Just Jenny

by Sandra Owens

  Gene dragged his chair over to the wall. “I’m going to sit over here where I can keep an eye on him.”

  “Have a seat, Mr. Moody,” I said when the man paused in the doorway. He eyed Gene for a few seconds, then sauntered to the chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He had to suspect that at the very least he was in trouble, so the smirk on his face told me he thought there was nothing I could do to him. He was about to learn differently.

  “Put your gun and badge on my desk, Mr. Moody.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gene tense. I was twitchy myself, having no clue how Moody would react to that, but I wanted his gun off his person ASAP.

  Moody narrowed his eyes. “The fuck’s going on here?”

  Since I was about to fire him, I let his language go without comment. “Your gun and badge, please.” My hand was on my own weapon, my finger on the trigger. I wasn’t taking any chances with the fool. Seconds ticked by as Moody stared hard at me, probably debating whether or not he could get away with shooting me.

  “So I’m suspended? The fuck I do now?”

  “We’ll discuss it as soon as you turn over your weapon and badge.”

  Never taking his eyes—brimming with hatred—off me, he put his hand on his holster. I was pretty sure Gene was holding his breath along with me. The next few moments were like a movie playing in slow motion. Moody unsnapped his holster, put his hand on the barrel of his gun, then paused. I didn’t want to shoot a soon-to-be ex-cop in my office, but I would if I had to. I didn’t so much as blink as I held Moody’s stare.

  Gene had his hand in his coat pocket, and I was certain his finger was on the trigger of his gun. That made three of us ready to perform our own rendition of the O.K. Corral. I let my eyes grow cold, let Moody see that I dared him to try to pull a stupid stunt. When the man’s gaze flicked away, I relaxed…a little.

  “This is bullshit.” Moody slammed his gun down on my desk, followed by his badge.

  “Now the throwaway you have in your boot. Put it on the desk, too.” I was guessing, but my hunch was confirmed when he pressed his lips together.

  “That’s my personal gun.”

  “And against regulations for you to be carrying on the job. You’ll get it back when we’re done.” Unfortunately I didn’t have grounds to confiscate it or I would. He reached down, and I tensed again. Apparently he decided not to be stupid because he put the .38 on my desk, alongside his department-issued weapon.

  I opened my desk drawer and put both guns and the badge in it. No reason to honey my way up to it, so I just spit it out. “Mr. Moody, you’re fired.” I’d been waiting to say those words since the night I’d caught him sitting at my desk, playing poker and drinking.

  He shot up out of his chair. “The hell you say. We’ll just see about that.” He took out his phone and punched the screen, then put it to his ear.

  “If you’re calling the mayor, don’t bother. He’s not going to answer.” I glanced at my watch for show. “Right about now, he’s telling his wife about his illegitimate daughter.” I heard a sharp gasp from Gene, but I kept my eyes on Moody. “As of now, your days of blackmailing Mayor Jenkins are over. Sit down. We have more to discuss.”

  Refusing to admit defeat, my erstwhile captain kept the phone to his ear. “You need to call me,” he said.

  Good. Jim John had taken my advice not to answer a call from Moody. “Sit down, Mr. Moody, or I’ll throw you in a jail cell right now. Believe me, I have cause to slam you with a baker’s dozen worth of charges, and I will if you don’t cooperate.”

  “You won’t get away with this.” He sat.

  Oh, but I would. I’d barely begun to show my hand. I opened the folder Gene had given me. I signed my name on the first page, then held it up. “This is a restraining order on you to keep away from the mayor.”

  I signed all the rest, ignoring Moody’s attempts to see what all I was putting my name on. When I finished, I waved some more pages in front of him. “These are restraining orders keeping you away from me and all the officers of the Blue Ridge Valley Police Department, the town manager, and the councilmen.” I dropped them on my desk, then picked up three more. “These are blank except for my signature, intended for anyone else you might decide to harass or threaten.

