“Hold on a sec…” I told Ben.
I covered the mouthpiece on the phone and looked in through the open door of the Jeep at Felicity. I started to speak, but before I could form the first word she nodded and said, “Aye, I’ll take a rain check on the movie, but let him know he’s buying lunch and fast food doesn’t qualify.”
CHAPTER 19:
When we arrived at City Police Headquarters, we were lucky enough to grab one of the parking spaces directly in front on Clark Avenue. Felicity nosed her Jeep in at an angle to the curb then set the parking brake and switched off the engine before looking over at me. We hadn’t really talked much on the way other than me giving her a quick rundown of the conversation with Ben; of course even with traffic, the drive had taken less than five minutes, so there hadn’t been much time for anything more in-depth.
“What now?” she asked.
“He said if we don’t see him to just stay where we are and give him a call on his cell,” I replied.
I glanced around but didn’t see the towering Native American anywhere. In fact, pedestrian traffic was so light that I noticed only a single pair of uniformed officers walking across the street. Judging from their direction, they appeared to be heading for a cop hangout diner called 40 that was located diagonally across from where we were now parked. I twisted in my seat to scan the area but saw no one else.
Turning my eyes back front, I followed Ben’s instructions, dug out my cell phone and gave him a call. I wasn’t sure if this was all some clandestine part of keeping me away from the press or what. I certainly hadn’t noticed any news vans nearby when I was looking around, but at this point I was just speculating anyway.
When my friend picked up, he seemed rushed, and therefore, our conversation was clipped. In fact, it really didn’t qualify as a conversation as much as a quick interrogation.
“Where are you?” Ben asked immediately, again bypassing any form of salutation.
“We’re parked right out front,” I replied.
“Stay put, I’ll be right down.”
Then, as quickly as he had answered, he was gone without even a goodbye.
“Well, what did he say?” Felicity asked as I folded the phone and tucked it away.
“He said he’s coming down. I don’t know why,” I replied.
Twisting slightly in my seat, I gazed past her at the diner on the other side of the street. I wasn’t overly hungry, but for some odd reason I was feeling inexplicably drawn to food at the moment.
I had eaten at 40 with Ben on a few occasions. It had actually started out as a coffee shop and had enjoyed a steady, if not exactly brisk, business for what seemed like ages. But in the past few years, it had flourished under new management after adding actual food to the menu.
After a quick mental inventory of what I remembered about their selections, I sighed then mused aloud, “Hmmm… I’m pretty sure Forty just does sandwiches… I don’t think they serve collard greens, so that won’t work either.”
“Collard greens? Where did that come from?” Felicity asked, shooting me a confused look. “What happened to liver and onions?”
“I’m pretty sure they don’t serve that either,” I muttered absently.
“So now you want both?”
“Yeah, actually… I do.”
My wife shook her head. “If you were a woman, I’d wonder if you were pregnant.”
“If that was the case wouldn’t I be craving pickles and ice cream?”
“That’s a…”
“I was kidding,” I said, cutting her off as I half chuckled. “Just kidding.”
“All right then, I’ll let it go this time,” she replied, then chewed at her lower lip for a moment before musing, “Well, obviously this must be because of the stress-just look at everything you’ve been through. But I wonder if it’s connected to the bleeding somehow…”
“What, you mean the cravings?” I asked.
She nodded. “Aye. You seem to be obsessing over foods rich in iron. Liver, collard greens… How would you feel about broccoli then?”
“Actually, it sounds pretty good at the moment,” I said, nodding agreement. “I’ll take all three.”
“That must be it then because you do seem a bit preoccupied with food and that’s not like you.”
“Makes sense to me. Like you said, stress, bleeding, iron… But yeah, the funny thing is I’m not even all that hungry at the moment.”
During the conversation, I had been keeping an eye on the front entrance of police headquarters, waiting for Ben to show. I gave my watch a quick glance then huffed out a sigh.
“I say we give him another five minutes,” I grumbled. “Then if he hasn’t shown I call again.”
“Irritability is a sign of an iron deficiency too,” my wife announced.
“Should I start calling you Doctor O’Brien?” I asked, humor in my tone.
“Not right now,” she replied, cocking her eyebrow. “But maybe we could still play doctor later.”
“Hmph… What happened to the damper on your mood?”
“I guess it went away.”
I shook my head and snorted. “Aren’t we a pair? I’m obsessing about food, you’re obsessing about sex, and neither of them is what we need to be worrying about at the moment. ”
She chuckled lightly. “Aye. You’re right. I think maybe we both need a break.”
“Tell me about it.”
“All right then, what do you think about taking a vacation?” she asked.
“I think it sounds good in theory…” I returned.
“Well? Why don’t we?” she pressed, peering back at me with brows raised and the question swimming in her green eyes. “We haven’t been on a real vacation in years.”
“Yeah, okay, sounds like a hell of an idea,” I replied with a mocking note. “Where are we going and when do we leave?”
“I’m serious, Rowan.” She sounded a bit hurt.
I quickly backpedaled. “I’m sorry, honey. That came out wrong. Actually, I’m serious too, sort of. Unfortunately, we need to wait until this is over.”
“And until Miranda is gone for good too, I suppose?” she said with an almost accusatory note in her voice.
“Yeah… That’s pretty much a given.”
“So, what you’re really saying is don’t make any plans.”
I had obviously misinterpreted how serious she was about this, and her sudden change in demeanor was a wake-up call. Reaching over, I carefully began to massage her shoulder through the leather of her jacket. “No, that isn’t what I’m saying. We just can’t leave right this minute. You know that as well as I do.”
“Aye, I do. But when?”
“I don’t know,” I replied and gave her a half-hearted shrug. “Think about it. I tried backing away from all this, and we saw where that got me. I mean, even you wanted me to stop fighting it. So, now… Well, I’m kind of stuck until this is over.”
“I know,” she murmured. “But remember? We promised ourselves…”
Her point was valid. We were more than due for a break, and we really had promised ourselves we would get away from things for a while once Annalise was in custody. Unfortunately, life got in the way, as usual, and now the dead were once again taking their turn playing roadblock.
It wasn’t as if we couldn’t afford a vacation financially. Money was the least of our problems. All we really needed to do was clear our schedules, get someone to housesit, and just go. It was the whole schedule-clearing thing that had become our ubiquitous sticking point.
I drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly. “Tell you what,” I said after a thoughtful moment. “I’ll make you a deal. As soon as this case is over we’re outta here.”