Linda Wisdom, page 7
She glanced around to make sure no one was watching them. There were curious looks from some, but nothing she felt threatened by.
“I’m talking about the overload of testosterone you’re exuding,” she muttered through her smile as she lifted her sandwich. “If you keep giving Nicole those killer smiles of yours, she’s going to jump right onto your lap.”
His eyes shifted in the direction of the young waitress, who was standing at the counter chatting and giggling with a couple of girls who looked to be close to her age. Every so often they’d look his way and giggle some more. He sighed, trying to remember if he’d ever felt that young.
“I’d feel better about it if I knew she’s of legal age.”
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“Don’t worry, you won’t get picked up for corrupting a minor.”
Tess’s fingers dug into her sandwich. It took her a moment to release some of the tension.
“Well, Sheriff, this must be the young man I’ve been hearing about from everyone.”
They looked up at the man standing by the booth.
Jake mentally catalogued the man who appeared to be in his late fifties, with thinning gray hair and a
.lean body dressed in khaki twill pants and a blue dress shirt. His smile told the world he was an easygoing guy, the kind of man people wanted to confide in. Although they probably changed their minds once they looked at his eyes that were a pale gray and cold as ice. Jake doubted the man kept anything a person confided to him a secret unless it was to his benefit.
“Jake, this is Brian Palmer, who owns the town’s hardware store. Brian, Jake Wilder.” Tess’s smile was about as welcoming as a rattlesnakes.
Brian held out his hand. “Glad to see that our Tessie has the good sense to find herself a man.
We’ve all been worrying about her,” he said with genial good humor that Jake didn’t find the least bit amusing. “If you feel the need for some man talk, come by the store. Though we’ll probably quiz you about Tessie here.”.He flashed him a man-to-man wink.
“Thanks.” Jake didn’t commit himself to anything. He’d keep it in mind in case there. was a chance he might learn something.
Brian smiled, patted Tess’s shoulder, and walked back to the table. A few minutes later the men got up and left as a group. Nicole walked over to clear the table, picked up a few coins, made a face at them, and turned to look at the door. Jake could see her mouth the words “Cheap jerks” before she returned to clearing the table.
“They obviously don’t believe in leaving a decent tip while they don’t mind leaving a pretty messy table.” He jerked his head toward Nicole.
Tess laughed. “Are you kidding? As far as they’re concerned, Nicole is doing this for fun, since she’s going to school and lives with her parents. Nancy only pays minimum wage because she figures her waitresses will rack up on tips. She doesn’t realize that to the men a dime tip is more than enough, and a quarter is downright scandalous.”
“Are you sure we’re still in the twentieth century?” He pulled his cigarette pack out of his pocket and dropped it next to his plate.
“Not the way we remember it.” Tess watched the well-remembered action. He always set his cigarette pack next to his plate so that he was ready for his post meal smoke. She could feel the nicotine cravings begin as imaginary smoke seemed to fill her nostrils. She didn’t notice the deep’ indentations her 47
fingers made in her sandwich or that her hands, shook slightly as she brought it to her mouth. Her favorite sandwich tasted like cardboard.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up. “Why?”
He tipped his head toward her hands. “You’re shaking.”
She tightened her grip. ‘Caffeine shakes.”
He didn’t look convinced. “You used to drink coffee by the gallon and it never bothered you.”
“I was also a lot younger back then,” she said, biting down on the sandwich with a savage chomp and chewing energetically. “I could also stay up for ninety-six hours without feeling like something a truck drove over. Now I like my eight hours’ sleep, and I’ve cut down on caffeine.”
“Then I’m surprised you didn’t order milk instead of iced tea.” He picked up an onion ring and devoured it in two bites. “You give up spicy food too?”
“I don’t have to worry about fast food or heavy gourmet food anymore. And I don’t have that horrible smoker’s cough when I wake up in the mornings. I don’t even have to worry that my clothes smell like the inside of a cigarette pack.”
“Nothing worse than a reformed smoker.”
Tess set her sandwich down. There was nothing more she’d like to do than smash it in Jake’s face.
Even after all this time, he could still irritate her.
“Teresa O’Hara, you finish everything on your plate.’ A woman’s raspy voice preceded its owner.
Jake looked up, his eyes widening as he saw a large woman seem to sail across the room. When she reached them, she looked down at Jake’s plate, which was clean as he finished the last onion ring. “You’ve got a good appetite.”
“In case you couldn’t guess, that’s the highest praise you can receive from Nancy,”’ Tess said wryly.
“So, Nancy, what little tidbits have you heard about us? I’m taking a survey, since everyone seems to have their own opinion.”
“I haven’t heard as much as I’d like, but what bits and pieces I have heard are better than the afternoon soaps,” she said promptly. “You two keep it up and ‘General Hospital’ is going to lose some viewers for a while.”
