Falling in Love (6 page)

“
Unit Nine.”

“
Go ahead,
Fourteen.”

“
It’s like looking for a
needle in a haystack.”

That would be true enough for one
single joint. She accepted it. There was only so much you could do.
If it really was one joint then the guy no longer had any real
reason for cruising, did he?

So why not turn around and go back to
town. There was some element of logic in it.

“
Roger that.”

They held up side by side for a
moment.

Reynolds was in Fourteen tonight. He
hit the button and lowered his window. His bland face looked over
with a nod.

“
Who’s on break?” Bill was
a pretty good guy.

“
Ah, I don’t
know.”

“
I’m not real hungry. Why
don’t you go first.” It wasn’t exactly a question and it wasn’t
exactly a statement.

“
All right.” Laine dropped
the cruiser into gear.

There was a Tim Horton’s less than a
three kilometres up the road.

***

“
Hey. Constable
Barrett.”

She turned for a look. Having had to
piddle, she was in the store, rather than just making a grab and go
at the window.

“
Sir?”

The guy she had just stopped stood
there with a wallet in his hand. He pulled a coin out of one side
pocket.

“
Yeah, I thought that was
you.”

He made a motion with his head. Her
order was ready.

Laine turned and picked up her medium
coffee and her strawberry-filled donuts with the white icing and
the sprinkles on top in their little brown bag and turned to
go.

He stepped up to the counter but the
lady bustled away for some reason as they often did. He met Laine’s
eyes again and shrugged. There was something intriguing about
him.

It was like he just didn’t give a
shit, for surely he must know better.

“
It didn’t take you too
long to get back to town.”

“
Ha. I swear to God,
Officer, I drove at or below the speed limit…” Stopping there, he
bit his lip and sort of flushed with colour.

He gave her a wry smile.

“
Sorry.”

“
That’s okay, sir.
Honestly, Mister, ah, Jacobs. I, ah…I really don’ t take it too
personal.” She regarded him in level fashion.

He seemed sort of embarrassed all of a
sudden. She ground on relentlessly as he blinked a couple of
times.

“
Yeah, it takes all kinds
to make a world…”

He had the grace to look
embarrassed.

She fed him a couple of lines but he
was hard to shake. He sort of swallowed and looked away a couple of
times, coming back with a bit of a pained look but still doggedly
persistent nevertheless.

Laine kept getting one sort of
impression and then he would refuse to live up to the rest of the
profile…interesting.

Profiles had their limits.

“
I don’t take things too
personal either, Constable.” He managed a wintry smile that
nevertheless looked pretty genuine.

He wasn’t such a bad guy. This was
just a momentary humiliation on the long road that was
life.

Maybe that’s what he
wanted.

She put her cup and bag back down on
the low counter. Sticking her fingers in the top of the belt, left
and right, she heaved the heavy grey trousers with the black stripe
fielded by two strong yellow ones up, standing in a posture
reminiscent of a major-league pitcher thinking things
over.

It was hard to keep them up properly
sometimes.

“
Can I help you, sir?” The
coffee lady was back.

“
One large double-double,
please.” The man put a two-dollar coin in her hand.

Her little display was over. Maybe he
could take a hint.

Laine picked her her order. Jacobs was
sort of a rough-looking guy, poor but honest maybe. He wasn’t
repulsively ugly. So far he really hadn’t done or said anything. He
towered over her, which was oddly impressive for a civilian. Laine
was six-foot-one herself. At the same time he looked merely foolish
rather than menacing, or even all that rude.

She’d certainly heard
worse.

“
Please don’t take this
the wrong way.”

“
Yeah. I get the
impression you’re just dying to tell me something.” Now it was
Laine’s turn to blush, although that one might hopefully have been
taken as the first blush of anger.

She mustn’t let him get to
her.

Theoretically, officers weren’t
supposed to provoke a response…but if he wanted to have one, and
was really determined to have one, then that was okay
too.

Don’t tread on me,
Mister.

“
So?”

“
That’s a cute little
outfit.” It just snapped out.

There was a fine glint in his eye when
he said it, then he looked kind of surprised.

Uh, oh.

She snickered in spite of herself. Her
eyes danced and she tried to back him off with their help, but he
wasn’t buying it and eventually, she rolled her eyes, heaved a deep
and theatrical sigh and tried to keep smiling.

He seemed pleased by this response. He
got a little red in the face and appeared to be looking for his
exit.

She shook her head and held his eyes
for a moment, and he grinned in a kind of bold relief.

Interesting. Is he
serious?

Without a word, she turned and headed
for the door.

Flirting with the customers, and not
even very good-looking ones.

What next.

Constable Laine had a little more
trouble forgetting him the second time around, but she managed, and
the shift did get busier after a while.

He had soft and gentle eyes, and
didn’t seem to be a trouble maker with that nice clean
record.

Everyone had a story.

Scene Two

It was a week or ten days later. With
their three-twelve hour shifts, three on and three off, four days
off every three rotations, she was back on nights.

A blisteringly cold night in February,
she had a speed trap set up along Highway 89. So far, Laine had
bagged a couple of speeders and nailed one drunk. She was just
making arrangements to have the vehicle towed and
impounded.

