The Witness

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“YOU LOOK PLEASED with yourself tonight.”

Luke smiled at Amy as she joined him, sliding down into the cushions at the other end of the couch in Daniel’s living room. She’d talked him into letting her stay in town one more day, with Marie, with Daniel, and he’d been in the mood to be convinced. The fire Daniel had left burning in the grate had turned to bright coals and steady heat, and Luke was enjoying watching the occasional blue flame flicker between the logs. Occasionally life needed to burn like that, quiet, hot, and comfortable after blazing flames and popping bark. The tasks of the last few weeks were wrapping up, and he was in no hurry to move into tomorrow.

“Not thinking much, just enjoying.”

He settled her feet closer to his leg and tugged the throw blanket down to keep her warm. The floors were too chilly when she persisted in walking around barefoot.

“Connor came by?”

“He arrived a few minutes ago. Marie slipped downstairs to talk with him rather than invite him up. I can wager a guess why she was interested in the privacy.”

Luke smiled, able to guess as well. A cold night for walking, but he didn’t know that he’d particularly mind if he was Connor coming calling to see his girl. They would make it as a couple, he thought, despite the awful toll of the last few days. Marsh had told him he was heading out to ski again, and Luke had been relieved to hear it. Marsh was willing to walk back into the memories he’d shared with Tracey, and there was healing in that.

“What are you thinking about?”

He turned to study Amy. “How much I like being the chief on a night like this.”

She tucked a pillow behind her to turn more on the couch to face him. “Because you’re smart enough to come upstairs to see your girl rather than huddle in coats on a cold boardwalk and steal a few minutes of late conversation?”

He tweaked her bare toe. “That too. Glad to have Connor as one of my guys. Marsh. They did more than their jobs today-they made things a bit more right in the world.”

“I worry about Marsh. He was always the quiet one when I met him before, but now… he looks out at life and you wonder how many miles of emotion are pooled behind those calm blue eyes.”

“He’ll say good-bye to Tracey in his own time and find a way to make life work again. You’ll help, I think, and Marie, just being able to share Tracey with him. You can’t undo the fact life can brutally hurt at times.”

She wiped at tears. “Maybe they weren’t all the way married, but they were, you know? Tracey chose Marsh as her other half, and he’s still her other half.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to miss her so incredibly much.” Amy bit her lip but looked at him. “Tracey left Marsh her money.”

“Daniel told me.”

“Well, Daniel hasn’t told Marsh yet; it didn’t make sense to drop it on him while the manhunt was absorbing him. Marie and I both expect a fight with Marsh trying to refuse it. We don’t plan to let him. We don’t want the money, and it was Tracey’s last decision. We’re going to honor it even when Marsh gets mad at us for insisting on it.”

“Good.”

“You think Marsh will take it?”

“You’ll have a fight on your hands bigger than you can imagine, but Daniel assures me there is no way Marsh can say no. He can give the money away if he wants, and probably will, but he can’t refuse the gift. And that fight will do him good. I’m promoting him and Connor when they get back from this break, and he’s going to fight that idea too. It’s hard to ignore living and get stuck in grief when life is piling on aggravations around you. I’d never want to take that tack with the majority of people I know, but Marsh is not most people. He’ll make it through this painful stretch better with responsibility and pressure than with the sympathy. So I’ll feel for him and care and push him as hard as I think he needs to be pushed.”

“Connor’s going to hesitate to ever propose to Marie after all that has happened. I don’t put him as superstitious, but what happened to Marsh is going to be setting heavy in his mind.”

“Marie prefers to move at a slower, more deliberate pace by her nature. Their relationship can handle it and thrive.” He smiled. “You, however, are soon to be a suburban-living, bored lady if the New York cops have any say in the matter. Word on the street has very few takers interested in working for Richard Wise now. If you do, you end up in jail or dead, and that’s a pretty good deterrent among a crowd more interested in their own future than an old score to settle.”

“It’s not closed yet, but going that way,” she agreed. “So where are we going with this relationship next? I find I don’t mind being stationary in one place, but I do get bored.”

“We’ll start with your settling in one place and giving me your phone number. I’ve been searching around to find you way too much for my liking since I met you. It makes it kind of hard to call and ask you out to dinner.”

“I’d like to meet your sister.”

He blinked at that request. “Would you?”

“I bet she’d like to meet me too.”

Luke laughed. “Honey, I think that’s a given.” He let the smile slide to something serious to ask softly, “You want to move into the gallery flat at some point?”

She shook her head. “Marie wants to move, to start over somewhere else in town. She’s too in tune to the memories there; what she paints in that studio now would be sad paintings. She needs somewhere that makes it easier to smile, and I’m inclined to agree with her.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“We’ll stay at your friend Nathan’s place long enough to be absolutely sure life is returning to quiet. Six months maybe, a year. I don’t want to get overconfident and assume this is the end of the trouble, but I’m growing hopeful for the first time in a long time. Once the books are turned in and Richard Wise is confirmed to be less of a threat-then Marie and I will find a new place to move to.” She looked at him and attempted to hide a smile. “Maybe a little place I know for sale over on Sandstorm Avenue. A place on a big corner lot with a fence around the backyard and lots of roses growing around an in-ground pool. I hear it’s got five bedrooms and original wallpaper in the attic room.”