In Jake’s eyes Nancy Grant didn’t look like the chief cook and owner of a small-town cafe. Close to six feet tall, she was more muscle than fat. Coal-black hair was coiled on top of her head, making her look even taller, and without any signs of lines on her face there was no way to tell her age.
“Do you work out?” Without thinking, Jake spoke his thoughts out loud.
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She lifted her arm and displayed a rock-hard biceps muscle. “Damn right I do. Got my own set of free weights set up in the back. There’s some nights drunks come in here and don’t want to leave. I’m only too happy to show them where the door is.”
“She doesn’t believe in calling us to take care of any problems in here,” Tess explained.
“Why bother when I can take care of it myself”
Nancy’s voice still boomed loudly. “I don’t get much trouble in here, I can tell you that.” She laughed, clapping Jake on the back. It might have been a light and friendly clap, but if he hadn’t gripped the edge of the table, he would have ended up sprawled across it. His eyes still bugged out as he tried to drag air into his lungs.
Tess ducked her head to hide her smile. Bigger men than Jake had been victims of Nancy’s puckish sense of humor. That he managed to stay upright after a slap on the back said a lot to Nancy about the man.
“Yeah, well, it’s always nice to see a woman who’s able to take care of herself,” he choked out.
Nancy crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared at Jake until he felt as if he were an insect under a microscope. Undaunted, he settled back on the bench and stared back.
“You don’t look like a computer consultant” was her final analysis.
That was something he hadn’t expected. “What does one look like?”
“You’re supposed to be pasty-faced because you spend all your time indoors, you wear glasses because it’s the only way you can read one of those screens, you don’t have time for women and wouldn’t know how to talk to one if you got lucky. And all you can understand is computer language. Of course I’m describing my grandson,” she pronounced. “Now he looks like the typical computer nerd, while you look like somebody who would be out looking for trouble.” She gazed at darkly tanned arms visible under his shirtsleeves that showed a lean definition of muscle. “And have no problem in handling it.” She switched her gaze to Tess. “He looks as if he should be wearing a badge, doesn’t he?”
“I don’t think Jake would like having to work for someone when he’s much happier working for himself,” she said finally. “You should know how that is, since you weren’t happy when you used to work for someone else.”
“I don’t believe in spending all my time with computers,” Jake explained. “When I can, I help my brother at his lumberyard. It gets me outside doing physical labor.’
Nancy studied Jake with a silence that grew more charged by the second. “Sure you do.”
Three men walked in, greeting Nancy and Nicole along with a few curious looks at the man sitting with their sheriff.
“Should I stand up and state my name, rank, and serial number, or what?” he muttered as Tess settled 49
the bill and they walked outside.
“At least Henry wasn’t in there with his big ears and equally big mouth,” she muttered. “Damn!
How could I forget that Nancy senses things no one else would? Everyone else is taking you at face value, but she never goes along with what anyone else thinks. At least, I know she won’t voice her opinion to others. She’d rather think you’re a crook and don’t want me to know or something even worse.”
“I hate to think what she’d consider worse.” Jake turned around and looked down the street. “You going back to the station?”
Tess nodded, looking a little wary. “Why?”
“I thought I’d take a look around, see if I can get a feel for the place and the people. Maybe even learn something.”
“Do you still have the house key on you?” He nodded. “Good, if you want to go back to the house, you can walk back. I usually get off around six or so.”
“Okay.” Jake walked over to her and put his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. “I’ll miss you, sweetheart, but I know how important your work is.” He smiled as he lowered his head and covered her mouth with the heat and emotion that signified the thoroughness of a longtime lover. His mouth was hot with enough pressure to keep her anchored to the ground and light enough so that she could walk away if she wanted to. That was the last thing she wanted to do.
It wouldn’t be until later that Tess would kick herself for allowing Jake to get the upper hand again. He was still smiling when he finally lifted his head. A smile she would have loved to have wiped off his face. But unfortunately she couldn’t do what she wanted to when there were so many people watching them with smiles and titters. She was positive the story about their kiss would burn up the town’s phone lines within the next sixty seconds.
“I suggest the next time you decide to kiss me in public for the sake of your case, you forgo the onion rings at lunch,” she said softly, with her own smile pasted on her lips. “And it’s only because of our audience looking on with fond affection that you are still in one piece. But don’t push your luck, Slick.
Accidents can happen just about anywhere. Even in li’l ole Crater Rock.’ She patted his cheek a tad harder than necessary and finished her walk back to the station.
“I’d say you’ve got a lot of woman to deal with, Wilder,” a man standing in front of an electronics store called out. “You’re a braver man than I am. I don’t know if I’d want to fool around with a woman who carries a gun.”
“Hey, that’s what makes life interesting. Besides, I’m the kind of guy who likes to live life dangerously. I want a woman who can give me some pretty wild nights,” he called back. He grinned at the Linda J. Wisdom
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stiff set of her posture, which told him she’d heard. Sensing an opening, he walked over to the man with the intention of taking it.
As Jake smiled and talked to the man about a little bit of everything, he still couldn’t get the taste of Tess’s mouth out of his mind.