The driver sat, with his head hanging
and face low, slumped over against the window in the back seat of
her cruiser. He wasn’t going anywhere.

A middle-aged man.

His wife didn’t understand him. He
told Laine all about it. It didn’t take much prompting.

When her cellular phone rang, she
answered it. The fact that she didn’t recognize the number never
really registered.

“
Hello?”

“
Hi. Is this Constable
Barrett?”

“
Yeah. Constable Barrett
speaking. Who is this?

“
It’s Mark Jacobs. You’ve
probably forgotten all about me by now. You stopped me for a
license-plate bulb.” He gave a date and a time and a
location.

Very professional. Seen it on
TV.

“
I’m sorry, sir? What did
you say this is is about?” She had no idea of what he was talking
about.

“
You know. I had a doob
and you smelled it, and then we ran into each other in the coffee
shop right afterwards…”

“
Ah.
Ah.
So, uh. What is this
about,
sir?”

“
Well.” There was a pause.
“If it’s a bad time and you’re real busy, I’m really sorry about
all this. But I just wanted to see—to speak to you. You must get a
lunch break, right?”

What?

“
What are we talking about
here, sir? Mister Jacobs?”

“
Ah…I want to buy you
dinner.”

“
Sir! Say, ah, listen,
Mark. You really can’t be doing this. Ah...” Aw, no.

No.

I’m a freakin’ police
officer, Mister Jacobs. I’m on freakin’
duty,
Mister Jacobs.

Not one of
them
guys, all machismo
and trying to prove something…not some God-damned cop groupie, or
just plain nut-case.

“
Please? It wouldn’t hurt
anything, would it? I mean, really?”

She stood in front of her car,
watching the tow-truck driver hooking up to the impounded vehicle,
shaking her head and wondering what in the blue blazes was up with
this one.

The night was cold and clear and the
air was positively delicious. It was all going off now…

“
Sir, how did you get my
number?”

“
Well. Oh, yeah. I called
in to the station, and I told them I wanted to talk to
you.”

“
What number did you
call?”

“
Ah, 911. They said your
name is Laine.”

She bared her teeth and stifled a
growl.

“
Sir. Mister Jacobs. It is
an offence to misuse the 911 network. It is strictly for
emergencies.”

“
Oh, yeah. Sorry about
that. I mean, I know that and everything.”

The fines were stiff and the evidence
was all on record, in the suspect’s own voice. His phone number
would be automatically logged. He didn’t stand a chance if she
wanted to make an issue of it. It was an easy five hundred-dollar
fine.

“
Look, Mark. You seem like
a nice guy, right?” She took a deep breath and counted to three.
“Look, Mark. I’m very flattered, and everything like that. I know
how it is.”

Shit! Never say that. Never explain.
Never raise objections…just shut him down. Quick.

“
Yeah, I know.” He sighed
deeply, his thoughts pregnant with unspoken meaning. “Look, I’ll
tell you what. I’ll be at the A and W restaurant on Victoria
Street. You can arrest me there, okay?”

“
Ah, jeez.
Mark…
shit.
I’m
not going to arrest you.”

Hell, no. I will be
running as hard as I can in the opposite direction.

“
Well, so, ah…what do I
got to
do
then?”
His voice rose on the second last word. “No, seriously. Tell me
what I got to do and I’ll, ah, I’ll do it.”

She smiled in spite of herself. She
shook her head.

What a nut.

“
Please?”

There was a long silence over the
airwaves.

“
Constable Barrett? Laine?
Please?”

Argh.

She could imagine him listening and
trying to read her thoughts. He must know what some of those
thoughts would be. He must have some idea.

How stupid, or how desperate, could a
man possibly be?

Two attributes she did not find
particularly attractive at the best of times, and she was at
work.

She didn’t have the time or the
inclination for this crap.

“
Look, I’ll buy you a
cheeseburger, okay? Come on, Constable. Be a good sport and let me
do this for you, okay? You were nice to me. I just want to show you
how I feel. Just to show my appreciation, okay? Like a…you know,
like a good citizen?”

Oh, Lord.

Laine stood by the side of County Road
Four and rolled her eyes to high heaven.

She looked at her watch.

“
Have you been drinking,
Mark?”

“
No, Constable Barrett. I
have not been drinking. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Well, that was kind of a
sweet thing to say. Guys who tried to pick her up usually tried
immediately, no hesitation, right on the spot, and they were a lot
more crude as often as not. There was something
different
about this one
though.

“
You’d better not be.”
Yeah, she remembered him now all right. “Have you been smoking pot,
Mark?”

“
I’ll take the fifth on
that one, Constable. But yeah, maybe a couple of little ones
earlier.” She could hear a smile in the man’s voice.

Unbelievable.

“
I’m sitting right here,
Constable. Man, don’t those burgers smell good—”

Gah!

“…
charcoal broiled, you
can sit and watch them flame…”

“
All right, Mister Jacobs.
I’ll be there when I get there.” She reached for the microphone
with her other hand. “And you had better be on your best behaviour.
Mister Jacobs.”

Otherwise, I am going to
bust your ass.

But good.

Mister Jacobs.

Scene Three

Three days later, Mark was still
thinking about her.