Page 15 of Casualties of War
Chapter Three
Twenty years ago.
The fourth time Adán met Officer Graves was when someone broke into his new apartment in Brentwood and took the brand new TV and video player. She was the senior cop of the two who turned up to take a report of the stolen goods.
“You’ve moved up in the world, I see.” She looked around the apartment, while her partner tried not to gape at her casual tone, orthat he was in Adán Caballero’s apartment.
Adán was still getting used to the startled looks he got from strangers who recognized him.
“Thanks to you,” Adán told her.
She rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t me in the movies that got you here,” she said, hauling out her notebook.
“You watched my movies?”
“Out of the corner of one eye,” she assured him. “You were…adequate.”
He grinned. “Still have amajor hate for actors, huh?”
“Just you, Caballero,” she assured him, although she was smiling, too. “Wanna tell us about the stuff that was stolen?”
He pushed the receipts and the operations manuals across the counter toward her. “They’re that new,” he said, as her brow lifted.
She spun the manuals around to read the covers. “You didn’t get one of those new things, the disk players?”
“DVDplayer,” her partner supplied, trying to look important for knowing the name.
“I’m not rich enough for one of those,” Adán replied.
“Yet,” she said, peering at the covers. She scribbled notes and closed her notebook. “They came in through the balcony?” Her hair, he noticed, was shorter than he remembered and tied neatly at the back of her head. It made her look more fragile than any cop should,yet the air of competence rolling off her made up for it.
“Bedroom,” Adán replied.
“Bernie, wanna check it out?” she told her partner.
“Through there?” Bernie asked, pointing toward the bedroom door and Adán nodded. Bernie stepped through the doorway.
Adán looked at Officer Graves. “How is life for you?” he asked.
“Adequate,” she said, with a small smile.
“I see they’re moving you up thechain.”
“Still in uniform though,” she said, her voice neutral.
“Is that usual?” he asked.
“Guys who started after me are sergeants now or have their gold shields already.” She cleared her throat. “Just means I have to try harder. It’s up to me, right?”
“I remember,” Adán said. “You can take care of yourself.”
“Right.”
“Despite your ass-kicking husband.”
Her smile grew warmer. “Right.”She stirred and looked around the apartment. “I don’t have to ask how you’re doing. It seems like everyone is talking about you, these days.”
He shook his head. “You’d be surprised by how illusionary all it is.”