  “Before you say a word,” I said, holding up my hand, “there’s more.” I pretended to study the report I pulled out of my desk drawer. “Aside from putting your family on the department’s payroll at an exorbitant rate, and aside from your outrageous charges all over town, there’s this.” I handed him a copy of the proof of his outright stealing from the department’s pension fund. His face paled when he saw what I’d uncovered, which made me gleeful. I shouldn’t delight so much in a cop’s downfall, but this one deserved what he had coming.

  “Yeah, thought no one would stumble on that, didn’t you?” He didn’t answer, not that I was expecting him to. “A word of advice, Mr. Moody. When you set yourself up as the treasurer of your fellow cops’ pension fund, don’t write checks to yourself for bogus expenses.”

  Gene’s expression went from looking at me with shock at hearing that bit of news to glaring at Moody with the kind of disgust one would have when realizing you’d stepped in dog shit. “Can I kill him now?” Gene said.

  I regretfully shook my head. “As much as I’d love to give you that pleasure, you’re too valuable to have to arrest for murder.” I turned a hard eye back to Moody. “Tell me why I shouldn’t put handcuffs on you, take you on the walk of shame so the men and women you were supposed to protect don’t find out what a piece of scum you are?”

  “I want a lawyer.”

  “I bet you do.” If I’d thought he hated me before, that was nothing compared to the way he looked at me now. As long as he was around, I’d be watching my back. Time to make that problem go away. “You have two choices, Mr. Moody. Stick around Blue Ridge Valley and I’ll have no choice but to arrest you. If that isn’t to your liking, be gone by Friday. By ‘gone’ I mean you disappear so far away that I lose my desire to find you. Because I’ll be looking. Don’t ever doubt that.” I leaned across my desk, putting my face as close to his as possible. “And if you do decide to get stupid and come after me or anyone under my protection, I will throw your ass in jail. That you definitely shouldn’t doubt.”

  I hadn’t been sure how he’d react to my threat, so I waited. Moody’s face turned lobster red, his breaths coming in erratic bursts. For a minute I thought I’d have to call for paramedics.

  “That badge you wore, Mr. Moody, represented honor, integrity, and dedication to the people you swore to protect, which included your fellow cops.” I took his shield back out of the drawer and curled my fingers around it. “Contrary to what you seem to think, this piece of metal is not a ticket to steal. I’m being beyond generous here by even considering letting you walk away when you’ve shamed every cop on this force. Which will it be? A jail cell or a new town you can terrorize?” I asked, keeping my voice deceptively soft.

  As much as I wanted to throw him in jail and lose the keys, charging him with crimes that would send him away for most of his life, I was doing Jim John a favor by encouraging Moody to disappear. A trial would ruin the mayor because all of Jim John’s secrets would come out. At this point I only wanted the mess that was Moody gone so my cops could forget he’d ever existed.

  Moody walked out without answering. I lifted my gaze to the security monitor on the far wall and watched him until he stormed out the lobby door. He’d apparently forgotten I had his throwaway gun, but I wasn’t complaining about that. Not that I doubted he had more weapons at home. I’d never run a man out of town before. It was kind of fun.

  “Holy Mother Mary,” Gene murmured.

  I swung my gaze to Gene. “Think we’ve heard the last of him?”

  “Don’t know, but Chief, you ever decide to come down on me, just say, ‘be gone by sundown’ and I’ll heed the warning. You’re damn scary when you want to be.”

  I laughed, cou
ldn’t help it. “Hope Moody thinks so.” While Gene slid his chair back in place, I slipped my gun back into my holster.

  “It was common knowledge around here that Moody had something on the mayor, but I never would have guessed Jim John had a secret daughter.”

  “Yeah, about that. Not a word, okay?”

  “No one will hear it from me. We all knew Moody was up to no good in a lot of ways, but to steal from our pension fund? That burns.”

  “Yeah, I know. Gather the troops for me. I need to tell everyone Moody’s gone.”

  “You got someone in mind to replace him?”

  “Why? You interested?” I hoped not. He was more valuable as a detective and too mild-mannered to control a bunch of cops.

  “Not even.”

