“Good girl! Good job! Now, what’s that say?”
“A book or…” she struggled with the next word, “el-tron-ic…”
Sapphire tapped the word. “No, don’t try to fake your way through this like you do with everyone else. If you don’t know the word, look it up. And if the next definition has words in it you don’t know, look those up too.”
Tears welled up in Diana’s eyes. “Fine, I’m a stupid idiot, are you happy now?”
Sapphire’s facial features softened, and she stood up and walked around the table to give Diana a comforting hug. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m here to help you. It’s better grinding this out with me in private, than getting humiliated in front of the men, especially Griggs. If he catches wind of this, he’ll eviscerate you in front of the entire precinct.” She winked at Diana. “You’ll learn that word someday, too. You’re not stupid, Pembrook. You just need help.”
Diana nodded and wiped her eyes. “Thank you, Sapphire.”
“Don’t mention it. And don’t call me ‘Sapphire’ at work, got it, Pembrook?”
“Yes, Sorrellis.”
“Good. Now, get cracking on your homework.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Diana gathered up the books and pressed them against her chest.
Sapphire held the door for her and rolled her eyes. “Ma’am. Jesus. I have a hard enough time getting laid as it is.”
Diana sat at her writing desk, cross-referencing words in the first volume of her practices and procedures manuals when Lyssa walked in, exhausted. “I’m pooped. If I hear one more lecture about literally anything, I think my ears are gonna bleed.”
Diana looked up from her binder. “The course material was challenging?”
Lyssa unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it into a hamper. “Not exactly, no. More like, I mean, is it wrong to say I actually miss Griggs? He’s a jerk, but I don’t know, somehow his know-it-all attitude keeps me focused. With Neville, it’s all just blah blah, facts and figures. There’s no ‘zazz.”
Diana frowned and fingered her dictionary. “’Zazz?”
“Yeah, at least Griggs is drilling the ‘why’ of things, namely, ‘Do this, or you’ll get shot.’ Neville is all, ‘We used to need a search warrant for A, B, and C, now it’s just C.’ Snooze-a-rama.”
“Search warrants are required when a government or similar high-ranking official is implicated in criminal wrongdoing.”
Lyssa nodded and pulled off her trousers. “Yep, exactly like that. I mean, God, Diana, you didn’t mess around with rules and paperwork, and all that crap. Some dude pulled a gun, and you shot him. Next!”
Diana shrugged. “Well, actually, I should have performed in accordance with Section 403 of the Revised Penal Code, but lucky for me, Kenner waved that off. I might not be so lucky next time.”
Lyssa closed the binder and kissed Diana. “Class dismissed, baby. Let’s relax a little, huh? It’s the weekend before all hell breaks loose with the final.”
Diana smiled and didn’t have the heart to tell her about the exemption. “Okay, what did you have in mind?”
Lyssa made bedroom eyes at her and swished over to the door. “It’s Friday. I think you know what I’m thinking.” She flicked the privacy latch and unhooked her bra. She dropped it in the hamper and slipped on a grey t-shirt for a pizza place she used to work for. She picked up her tablet from the edge of her bed and held it up. “Care to join me?”
“Give me a minute to get out of these.”
A moment later, Diana took her usual spot on the bed, and Lyssa pressed her back against her. While they waited for Fortune and Destiny to load, Diana pulled Lyssa’s hair aside and kissed her neck. “Hey, Lyss, can I ask you something?”
“You just did, but go ahead.”
“Do you think I’m… taller than average?” Diana bit her lip nervously.
Lyssa looked up at her over her shoulder and giggled. “Well, I’m not the best one to judge. You’re taller than I am, but so are lots of people.”
“Do you think I’m gangly?”
The show started, and Lyssa fumbled for the pause button. She turned sideways and put her hand on Diana’s cheek. “Whoa, hey, where’s this coming from? Did Griggs body-shame you? That bastard! God, he’s such a dick to us girls. Does he make comments to the guys? Nope, never.” Her hand slid down to Diana’s shoulder.
“You didn’t say no.”
