Page 33 of Sergeant O'
Brian
As we pulled out of her driveway, I cast one last look at Jade’s quaint little bungalow as the garage door came down.
“Your place is really homey,” I mused as she put the car in drive.
She glanced over at me. “Is that code for small and in dire need of updating?”
“No! Not at all. It’s cozy. Comfortable.”
Kind of how I’d felt spending time there with her.
“I like it. And I like the fact that it’s mine. I don’t have to worry about a landlord upping my rent or telling me what color I can paint the walls. Not that I’ve really had time to do any painting.”
“You work a lot, huh?”
“Probably not as much as you do, but yeah. I’ve been at the hospital for five years and have only taken time off when Shawn was killed and when Conor was born.”
“Same.”
“You’re going to be using some of your PTO now though, huh?”
“Yeah, well, maybe. I’ll be on paid administrative leave until they finish their investigation of the shooting.”
“Are you worried about that?”
“Not at all. Getting shot is pretty solid justification for shooting someone.”
“So, the investigation won’t take very long.”
“No, probably not. But I’m sure I can ride a desk until I’m cleared for unrestricted duty.”
She took her eyes off the road briefly to study me.
“I can’t imagine you sitting behind a desk. I think you’d go stir-crazy.”
Before I could confirm her observation, we reached my street. Which now, instead of reporters lining the sides, was empty; blocked off by two cop cars on either end with their lights flashing.
My dad had said he was going to get the reporters off the street and keep them out. I guess this was how he’d decided to go about it.
Jade pulled up next to one of the cruisers, and Ella Rhodes smiled and enthusiastically waved us through. The petite blonde was the department’s newest hire—aside from Adam. Except unlike Adam, she’d had zero experience other than the scenarios she’d been through at the academy. Like me, she’d been hired right after she turned twenty-one. Her twenty-second birthday was next month. In other words, she was just a baby. Still, what she lacked in experience, she made up for in eagerness, something Angus appreciated.
“I’m sure Mrs. Hildebrand is losing her mind right now,” Jade said as she slowly crept past the police cars and the elderly woman’s house on the right. She was outside watering her flowers with a scowl on her face.
“Yeah, between the reporters and now the cops, I’m sure someone is going to get an earful.”
Hopefully that someone wasn’t me.
Jade pulled into my driveway, and Adam was waiting by the Prius when I got out. He grabbed my duffle bag from the backseat, the one he’d packed and brought to me in the hospital. He attempted to grab Jade’s backpack, but I stopped him.
“That’s not mine.”
He nodded and reached for the crutches, then tried to hand them to me. I shook my head, and said, “I’m good.”
Jade came around to the passenger side and pointed toward the house next door that Adam was renting.
“Is my nephew inside?”
“He is. You have perfect timing. He just woke up.”
