Page 30 of Return of the Spider
“I’ll tell you when you don’t have it nailed, and I expect the same of you.”
I sighed. “Guess I do need some checks and balances.”
“We all do, brother. There’s no going it alone in modern policing. The cowboy, lone-wolf, Dirty Harry detective is in the past. We’re part of a system now.”
I nodded. “Learning.”
“Every day,” he said. “Are we ever going to find a cab?”
“Seems like a message,” I said. “Think I’ll skip the beer, take the Metro, and go home.”
“Don’t take that trip to the principal’s office too hard.”
“I’ll try not to.”
But try as I might, I was still chewing on Chief Pittman’s comments long after I’d gotten home and while I was cooking dinner: baked salmon, green beans, and egg noodles with garlic and oil, which pushed the boundaries of my culinary expertise. Maria got home from work after picking Damon up from day care.
He fast-waddled to me, and I scooped him up in my arms.
“I missed you, Daddy,” Damon whispered into my neck.
“I missed you too, little buddy,” I said, kissing the top of hishead, my eyes misting. Maria took off her coat, somehow looking as fresh as she had when she’d left for work that morning.
Maria and I kissed hello, then we both kissed Damon on opposite cheeks at the same time, which got him laughing.
I asked Maria about her day. “Not bad,” she said. “Baby was kicking a lot. I took care of some follow-up calls I’d been putting off. Thanks for cooking.”
“Pretty straightforward meal.”
“I still appreciate it,” she said. “Come talk to me while I change.”
I shifted Damon to my other arm, checked the timers, saw I still had twenty minutes before dinner was done, and carried him with me down the hall.
Maria was in our closet, putting on sweatpants.
“What’s up with you?” she asked. “Lot of weight on those shoulders.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. I saw the hound-dog look on your face before Damon toddled over.”
“I got a private spanking from Chief Pittman because I came up with a theory I was excited about, called the entire team into his office to tell them about it, and then realized how many holes there were in my argument.”
“Daddy spanked?” Damon said, lifting his head off my shoulder.
“Sort of,” I said.
Maria said, “Pittman will get over it. Enthusiasm never hurts.”
“In the future, I think I’ll be more, I don’t know, disciplined about who I tell things to.”
“You can be enthusiastic and disciplined. That’s not hard.”
As we went back out to the kitchen, I told Maria about the resentment toward me among many of the junior officers.
“I can see that,” she said.
“I can too. Doesn’t make it easier to deal with people watching you and wanting you to fail.”