Lyssa looked down for a moment, then looked Diana in the eye. “Well, you’re not ‘ample’, let’s put it that way. You’re kind of a beanpole, honestly.” Diana’s chin quivered, and Lyssa put her hands to her cheeks. “And there’s nothing wrong with that! I like you for who you are. You’re awesome… and amazing… and I’m so lucky to be with you.”
A tear rolled onto Lyssa’s hand. “Sapphire told me I was gangly.”
Lyssa cocked her head, smiled, and kissed Diana on the lips. “That doesn’t surprise me. She’s quite a bitch.”
“She’s not so bad, once you get to know her.”
“We tried, at that fancy restaurant of hers. God, how pretentious. There were probably thirty other places we could have gone and not had Griggs up in our business, but she deliberately picked that place to show us up and rub our noses in how much better off she is than we are.”
“Yeah, but you heard her. It’s not her money, and her father is controlling her life. Maybe we should be better friends to her. I don’t think she has anyone to just hang out with, you know? I think in her own way, she was trying to just be friendly.”
Lyssa’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “Ooh, she deigned to spend time with the little people? She could do that at any bar. Hell, I know a few where we could have had some drinks and chilled out just fine without being made to feel like I should be polishing her boots for the favor of her expensive company.”
“She didn’t tell us to chip in, did she? I think she was just trying to be nice.”
Lyssa turned away and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. “Fine. If you want to hang out with Sapphire, go right ahead.”
Diana sighed and pressed her back against the wall. “I didn’t mean right this minute.”
“It’s fine. Whatever.” Lyssa picked up the tablet and pressed the play button. Chet Franklin stood at the waterfront, waiting for an informant. Diana rolled her eyes. Every episode this week had started with Alexa. Chet’s stupid storyline was just getting in the way of the good stuff. A man dressed in all black emerged from behind a stack of wooden crates.
“Did you come alone?” Chet eyed the man with suspicion.
“Relax. Nobody knows I’m here.”
“I’ll relax when I have the artifact. Did you bring it?”
Lyssa tapped the pause button in a huff. “Is she screwing you?”
A sickening feeling jolted her stomach. “W-what?”
“She called you gangly. Why would she do that? Did she take your clothes off?”
Diana didn’t like this line of questioning. She wasn’t sure how to explain why her clothes were off, but she decided to go the direct route. “No, I took them off because she had to get my measurements for my uniform.”
“Bull. We don’t get those for another week, if we pass the final. Was she good? Is she better than me? More experienced?” She tossed the tablet aside and bounced off the bed. She paced back and forth beside the writing desk. She spun the top binder around and read the spine. “Practices and Procedures? What is this, she’s helping you cheat on the final? Screwing wasn’t enough, she had to give you a thank-you present?”
Diana crossed her arms and gave Lyssa a stern stare. “I’m not taking the final. I start my patrol route on Monday.”
Lyssa slammed the binder closed and gave her an accusing stare. “With who, Sapphire? She gets you in the sack, then you partner up and fight crime? Oh, man, what was I thinking?”
“I don’t know who. And you heard her, she’s stuck doing support work. She had nothing to do with this, it was all Kenner.”
Lyssa cocked her head. �
��Why do you have a dictionary?” Diana buried her face in her hands. Lyssa turned red and balled her fists. “It’s true! You and Sapphire, going behind my back. I thought she liked women, but I wasn’t totally sure. I thought we had something real between us, but I see I mean nothing to you. I’m getting another room. I’m not spending another minute with you.”
Diana sobbed and cried out three words. Lyssa dropped her pants before she could put them on and turned sharply to her. “What did you say to me?”
“I’m not smart. I don’t know a lot of fancy words like everyone else does. She’s helping me learn.”
Lyssa picked up her notepad and saw the painstaking work Diana had done to learn what she thought were fairly standard words, like “procedures,” or “electronic.”
Tears streamed down Diana’s cheeks. “Please don’t tell anybody. Not Griggs. Promise me.”