  “I didn’t think so. Yeah, I have someone in mind.” I debated telling him but decided I wanted to get his reaction. “Sarah Griffin.”

  A big smile appeared on his face. “She’ll do you a good job.”

  “I don’t doubt it. Now round up everyone you can. I’ll be out in a few minutes to talk to them.”

  After he left, I tidied up my desk when what I really wanted to do was call Jenny and ask her to come over when she got off. A lot had happened today, and I wanted to share it with her.

  Letting out a sigh, I went to let Daisy out of jail. She not only hated Moody, but she was so afraid of him that sometimes she shook whenever he was around, and other times I feared she would attack him. My dog was obviously a good judge of character. I’d put her, along with her bed and a rawhide, in an empty cell while I dealt with terminating Moody.

  “You’re safe now. The bad man’s gone.” After moving her bed and rawhide back to my office, I headed for the front, Daisy trailing along behind me. With the exception of Moody, she loved all the other officers. She trotted around the room, stopping for a few seconds to greet each of her friends. I pretended not to notice a few of them slip her a dog treat.

  “Listen up,” I said when everyone was present. “Mr. Moody is no longer a member of this department.” Applause broke out before I could continue. I hadn’t expected anyone to have a problem with that, but I was happy to have it confirmed.

  “If he contacts any of you for any reason, I want you to let me know immediately. Capisce?” All my officers nodded. I’d decided not to mention the restraining orders. It was enough that Moody knew about them.

  “That’s it. Those coming off shift, go home. Those heading out, be careful out there.

  “Come on, Daisy, my girl. Let’s go home.” When I passed Vincennes, I gave serious consideration to taking Daisy home and then coming back for a beer and pizza. It wasn’t like Jenny and I weren’t still friends, but seeing her? I’d only be torturing myself with what I couldn’t have.

  Later that night I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to my owl hunt for his dinner and feeling lonelier than ever. I passed the hours until sunrise debating my decision to let Jenny go without telling her how I felt, but I’d known from the beginning that she was leaving after Autumn’s wedding. She’d set a deadline on our time together, and I would honor it.

  39

  ~ Jenny ~

  If I didn’t have to stay for Autumn’s wedding, I’d get on a plane today. “I thought maybe he’d call me.”

  Autumn glanced over her shoulder. “You’re the one who left a stupid note. You call him.”

  “He probably hates me.” We were at Autumn’s future home, where I was having a one-person pity party because my best friend wasn’t being very sympathetic. She adjusted the silver-framed photo of her and Brian, taken last year on their vacation to St. Thomas.

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’d want to hear from you, so stop your whining and pick up the phone.”

  “How does he look at me?” I was pathetic, reaching for any little crumb that might prove Dylan had feelings for me.

  “He can’t take his eyes off you. It’s true,” she said when I shook my head.

  It wasn’t like I was in love with him.

  “I don’t know, are you?”

  “Didn’t mean to say that out loud,” I grumbled. I just really missed him.

  “Well, you did.” She frowned when I refilled my wineglass for the third time. “Are you sure you want to drink that? You’ve gone through half the bottle already.”

  “What? You’re the wine police now?” Yes, I wanted to drink it. All of it. Until I couldn’t remember Dylan’s name.

  “Don’t get snotty with me, Jenn.” She pulled out the dining room chair next to me. “I’m sorry you’re hurting, but drinking yourself sick isn’t going to solve anything. And you do get sick if you drink too much.”

  That was true. I pushed the glass away. I pressed my palms against my eyes, hating all the crying I’d been doing lately. Somehow my tears were mixed up between Natalie and Dylan, each one calling to me, asking for my love, my allegiance. How was I supposed to choose between the sister I loved more than anyone in the world and a man I could love like no other, but offered only an uncertain future?

  “You thought you’d kept your heart safe.” Autumn wrapped her arms around me as I bawled like a baby. I hadn’t realized Dylan had stolen my heart until it was too late.

  “So what are you going to do about it?” She let go of me and went to the kitchen, returning with a paper towel. “Sorry, I don’t have any tissues here.”

