Accepted Memories (Sycamore P.D. Series Book 2) Read online

  He was shocked when she motioned to the other side of her booth. He really, really didn’t want to do this. It was bad enough that he had to put up with her overbearing superiority when he was on duty but he didn’t want to have anything to do with her when he was off duty. And for sure not when he needed to cool off as much as he did right now. He might say something that would give her the excuse she needed to rip him apart.

  But he had no choice. She was insisting that he sit across from her in her booth.

  As he sank into the booth, she said, “You surprised me yesterday, Stan.”

  That got his attention!

  She smiled at the shocked look on his face. “Yes, I didn’t realize you cleaned up so nice.”

  She was smiling at him. Her? His nasty sergeant was giving him a real smile and even trying to carry on a normal conversation with him. Did she just make a joke? Wait a minute, what was going on here? This sounded like she was flirting with him. No way!

  Stan was still trying to come up with something to say when she said, “I’m glad I saw you. I didn’t get a chance to tell you Friday, but I will be acting as your partner while Grant is gone this week. We’ll start tomorrow morning with you briefing me on all of your open cases, okay?”

  Stan could only manage to croak out, “Okay.”

  Sonia looked down at her hands in her lap. She looked nervous. Her? Nervous? Why?

  She surprised him by saying, “You seem to be upset about something.”

  He gave her an even more perplexed look.

  “Woman troubles?”

  He almost asked her how she knew, but he didn’t even want to go there, not with her.

  She didn’t push him to answer, but shocked him with the direction she went then. “Well, I have man troubles.”

  This time he was sure his mouth dropped open in shock. He’d never heard anything about her dating anyone.

  There was that smile again. “To be exact, I have four of them!” Before he could react to that bomb, she laughed. Sonia laughed? “It’s not what you think.” She paused to look into his eyes. “You don’t know very much about me, do you Stan?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, and he didn’t have one anyway. “You see, I come from a cop family. My father is a retired Phoenix P.D. captain and all three of my older brothers are on the force now. Two are sergeants and one is a lieutenant.”

  Stan was trying to take all of that in without much success when she laughed again.

  “Don’t get that look on your face Stan. I’m not hitting on you.” She closed her eyes and pulled her long hair back over each shoulder. “I’m not doing a very good job of this, but I guess you could say that I’m trying to make peace.”

  Stan still didn’t know what to say, if anything. They sat in silence for a short time. He thought that Sonia was trying to decide what to say next.

  “I know I’ve been rough on all the detectives since I made sergeant, most of all you and Grant, and I’m sorry. You might say I was treating you two the way I learned from my brothers. I never had a female role model. My mother divorced my father when I was little and moved back east with her new husband and left the four of us with my dad. All I ever had was him and my three brothers, no mother, no sisters, no aunts, nothing. You can’t imagine what it was like for me growing up with all those macho cop types.”

  She shook her head and made an outward gesture between them with her right hand. “I don’t want sympathy or pity. I’m just trying to explain my actions and myself since I made sergeant. My dad and my brothers all gave me advice on how to be a tough sergeant. It took me a while to realize it, but that’s not me.”

  Her voice took on an almost pleading tone. “I’m not like that, Stan. And what I’m trying to say is that I want to start tomorrow being different, being me instead of my brothers or my dad.”

  Stan grinned. “I think I know what that might be. Would it be anything like the Officer Nordstrom I knew before?”

  “Yes, it would.”

  “Then I think that, I for one would welcome that change.” He thought for a moment. “Does that mean that I get to tease you the way I used to?”

  She laughed again. “I don’t think you’d better go that far,” She thought for a moment. “At least not in public. I don’t think the brass would like that too well. They seem to want us sergeants to be ‘one of the guys’ so to speak but not too familiar either.”

  “Yeah, I understand.”

  After that, they both finished their coffee and left the restaurant.

  As Stan was driving home, he thought about the big surprise this would be for Grant when he came back to work in a week.

  Then, he thought back to his scene with Alison earlier. What had gone wrong? He had just wanted to say hi and spend a few minutes with her. But before he knew what had happened, they were both mad and yelling at each other. That happened quite often and he couldn’t figure out why.

  Then, the real shocker was that after his talk with Sonia, he felt much better. He was still concerned about Alison, but he was no longer mad at her. Imagine that! Sonia had helped him to cool down rather than making him angry the way she usually did. What do you know!

  * * *

  Alison was exhausted when she made it home at a little after six Sunday evening. But she couldn’t rest right away. Brutus, her German Shepherd greeted her at the door with his food bowl in his mouth. Well, first things first. She fed him there in the laundry room, where his food and water bowls were, then walked into the kitchen.

  She was too tired to cook anything but her stomach was growling. This was one of those times when she was glad she cooked regular sized meals most of the time and froze the rest, in two or three portions, to eat later. She pulled one of those out of the freezer now, lasagna, and slipped it into the microwave.