“Original plumbing I suspect too. You don’t think it’s a little obvious moving into a place four houses away from the police chief?”

“Is it? Fancy that. You can come use our pool and Connor can turn red saying sir all day.”

“Just ask Peter to walk through it before you buy it, okay? Make sure there’s nothing in it he can’t fix.”

“He already promised that there was nothing money can’t fix when it comes to plumbing, heating, roof, and walls. The decorating-he said that was our job.”

“Why do I get the feeling I’m being told about this after you bought it?”

She just smiled.

“Come here then, neighbor. I haven’t had a hug tonight, and I find I miss it.”

She obligingly shifted around on the couch to share his space. “Do you think we’ll ever look back on this time and be okay with it?”

“I’m not even going to try: eight years of your life gone, Tracey’s death, Marie and Marsh walking around with broken hearts. But I guess I’d rather be a survivor of it than not. We’ll look back at this night and remember, and sometimes remembering is better than anything else that could be added to it.”

“Life flows swiftly by and sometimes through tragedies, but it keeps flowing on.”

“I wouldn’t have put it so philosophically. Life happens.”

She leaned back. “You want to stay and watch the sunrise with me? Or should I kick you out to go get some sleep?”

“I can’t stay right here and do both?”

“No. That would be rude to your girl.”

“Oh.” He smiled. This was going to take getting use to, but there were times in life patience got rewarded. He rubbed her bare arm and wished she’d pulled on a sweatshirt rather than be beautifully dressed and cold. “Why don’t I come back and take you out to breakfast? You need some sleep.”

She leaned back and looked at him. “Promise?”

“Promise.” He tipped up her chin and leaned down to kiss her. She tasted a bit like coffee and honey, and her eyes were open through the kiss, enjoying the sight of him too.

“I’m out of practice,” she said softly, her hand tracing his mouth.

“A fact which pleases me,” he replied, settling his hand over hers and interlacing their fingers. “I’ll have breakfast every day with you for the rest of our lives if you’ll behave yourself. I like the dating bit and the flirting and the courting…”

She laughed. “Okay. I’m walking you to your car so morning can get here faster.”

“Only if you put on shoes. I’m seeing frostbite in your future the way you keep tempting fate.”

“It gets your sympathy so it has its rewards. We might accidentally bump into Connor and Marie though.”

“I’m not whispering to warn them we’re coming,” he replied, amused at the thought. “Come on, up. Let’s go say good night at the car so I can properly say good-bye again.”

She moved away with a soft laugh but pulled on her boots and a coat and let him take her hand for the short elevator ride downstairs. “I wonder what Daniel will think, his guests sneaking in and out on him in the middle of the night.”

“If he’s smart, he’ll think he’s missing something in life spending it just babysitting all that money and making it grow into more money.” Luke eased her into his arms for a final hug at his car. “You’re okay until morning? No nightmares to chase away or gremlins to swat down for you?”

She hugged him back. “I’ll be remembering a kiss and thinking about breakfast.”

“I like that thought,” he replied, watching over Amy’s shoulder as Connor slipped Marie back inside the building. He bit back a smile and slid his glance back to Amy. “Would you like to start a new tradition tomorrow? Maybe a kiss good morning to add to a kiss good night?”

“Sounds promising.”

“I think so.” He rested his forehead against hers and decided she had pretty eyelashes. “I’m going to miss you for the next few hours.”

His pager began to beep, but he ignored it.

“Maybe six, or would you prefer seven?” he offered.

“No earlier than eight or I’ll have icky teeth, and my hair will look like a rat’s nest still.”

He smiled and kissed her one last lingering time. “Eight.”

“Answer your pager; you’re the chief.”

“The next twenty years of this… at some point remind me to smash the thing.”

She smiled and slipped from his arms. “Don’t be late.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He watched until she walked back into the building and gave him one last wave before letting himself look at the beeper. The text scrolling by said hospital: two bb cvd. He ached to hear civilians were hurt to the point of broken bones, knew the drunk-driver tag would be the cause, and felt honest relief to not see the capital C which would mean a cop was among the injured. The department had absorbed all it could for a while.

He reached into the car and picked up the radio. “55-14. Mark me 10-8 to Mercy General.”

He watched a light come on in Daniel’s guest bedroom as he started the car to let it idle and warm up. Amy would sleep and he’d do his job-there was comfort in that. “Night, Connor.”

“Night, Chief.”

Luke smiled as he reversed out of the parking spot and turned toward the hospital. The man was learning. There hadn’t been any discomfort in that quiet reply. He’d have Connor as deputy-chief material yet.

The midnight pages for the top cop’s assistance were rare; probably one of the city councilmen had been driving the car; those drunk-driving arrests his officers preferred the chief to make. Luke shifted the radio volume up a notch and listened to the flow of the dispatcher’s voice. The town was quiet tonight overall. A good quiet.