“No, sir,” I answered.
Matt hesitated for a beat. “No, sir. Not a problem.”
“Speak now, Monroe. If you can’t work together without someone cracking a rib, I need to know before I send you out into the streets.”
“No issue. I’m good,” he said.
“Good. We’ve had a series of break-ins at local businesses in the past few months. It started small, had all the hallmarks of bored teens looking for a rush, but, as you know, they’ve been increasing in frequency. Geller’s place has been hit twice now. Let’s get to the bottom of this before it continues.”
Ray Geller owned the only pharmacy in town. If his place was being targeted, that meant more drugs were out on the streets and getting into the wrong hands. We would need a list of every other break-in in the last six months. What were the commonalities? Did it always happen at night? How did the perp get in? Same method every time? How many people were involved?
“Find every police report related to the break-ins. Get them together into a single case file. I want this resolved, now,” Chief Williams said. He dismissed us back to work. I left his office and sat at my computer so I could get started.
“What?” I asked Matt. He had followed me to my desk but hadn’t said anything.
“How do you want to handle this?”
On my own.
I didn’t say that out loud though. I’d told the chief that I would be able to work with him, so I would. Besides, it made me feel better knowing that I had a close eye on him while the threat to Scarlett was still out there.
“I’ll take the first three months moving forward, you take the last three months moving backwards, and we can meet in the middle. Let’s try to get this wrapped up today so that tomorrow we can start asking questions,” I said. He nodded his agreement but still didn’t move back to his seat. “Something else?”
“How’d things go today?” he asked.
I leveled a hard stare at him. There was a time when that question would have made perfect sense. A friend and colleague checking in on what would most likely be a hard day. That time had long since passed.
“Shouldn’t have asked,” he said, his hands raised in front of him.
“I’m surprised you haven’t talked to Jules yet.”
He scratched at his jaw, looking more uncomfortable than before. “I did. She said it went fine, but that’s all she would say.”
“That’s all there is to say. We already knew how we wanted this to go. We agreed on the terms. There was no drama, nothing of note happened. Judge banged her gavel, and now we’re divorced,” I told him, sitting back in my chair. “Congratulations, you are no longer an adulterer. You’re just an asshole.”
Matt scowled before turning around and walking away, letting me get back to work.
The reports were starting to blur into each other after staring at my screen for the last few hours. I had found fourbreak-ins in the three-month timeframe I was looking into. I got up to stretch my legs and hit the restroom. As soon as I turned into the small hallway where the bathrooms were, I nearly collided with Scarlett.
“Hey,” I said. My gaze bounced between her eyes, her freckled nose, and that sultry, pouty mouth of hers.
“Hi.” She bit her lip. I could see the nervousness in her eyes.
After spending three days together, we hadn’t seen each other since the other day when she left for work and I went back to my place. We talked every day, but our schedules weren’t aligned until today. We were taking steps toward becoming something else, but I couldn’t tell if that was what she wanted.
“How are you feeling now that a few hours have passed?” she asked. I had texted Scarlett after I got out of court this morning. She was one of the first people to know that my divorce was official, along with my brothers.
“I’m good. My brothers are planning a thing tomorrow night to celebrate,” I said with a laugh. I didn’t think anyone was more excited for my divorce than my brothers. Except, now that I was standing in front of Scarlett as a free man, maybe it was me.
“Divorce parties are a thing, apparently.”
“Apparently. We’re going to Harpoon’s, and I know you’re not working tomorrow night, so I had better see you there.” Honestly, if it were up to me, I would be just as happy sitting on Scarlett’s couch playing card games, but my brothers wanted to show their support, and I appreciated it.
“Are the other ladies coming?”
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“I don’t want to crash your guys’ night.” She shrugged.