  Then she grabbed a large sealed bowl from the refrigerator that she kept tossed salad in, and a bottle of salad dressing. After scooping some salad into a small bowl, she waited on the microwave.

  When her meal was ready, she sat down and began to eat. Her thoughts soon turned to her day. It had been a strange day to say the least. She still couldn’t believe she’d allowed Sybil to talk her into going to church with her and Sarah that morning.

  That had been a disaster! Sarah had driven the new Lincoln Town Car that her father-in-law had given her. Sybil had jumped in the back seat right away, forcing Alison to sit in front with Sarah. Neither she nor Sarah seemed to know what to say to each other, but Sybil filled in the void with a steady stream of talk that Alison knew was aimed at getting the two of them to talk to each other. But it hadn’t worked!

  As soon as she entered the church, three girls she had gone to high school with had surrounded her. They all just happened to have pictures of their kids. That wasn’t much fun. Was she the only one who was still single? That was not a comforting thought. Way to rub it in girls!

  When she finished eating, she decided to sit on the front porch for a while and watch the sun go down. She did this often. It was the only place she could sit and have peace and quiet. Otherwise, Brutus would pester her. If she went into the backyard, he’d go through his doggie door and pester her until she gave in and played ball with him. If she sat in her living room, he would pester her to pet him.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t like Brutus. It was just that he was a little too much sometimes. When she was this tired was one of those times. He still thought he was a lap dog. The problem was that he now weighed eighty-five pounds! Grant had given him to her as a puppy for a housewarming gift when she bought this house five years ago. Grant had said that between her seven-foot privacy fence and Brutus, no one would even think of bothering her.

  She sat in her rocker, just wanting to enjoy the warm June evening. She looked across the street. As usual the Turner kids, two boys and two girls ranging from five to twelve, were playing in their front yard. She always liked watching them, and if she admitted it, she was just a little bit envious. That was so true tonight, af
ter encountering her ‘friends’ at church.

  Then she thought about the open house that she’d had that afternoon. Most often, you couldn’t tell right away how successful an open house was. You sometimes had to wait up to a week or two before you saw any benefits. She wasn’t too sure about today though. No one had given her their contact information so she had no one to follow up with. Only two couples had taken her card. Those might call her, but she didn’t think so.

  Then she thought about her two unexpected and unwanted visitors that afternoon. Spencer! What should she do about him? Was there anything she could do about him except hope that he didn’t show up again?

  Of course, she couldn’t just wish Stan away. He was too much a part of her family for that ever to happen. She would just have to think of some other way to deal with him.

  The sun had just gone down and the beautiful Arizona sunset was fading when she decided to go inside but she saw movement to her left. Oh no! Not him! It was him all right. Blaine! Her weird next-door neighbor claimed that he was always watching out for her and keeping her safe. She thought he was nothing more than a peeping Tom. Not only that, but he gave her the creeps whenever he was around.

  He was a few years older than Alison and lived by himself. She had never seen him in anything but faded jeans and a white t-shirt. He must work somewhere, since he was gone all day every weekday but she didn’t know where. She’d never asked and didn’t intend to.

  At five seven, she didn’t think she was all that tall for a woman, but he was only an inch taller than her and had to weigh over two-hundred pounds. His brown hair never looked like he combed it, and his eyes were a shifty dark brown. On top of all that, she was sure he wanted to ask her out, but couldn’t work up the nerve to do so. She hoped he never did.

  “Good evening, Blaine.” Grant had cautioned her that she needed to be nice to him but not too nice. He had said that if she were too rude, it could cause him to resent her and maybe try to harm her. On the other hand, if she were too nice he might make advances toward her. Grant always gave Blaine warning looks whenever they encountered each other and made sure he knew that Grant was a police officer.

  “Hi, Alison. What are you doing? The sun’s already down, so you should be inside already.” He paused then added. “For your safety, I mean.”

  She bit back the retort that popped into her mind but instead said, “Thank you, Blaine, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. Have a good evening.”

  With that, she slipped through her front door, closing and locking it behind her. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to calm her nerves.

  Blaine had to have been watching her from his front porch. That made her skin crawl and it also frightened her more than a little.

  She turned and peeked through the peephole in her door. He was still standing right where he’d been when she came inside. The man sure made her nervous. It was getting so bad that she was thinking about moving just to get away from him. After all, being a realtor, she should be able to do that easy enough.

  She watched for another minute or two before Blaine shuffled back toward his house with his hands in his pockets.

  This on top of everything else that had happened today had her on edge. As she was in the habit of doing when she was upset, she called Sybil. She just hoped that other woman wouldn’t answer the phone, though. She sure would be glad when Sarah moved out of Sybil’s house. She knew Sarah’s new house would be ready to move into soon but she just couldn’t remember when.

  Sybil answered the phone and Alison breathed a sigh of relief. Did Sybil hear that?

  “Hi, Sybil.”

  She didn’t say anything else, but she knew Sybil was already suspicious.

  “What’s wrong dear?”

