Dawn Patrol

28

Petra starts to ask something, then changes her mind.

“What?” Cheerful asks.

As pretty as the woman is, Cheerful's getting tired of her sitting around the office waiting for Boone to get back. It's a bad idea, clients involving themselves in the minute-by-minute of a case. They should pay the bill, back off, and wait for results. He mumbles something to that effect.

“Sorry?” Petra asks.

“If you have something on your mind,” Cheerful says, “get it off.”

“Boone used to be a police officer?” Petra asks.

“You already knew that,” Cheerful says. This girl does her homework, Cheerful thinks. She'd have done due diligence on Boone.

“What happened?” Petra asks.

“Why do you think that's any of your business?” Cheerful asks.

“Well… I don't…”

Cheerful looks up from the adding machine. It's the first time he's seen this girl nonplussed. “What I mean is,” he says, “are you asking as a client, or as a friend?”

Because there's a difference.

“I'm not asking as a client,” Petra says.

“Boone pulled his own pin,” Cheerful says. “He wasn't thrown out. It wasn't for taking money or anything like that.”

“I didn't think that,” Petra says. She saw the interaction between Boone and the detective at the motel. She didn't hear what was said, but she saw that Boone had to be restrained. It was rather intense. “Money doesn't seem to be a priority for him.”

“Boone's too lazy to steal?” Cheerful says.

“I'm not trying to pick a fight. I was just wondering.”

“It had to do with a girl,” Cheerful snaps.

Of course, Petra thinks. Of course it did. She looks at Cheerful as if to say, Go on, but Cheerful leaves it at that.

She seems like a good person, but it's early.

Some stories have to be earned.