Midnight Cravings

¼ teaspoon pure chili powder

8 oz. bitter chocolate, chopped

2 egg yolks

2

/

cups milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

In a heavy saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt and chili powder. Then add chocolate.

Whisk egg yolks and milk together and gradually whisk into chocolate mixture. Bring mixture just to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and boil 1 minute, whisking. Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.

Divide pudding between 6 ramekins or small custard bowls. Chill and serve.

“Your desk?” Josie asked, looking around at the other desks. “I didn’t go through your desk.”

In the back, there was the faint sound of Deputy Pfeiffer clearing his throat.

Dan strode over to Josie and took the key ring from her hand. “My keys,” he said, in a low, controlled voice, “were in my desk.” He thumped his hand on the desk in front of her. “So I repeat, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Deputy Pfeiffer—” whom she dearly hoped outranked Dan Duvall “—locked himself in a cell back there and asked me to get his keys for him so he could get out. I’m doing just that.”

Dan looked incredulous. “Deputy Pfeiffer?”

She felt her face grow warm, even though she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Yes, Deputy Pfeiffer,” she said, gesturing toward the open doorway in the back. “He locked himself in and asked me to get the keys for him.”

“Oh, I’ll bet he did,” Dan said, shaking his head. Then he laughed. He actually laughed.

At her.

“Just what’s so funny?”

“Usually, people like you are begging me to lock the troublemakers up, they’re not coming in and springing them.”

“I’m not springing anyone. I came in here to file a proper report and I found your deputy locked in.”

A long moment stretched thin in silence while he looked at her in a way that made her skin tingle from head to toe.

“Honey, I don’t even have a deputy.”

Horrible realization came over her like a bucket of cold water. “Oh, my God.”

He shook his head. “Didn’t you think it was a little strange that the deputy was locked up in a cell?”

“Yes, of course.” It was hard to defend what was, in retrospect, such an idiotic action, but she tried.

“But so far the police department has been so efficiency-challenged that nothing about it could surprise me.”

“Well, we keep the criminals locked up here in Beldon. What do they do with them where you come from?”

She pressed her lips together for a moment. “All right, I get it. Who is he really?”

Without averting his eyes from hers, he called, “Tell her your real name, Deputy.”

After a moment, the voice answered, “Henry Lawtell.”

“What are you in for?”

“No good reason!”

Still holding her gaze, Dan said, “Henry’s in jail for the third time this year after drinking a trough of beer and riding his motorcycle into the statue of Alexander Beldon in the town center. Naked.”

“Oh.”

The corners of his mouth twitched as if he was trying not to smile. “Didn’t the name Deputy Pfeiffer sound familiar to you?”

Deputy Pfeiffer. Deputy Fife. Of course it did, she just hadn’t made the connection. Suddenly, it seemed painfully obvious. Humiliation burned in her cheeks, made worse by the fact that she knew he could see it.

“You all right, Ms. Ross?” He stood up and made a show of ushering her into his chair. “You look a little flushed. Guess you’re not used to the heat down here.”

“I’m fine.” She shrugged her arm out of his warm grasp. “We have heat in New York.”

He gave her a long gaze, which made her wonder if it was an offense to snap at a police officer in this town. She wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of playing out her own Mayberry Midnight Express.

“Different kind of heat,” he said.

“Bring her back here so I can get a look at her,” Henry called from his jail cell. “She sounds real cute.”

“Oh, she is,” Dan drawled, looking her over so brazenly that she felt as if she’d been touched.

But she didn’t want to be touched, she reminded herself. She had a lot of troubles to deal with right now; she definitely didn’t need to add a man to the mix. She already knew she didn’t have good luck with men—there was no point in even trying.

Too bad her body didn’t agree with her mind on that. Every time she looked at Dan, her pulse quickened and her nerves sprang to life. Even now, the flush in her cheeks flamed so hot she thought her eyelashes might get singed.

“But she’s a pain in the ass,” he added.

Josie stood tall, hoping he didn’t notice her agitation. “This is hardly professional behavior, Officer.”

“No?”

“Certainly not.”