened into a small porch with another door opening into the kitchen.
There Dorothy set the bags she carried on the table. “Put it all down here.” She raised her voice. “Mother, come see our new grocery boy.”
Shortly, Anna appeared through a hallway door and seeing him, raised her eyebrows. “In a snazzy uniform, too.”
Garreth shrugged. “I was passing and saw your daughter with a load of groceries to bring in, so I gave her a hand.”