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SIX
“Now, Tessie, you can’t mean to bring this proposal before the town council next week. Especially after all the times we’ve had to sit up there and explain to everyone how the town coffers keep getting lower instead of higher.” Henry dropped the six-page proposal on Tess’s desk. He treated the proposal she had labored over for almost a week as if it was nothing more than a throwaway ad someone had stuck under his car’s windshield wiper.
“Then I guess the council is going to have to come up with some, ideas, because this town is starting to grow, Henry, and growth means we’ll need more officers,” she argued, picking up the proposal and smoothing the top page. “I’d like to add at least one more on nights. We could use that additional coverage now.”
He puffed himself up. “What’s wrong with Frank?
“He’s a damn good officer, missy. He’s always been devoted to his work, so I can’t think you’d have any complaints about him.”
She stifled her sigh of frustration. “Calm down, Henry. Your face is so red that if you don’t sit down, you might end up having a stroke.” She waited until he dropped into the chair across from her desk.
“For the past six months you have been talking to the entire town about our future growth, about luring manufacturing firms out this way, and then the real estate developers. All of that is good and fine, but with growth we have to start thinking about protection for the extended population. As it is, we can’t cover the entire area as effectively as we should.”
“Since we haven’t had a major crime committed here in the past thirty years, I don’t see why you’re worrying so much,” he argued.
“Maybe because I like to be prepared. I didn’t write this up for the fun of it, Henry.” She tapped her proposal. “I conducted a survey by talking to sheriffs and police chiefs in charge of towns our size and to chiefs of towns twice our size. Even the smaller towns have more than one man patrolling at night.”
“I don’t hear Frank complaining about his workload.”
She felt herself starting to lose her temper. “Probably because he can crack heads to his heart’s content without too much ‘interference. There’s going to come a day when he’s going to crack the wrong head and be in a lot of trouble. Right now I’m on call twenty-four hours a day. I’ve never complained before and I’m not complaining now, but it isn’t something we should count on in the future. What if something happens to me? The day shift can’t work nights, too, and remain effective.”
Henry heaved himself out of his chair. “Now, darlin’, you’re worrying about problems that haven’t Linda J. Wisdom
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even come up yet.” He reached across the desk and patted her hand. “I think the problem is you’re working yourself too hard. You need to relax, spend time with that young man of yours. I heard he went alone —
with you when you patrolled. Now, I know you wouldn’t have taken him with you if you even thought there might be some kind of trouble, would you?” He didn’t wait for an answer but rambled on. “You see, there’s nothing for you to worry your little head about. I’d say in about another six months we could easily think about hiring someone on a part-time basis to take some of the load off you.” His smile broadened more before he sketched a wave and left.
Tess sat there staring at the door while jiggling a pencil between her fingers. It wasn’t long before the pencil lay on the desk in two pieces.
Wilma opened the door a crack and peeked in. ‘Is it safe to come in, or should I just post a warning on your door to beware of the sheriff.”“
Tess gestured for her to enter. “Did you ever get the idea that the world would be a better place if women ran it?”
“Every day of my life. More so when Curtis died and I found out he’d run the business into the ground. The man was the only house painter and wallpaper hanger in town and he still couldn’t handle it,”
she said, taking the chair Henry had recently vacated. “And to top it off, he didn’t take on the extra insurance policy Henry kept pushing him to take, because he figured on living forever instead of having that heart attack while painting Joe Simpson’s house.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Do you know Joe never paid me for that job? It might not have been finished, but he could have paid for the three sides of the house Curtis had done. I really should have taken him to small-claims court about that.”
Tess closed her eyes, feeling the headache Henry’s visit started increase with Wilma’s presence. “No offense, Wilma, but is this story going somewhere?”
“Well, of course it’s going somewhere! I don’t exactly talk to hear myself talk. What I’m saying is that if the men would just settle back and let us women run the world, it would be a better place because we wouldn’t listen to the ridiculous excuses men put up with,’ the older woman concluded.
By then it took Tess a moment even to remember the original question and to wish fervently that she hadn’t asked it! She knew she wasn’t going to ask about the excuses men accept.
“Is there a problem?”
Wilma looked blank for a moment, then brightened. “Oh! Why I came in here. I wanted to know what Henry thought of your proposal to expand the department. I saw him carrying your report.”
Tess tossed the pencil pieces into the wastebasket. “He said there’s no use taking it before the town council because we just don’t have the money. Frank .is doing fine on his own, but maybe in six months or 53
so we can see our way clear to hire someone part-time to take the strain off ‘li’l ole me’“ She wasn’t sure if it was bitterness or, sarcasm that colored her voice. Probably both.
“See what I mean about ridiculous excuses? A woman would come up with a rational reason we’d all understand. Besides, if the town is so poor, how come Henry’s got the money to drive that big Cadillac all over the place and is buying that parcel of land from Larry Weaver so he can build a new home on it?