  Why had she ever thought she could fool Sybil about anything? Sybil had taught first grade for almost thirty years before retiring last year. That had helped her develop a kind of sixth sense that told her any time that Alison or Grant was upset.

  She decided to jump right in. “It’s Blaine again. Sybil. The man is so weird that he gives me the creeps.”

  “What did he do this time?”

  “Well, I had been just sitting on my front porch watching the sunset. I was about to go in when he suddenly appeared, right in front of me and said that I should be inside already.”

  Sybil snorted. “That man ought to be locked up. He even gives me the creeps. What did he do then?”

  “I thanked him and almost ran inside the house and locked the door behind me. But he just stood there gawking at my front door for almost five minutes before he finally went back to his house.”

  “I think we should get Grant to have another talk with that man.”

  “You know it didn’t do any good the first time, Sybil. I’m beginning to think that the best thing for me to do is move away from him.”

  Sybil seemed to think about that for a moment. “You may be right, Alison. In fact, I’m sure that may be the only solution. But why don’t you wait until Grant gets back and talk to him first before you do anything.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll try. Thanks Sybil, you always help me to see things more clearly.”

  With that, they hung up and Alison went to her bedroom to get ready for bed. Her mind was still spinning.

  That’s what she’d do. She made up her mind right then to start looking for another house as far away from Blaine as she could get. She was sure that Grant would agree with her. Just deciding that made her feel better and she was able to get a good night’s sleep because of it.

  Chapter Three

  In spite of, or maybe because of, his little talk with Sonia the day before, Stan was somewhat apprehensive when he sat down at his desk on Monday morning. He didn’t want to start anything, anticipating the call from Sonia to come to her office.

  While he waited, he gathered up the files of the five open cases that he and Grant had going at that time. He had just finished this when Sonia buzzed him on the phone intercom. Well, that was one improvement already. Before she just yelled at the top of her voice for whomever she wanted in her office. Maybe things were going to change around here after all.

  Sonia was looking down at an open file on her desk when he stepped in, but she looked up, smiled at him, and pointed to one of the two chairs facing her desk. He could get used to that smile. After all, she was a beautiful woman, especially when she smiled.

  She turned her eyes back to the file on her desk. After a moment, she closed it and looked back up at Stan.

  “Okay, let’s get started.”

  It took a little over an hour for Stan to bring her up to date on the details of all five cases, one of which was going before the grand jury later that week.

  “Do you think you’ve got enough to get this one to trial?”

  Stan had expected that question. “Yes and the county attorney thinks so too. I’m sure we’ll get this guy.”

  “Good.” She glanced down at her notes. “Give me a few minutes to tie up things in here and then we’ll go interview those witnesses to that bar fight Saturday night.”

  She pulled a file out of her desk file drawer then looked back up at him and said, “Would you close the door on your way out . . . please?”

  Please? She sure was trying, but the question was, how long would it last?

  Stan hadn’t noticed that all the other detectives had turned their desk chairs so they could watch the two of them through the glass wall of Sonia’s office. When he closed her door and began walking toward his desk, they all began talking at once, some to each other and some to him.

  Mike, a lanky redhead said, “Hey, you two sure were smiling a lot in there, Stan. Do you think you could get her to give the rest of us some smiles like that too?”

  Before Stan could answer him, Victor, a stocky Hispanic man said, “I guess we got ourselves a new sergeant’s pet, huh gang.”

  Linda, the only other female detective, ran her hand through her very short brown
hair. “Hey, guys, leave him alone. And you’d better be careful what you say about Sonia.”

  Mike came back with, “Why, you going to tell her what we’re saying? You going to be a tattle-tale?”

  She made an obscene gesture to Mike, turned her chair back to her desk, and picked up her phone.

  Through all of this, Stan was thinking that this was going to be a very long week while Grant was gone. He sure hoped that next Monday would come quick.

  About ten minutes later, Stan looked up to see Sonia standing in front of his desk.

  “You ready to go?”

  Sonia insisted on driving her car. That was fine with Stan. Without having to concentrate on driving, he would be able to think about what to say to any question or comment she might throw at him. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust her.

  They went to the bar, which was just opening for business and talked to the bartender and several of the wait staff.

  They were just about to finish with the bartender and leave when he said, “I almost forgot. There was someone else I know here that night. I’m not sure about his last name, but I’ve heard him called Wayne.”

  He thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, that’s it. I think I heard him say once that he worked at that big car dealership over on Main Street. What’s the name of it? Oh yeah, Newcomb Motors.”

  Once they were back in the car, Sonia turned to Stan and said, “Do you have any idea who he was talking about, this Wayne guy?”

  Stan paused for a moment then said, “Yes, I think I do.” Then, he laughed. “If it’s who I think it is, you know him too.”

  When she gave him a puzzled look, he finished. “Do you remember when we captured those Air Force colonels who had Kelly and some others at the Newcomb estate last August?”

  “Of course, how could I forget that? All three of us received commendations for that rescue.”