Lyssa started to cry and bounded onto the bed. She cupped Diana’s cheeks and kissed her tenderly on the lips. “Oh, baby, baby, I’m so sorry I lashed out at you. I just… I have trust issues. It’s not easy, when you’re fat, short, and like girls. I’ve gotten burned a lot, and I thought I was having another nightmare breakup. I mean, you’ve been with all those other women, and now some guy is sniffing around trying to get with you, and Sapphire takes your clothes off… I just went crazy. I couldn’t be played like that. Not again.”
Diana sniffed. “I’d never hurt you.”
“Promise?” Lyssa searched her eyes for the real answer.
Diana nodded. “I promise.”
Lyssa kissed her harder, longer. She smiled and pulled her shirt over her head.
CHAPTER 32
On Monday morning, Diana reported to Room 7, dressed in her official uniform which had been delivered to her dorm the night before. Lyssa insisted she dress up in it, and she snapped a photo with her tablet. “I’ve got to ace this final if we’re going to have any shot at being partners.”
Diana kissed her on the forehead and smiled. “You’ll be fine. And I don’t know what they’re going to do about partners. I’m going out on patrol with someone tomorrow, but maybe that’s just for now until the rest of you… you know, finish.”
“Graduate.”
“Yeah, that.”
“No, say it. Grad-u-ate. It means to finish school.”
“Graduate.” Diana rolled the word around on her tongue.
She thought about this exchange while she sat alone in Room 7. She ruled out Officers Hayes and Sorrellis as potential patrol partners but didn’t know who else might be available. To her surprise and delight, Officer Milton entered the room and gave her a friendly wave. “Hey there, hotshot. Ready to stop some crime?”
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting you. I thought you already had a partner.” She rose from her seat and gave him a hug.
“Easy there, kid. Let’s keep things professional. And no, I don’t have a partner anymore. Patterson… well, he’s not doing so good with recovery. PTSD.”
Diana had heard of PTSD, but she didn’t know what it meant. She fell back into her old habits. “Oooh, that’s bad. I’m so sorry.”
“Eh, it happens. I figure he’ll pull through eventually. Maybe. In the meantime, you and I can keep an eye on things.”
“I’m ready to execute my duties faithfully.”
Milton looked like he’d smelled rotten eggs. “Good to know. Come on, let’s get out to the cruiser before the city falls apart.”
When they reached the cruiser, Diana tugged on the door handle and was denied entry. Milton held up his fob and shook his head. “Bad idea, hopping into a cold vehicle. What you want to do, is perform a walk-around inspection.” He stepped slowly to the back of the cruiser. Diana followed suit but had no idea what she was looking for.
“Looks good over here.”
“You sure? Tires look full? No rusty nails propped against the tires? No graffiti? No scrapes, nothing broken? Look again.”
Diana grimaced at the sight of a long nail propped against the rear passenger-side tire. She flicked it out the way and felt around for any others. “What the heck? Why would anyone do this?”
Milton smiled. “Well, to tell you the truth, I did that one, to keep you honest. This shouldn’t be news to you of all people, but there’s a lot of people out there who have a huge problem with law and order. I guess we’re all supposed to steal everything and crap in the woods. I don’t know. They do these little aggravating things to mess with us. Which means, every day, every trip, we’ve got to do a walk-around. Don’t give them the opportunity to screw us. I for one don’t want to explain to the chief why we couldn’t stop a robbery because three tires were flat.”
“Me, neither.” Diana crawled around looking for booby-traps. Milton kicked her foot. “Get out from under there. Nothing’s left. We’ve got to get moving.”
Diana scooted out from under the cruiser and stood at the door. Milton twirled the fob on his finger and whistled a chirpy tune.
“I thought you said nothing else was under there.”
“Did I? So what? Rule number one, when you’re out in the field, kid: don’t take someone else’s word for it. If you’re supposed to inspect your side, you do it, until you’re 100% sure it’s all clear. Get back down there.”
Diana grudgingly obliged and crawled around under the cruiser. Other than a piece of stray gravel, she didn’t find anything unseemly. Milton nodded and unlocked the car.
He completed his safety checks inside the vehicle and pressed a button to fire up the ignition. “I got a newer model. Kind of a bonus, after the other one blew up. This beauty has got all the latest bells and whistles.”
Diana blew a low whistle of approval. “Nice.”
