He slid a look at Kaitlan.
“So go ahead, Hallie.” Patty waved her fingers in the air. “You were telling us about the crazy guy at work.”
“Oh, yeah.” Hallie looked to Kaitlan. “This was a few years ago, and the people are long gone, so I can tell the story.”
Sheila shook her head. “We counsel some of the nuttiest people.”
Hallie guzzled a quick drink. “So like I was saying this woman and her husband come in, say they can’t pay the bills, are always fighting about money, blah, blah. The husband says the wife’s spending too much, and the wife says well maybe if he’d get a
Her audience laughed.
“So I say to him, ‘You’re not working?’ ‘No,’ he says, ‘I don’t see the need.’ ” Hallie rolled her eyes. “Right. ‘I don’t see the need.’ Then I turn to the wife. ‘You working?’ ‘Yes, two jobs.’ ‘
“Oh, good grief.” Eddie shook his head.
“See what I mean?” Sheila’s eyebrows raised.
Hallie pushed hair off her forehead. “ ‘Coupons,’ I say. ‘You mean like for the grocery store?’ ‘Yeah.’ He looks proud. ‘I save us a good twenty dollars a week.’ ”
She cocked her head with an “I can’t believe this” expression. “ ‘Twenty whole dollars.’ I drag out the words, like—wow, you know. ‘Wonder how much you’d
“Read too slow!” Steve guffawed.
Hallie giggled. “No, no, wait, doesn’t stop there. He says, ‘And my fingers are stiff, so I cut slow too.’ ”
Everyone howled.
“Oh, get outta here,” Joe said. “I don’t believe this.”
“I’m telling you, it’s true!” Hallie pushed his shoulder. “This is the kind of idiots we have to deal with.”
“Yeah, well, try working on the police force,” Chief Barlow said. “You see a few nuts there too.”
A few latecomers arrived, interrupting the conversation. People broke into smaller groups. Kaitlan didn’t know where to go. She didn’t want to stay near Craig, and Hallie was in too much of a party mood.
Craig gestured toward the open bar. “I’ll get us some wine.”
“No. Thanks, but … I’ll take some 7UP.”
He gave her a long look. “You never drink 7UP.”
“My stomach’s kind of queasy. Maybe that’ll settle it.”
Craig scratched his jaw, eyes still on her. Like he was looking right into her soul. “I’ve never known you to have stomach trouble before.”
Surely he couldn’t know she was pregnant. Could he?
Kaitlan went hot.
No, no wait. She’d taken the garbage out this morning.
Kaitlan suppressed a shudder. “I haven’t exactly had the easiest day.”
No response.
Craig moved away to get their drinks. She watched him approach the bar, trying to hear what he ordered. What if he didn’t come back with 7UP? She wasn’t about to drink alcohol, not now.
Joe appeared at her side, navy blue T-shirt showing off the biceps he spent every day in the gym maintaining. His block-shaped face and one-inch flat top added to the don’t-mess-with-me look, but Kaitlan saw concern in his brown eyes. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure. Why?”
“You seem a little tense.”
Was she that obvious? Kaitlan glanced across the room at Chief Barlow—and their eyes met. She looked away.
“I’m fine.” And she smiled. Widely.
Craig returned and handed her a glass. “7UP.” He shook his head at Joe. “Girl’s gone nonalcoholic on me.”
Joe shrugged. “Happens to the best of us.”
Was it just Kaitlan’s imagination, or did she sense underlying meaning in their casual comments?
Did Joe know about Craig too?
Would he do that—protect Craig? Would Steve and Eddie?
Cops were so tight. Day in, day out, they protected each other, laid their lives on the line for each other. Hard to turn that around when one of their own became the criminal.
Waiters entered bearing platters of food. Garlic bread, pasta, chicken wings, pizza. Their smells filled the room. Kaitlan buried her nose in the glass of 7UP. As everyone else loaded their plates, she took a little salad and managed a few bites.
Conversation swirled around her—stories from the Gayner police force, Ed showing pictures of his oldest son playing soccer, Patty shaking her head over some family she’d counseled that day. Kaitlan tried to laugh in all the right places and add a comment when she could. Joe’s words echoed in her head. She didn’t want anyone else asking if she was okay because she just might lose it, just might not be able to play the part another minute.
She longed to go home, but the thought scared her to death. She’d be going with Craig. Alone.
If only Joe could take her.
That is, if Joe was really her friend.
Hallie announced she couldn’t wait any longer to open her presents and dug in, oohing and aahing over each one. One thing about Hallie—she knew how to make a person feel special. “Oh, I
Kaitlan smiled. “You’re welcome.”
By nine-thirty she was exhausted from stumbling over lines, an actress on the wrong stage. Her thoughts kept returning to her grandfather. Were he and Margaret sitting by the phone, waiting for her call? Had he figured out what to do?
“Yo!” Steve whooped to Chief Barlow. “You hear what happened when Big Daddy here”—he jabbed a thumb at Ed—“took his kids camping last weekend?”
What if she couldn’t call for hours? What if Craig wanted to stay at her apartment?
Chief Barlow shoved a final bit of birthday cake into his mouth, crumbs sticking to his lips. “No, but I bet I’m about to.”
Kaitlan’s heart tumbled. She couldn’t be close to Craig, couldn’t kiss him, surely couldn’t sleep with him. The thought of even lying with him on her bed made her shudder. The bed, where he’d killed.
Steve guffawed. “First he couldn’t get the fire going …”
What did it matter what her grandfather came up with? Tomorrow was too late. She needed rescuing
“… then he dropped all the marshmallows in the dirt …”
Kaitlan fled to the restroom.
She barricaded herself in a stall, leaning her forehead against the door. Six and a half hours, that was all. Her whole life had changed in six and a half hours. It seemed like an eternity. She couldn’t do this.
“God,” she closed her eyes, “I know I’ve made some mistakes. But please—help me.”
She exited the stall. Standing next to a woman at the sink, she washed her hands. Kaitlan took her time until the woman left. Then she faced herself in the mirror, wondering how she’d gotten here, where she’d gone wrong.