  I wiped my face. “Leave.” I hiccupped. Soon I’d be on my way. I just wished it were today. Right now.

  “Maybe you should talk to Dylan, tell him how you feel.”

  “It’s been four days. If I meant anything to him, he would have called by now.”

  “Have you considered that he hasn’t called because he’s respecting your wishes?”

  “Well, he shouldn’t.”

  Autumn rolled her eyes. “Do you even know what you want?”

  “I have to go, so it really doesn’t matter, does it? I won’t break my promise to Natalie. Besides, Dylan’s not looking for a serious relationship,”

  “He told you that?”

  “Yeah, when we first got together.” I put my hand on my chest. My heart hadn’t healed from losing Natalie, and it was breaking all over again.

  “I told you how he looks at you, like you mean something to him. Maybe he’s changed his mind.”

  My heart gave a flutter of hope, but I crushed it. I almost told her that Natalie promised I’d feel her with me, but Autumn wouldn’t get it. Maybe Connor and Adam would because only twins could understand the connection that lived in our souls. They would get how much I needed to know she was with me.

  “Come over and have dinner with me and Brian tonight. I’ll make lasagna.”

  I forced a smile. “There’s an offer I can’t refuse.” Although I wanted to. All I really wanted to do was to go home, eat a tub of ice cream, and cry.

  By late Friday morning I was ready to paint my apartment or wallpaper everything in sight or start collecting cats. Anything to get my mind off Dylan. I was going stir-crazy sitting in my apartment, missing a man who didn’t want me. I’d tried to read, but after staring at the same page on my Kindle until the screen went blank, I gave up on that. Turning on the TV hadn’t worked. The apartment was spotless since I’d gotten up at the crack of dawn and cleaned it from top to bottom. I’d gone through my clothes, deciding what I’d take. Not much, since I’d be moving around a lot.

  I finished making a list of the things I needed to do before leaving, then looked around. Now what?

  My phone buzzed, my mom’s name coming up. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “Hi, honey. Dad and I visited Sean this morning. I knew you’d want to know that he’s been moved out of ICU and into a room.”

  “That means he’s out of danger, right?”

  “Yep. He’s listed as stable now.”

  “Fantastic.” We talked for a few more minutes, and after hanging up, I decided I’d go visit Sean. It was something to fill the time before I had to go to
work.

  On the drive to Asheville I turned the volume up on my radio and sang along with the songs. Anything to keep from thinking about Dylan. At the hospital, after finding out Sean’s room number, I took the elevator up to the third floor.

  I turned the corner and ran into a brick wall. “Oomph.”

  Large male hands grasped my shoulders. “Sorry… Jenny?”

  Dylan’s voice washed over me like warm sunshine. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep from curling into his chest and wrapping my arms around him.

  “Are you okay?”

  No, I wasn’t. “Sure.” I blinked open my eyes, glancing behind me. When I tried to step around him—because I really needed to get away before I did something stupid like cry, or worse, kiss him—he caught my wrist.

  “Were you on the way to see Sean?”

  Not trusting my voice, I nodded. Dylan’s fingers felt like a brand on my skin, hot and possessive.

  “I just came from his room. He’s sleeping right now.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, I guess I’ll come back some other time.”

  He rubbed his thumb over the inside of my wrist. I wasn’t sure he realized he was doing it, but it was sending my senses into overdrive. My arm tingled all the way up to my shoulder, and if my lady parts got any hotter, I was going to combust.

  “Jenny?”

  “Hmm?” Whatever the question, the answer was yes.

  “I noticed a coffee shop next door. Let me buy you a cup.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” What happened to answering yes to whatever he asked? Self-preservation, that’s what.

  “Please, Jenny. I…” He swiped a hand through his hair. “Just two friends having a cup of coffee, okay?”

  My stupid heart sank to my stomach at hearing him describe us as just two friends, even though I was the one who’d left him with no more than a cowardly note. He put his hand on my shoulder. My body responded to his touch like one of Pavlov’s dogs. I squeezed my legs together, willing the aching need to go away.