Milton tossed his clipboard aside and fastened his seat belt. After checking his mirrors, he paused for a moment to swat her playfully on the arm. “Oh, hey, I can’t believe I didn’t lead off with this. Guess who I saw, shooting a PSA on Bleecker? Kent Brantley! You know, that fugly actor.” He winked.
“Oh, I saw him too, at the Cotillion.”
Milton looked confused. “The Cotillion? What, you saw him coming out of there, or something?”
“No, I saw him when I was having dinner.”
His eyes bulged. “Damn. Never woulda thunk it. Did Kenner fix you up?”
She chose her words carefully, not wanting to make trouble for anybody. “No, I went out with friends.”
“Wow. Those are some fancy friends. My wife would have given her left arm to be within 25 feet of the guy. Lucky you. I told her you said he was fugly, and she had you pegged as some raging bulldyke. Ha! See, I told you, impossibly high standards.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes, and Diana grinned. “I’m into Brent Moorcroft, myself.”
“Never heard of him. He must be some mega hunk if you like him better than Kent Brantley.”
“He’s the richest man in Cape May.”
“Cape May? That’s like saying he’s the richest man in Hoboken.”
“He’s trying to take over PDX, which is the biggest corporation in America.”
“Huh? PDX is an airport code. Portland, I think. Where are you coming up with this stuff?”
Diana struggled to process what he was saying. Before she could dig a bigger hole, she smiled and smacked his arm. “Just messing with you. Anyway, what’s on the agenda?”
“The agenda? Same thing as always: live to see tomorrow.”
The morning had passed by without any major incidents. Milton pulled over a car for running a red light and broke up a fistfight in a vacant parking lot. Diana held back and observed, waiting for instructions from the veteran officer to avoid escalating the incident with the incorrect use of her firearm. Sorrellis was right: there was much more to the job than shooting people. If Milton was a decent example, it seemed to involve a lot of talking.
They sat in the cruiser and ate fast food on their laps. Milton kept an eye out for any flare-ups as he choked down his burger. Thanks to being short-s
taffed, formal lunch breaks weren’t possible anymore. They could park for a few minutes, but they had to be always at the ready to respond when needed. Diana followed his lead and stuffed a handful of fries in her mouth.
A familiar rumbling sounded from behind the cruiser. Milton had just taken another bite of his burger, and he paused with a sick feeling on his face as a beat up pick-up truck roared past them and blew through the stoplight. Diana instinctively looked at the license plate and frowned when she didn’t see one. Milton stuffed the last of his burger in the bag and set it between them on the seat.
“We’ve got a real rocket scientist here. No plate, can’t be bothered with traffic control… what do you want to bet the guy is out of his mind on thignoids?” Milton blared the siren and flicked on the lights. Within seconds, they pulled away from the curb in hot pursuit. The man in the truck had both windows down, and his shoulder-length hair flapped in the wind. Diana squinted, trying to get a good look at the man. She thought she saw her father but knew deep down it couldn’t be him. He had abandoned her months ago, and anyway, there’s no way he’d know she was here.
Milton pulled up close to the rear bumper of the truck and interrupted the siren a few times to give the man ample opportunity to pull over on his own, without being forced over. He signaled back to Milton with an extended middle finger and sent a cloud of black exhaust swirling around the cruiser as he accelerated away from them.
“Oh, I see how it is. This is what we get for thinking we’d get a slow day for once.”
“Beginner’s luck,” Diana offered.
Milton glanced at her. “If that’s your luck, I want to play at a different table.”
“Sorry.”
“Never mind all that, kid. This guy wants the rough stuff. 2 to 1 odds say it’s thignoids. Hop-heads like him think they’re invincible, then they get wrapped around a utility pole, and we mourn them nada. But they leave us a wicked mess to clean.”
Diana grabbed the handle over the door and braced for a possible impact. As she did, Milton sped up and tapped the truck’s bumper. The truck lurched forward, then swerved to avoid cross-traffic as it blew another red light. Traffic was getting thicker up ahead, and Diana wasn’t sure where the driver thought he was going to go, especially with a cruiser on his tail.
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