Judging Joshua

Now it felt uncomfortable, as if something was hanging over his head, a certain discomfort that he couldn’t label. Maybe an uneasiness. He didn’t know why. His little girl J.J. was fine, back at the ranch with his dad and his stepmother. Joshua didn’t have to be anywhere he didn’t want to be. He could walk out of here right now and that would be that. But on a gut level, he wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to do this. He was here for the duration, in a ski town whose bitter cold was a far cry from Atlanta, facing the coming holidays with no anticipation beyond getting through them and to the other side, into a new year.

He sat forward, looked down at the papers on the desk and read the top one about a stolen BMW out of Chicago. Handwritten in the margin was “Riley Shaw,” along with a notation with the detective’s name in Chicago and some other notes. He glanced up and was relieved she wasn’t at the cell door any longer.

The radio signaled an incoming call and he hit Receive on the box on his desk. It was Charlie calling in. The incident at the lifts was under control and he was taking Wes with him on rounds, then he’d be back. Joshua would be here for another two hours at least.

He stared at the papers on his desk. Just talking to the detective from Chicago had let him know the case wasn’t a priority in any sense of the word. If it took a day or two or even three, they wouldn’t sweat it. But if Charlie agreed to hold off on booking, he wouldn’t do it more than a day. Two, tops. Joshua had an idea and reached for the phone. He put in a call to Harvey Sills, a cop who’d worked vice in a Chicago suburb for ten years and someone he’d dealt with on a case four years ago.

News was Harvey had taken early retirement after being wounded, but had stayed in the business as a private investigator. He didn’t have any trouble getting a number and putting in a call to Harvey. It rang four times, then went to voice mail.

“Harvey. Joshua Pierce, here,” he said after the beep. “I know it’s been a while, but I’m back in Silver Creek, filling in for my dad for a while. I’m working a case out of the Chicago area and I need some help. I was thinking you might be able to expedite it for me. If you could call me when you get a chance, I’d appreciate it.” He left his cell number and the office number, then hung up.

Harvey had contacts and he was right there in the city. If anyone could get answers, he could. The buzzer sounded when the entry door to the station opened, and Joshua got up at the same time someone called from the squad room. “Hey, where is everyone?”

Spotting Annie Logan just rounding the reception desk, Joshua got up and headed out. Annie was the owner of the Silver Creek Hotel, and apparently the delivery service for Rusty’s Diner at the moment. She was holding an orange take-out bag in one hand and pushing off her fur-lined hood with the other. She smiled when she saw him. “There you are.” She beamed.

He crossed to meet her halfway and realized Annie hadn’t changed since they were kids. She’d been plain then, and still was, but somewhere along the way she’d developed a certain attractiveness. She’d always smiled, been happy and full of life. Married and happy, she worked at the hotel she owned with her husband, Rick.

She was grinning at him, her face flushed from the cold. “Boy it seems like old times seeing you in this place.” She handed him the bag. “Too bad your dad’s not here, too. How’s he doing?”

“He’s staying out of trouble, getting better,” he said.

“Who’ve you got in there?” she asked, looking around him at the open security door. “I heard you were babysitting a prisoner. Who is it, that Jenner kid? Or some drunk who thought they could ski down Main Street and use the cars as slalom markers?”

“Just a common car thief,” he said, realizing how wrong that was as soon as he said it. There was nothing “common” about Riley Shaw.

“Oh, big-time law stuff, huh?” She grinned.

“Yeah,” he said. “How much do I owe you?”

“Rusty said he’d put it on the tab. You know, if this is the way you do things, you should forget about going back to Atlanta and run for sheriff here when your dad’s term is up. Making big arrests and all. You could give Charlie a run for his money.”

That wasn’t even in his thought process. He knew he’d go back to Atlanta, but he wasn’t sure what he’d do there. He wasn’t at all sure he’d go back to law enforcement. He had options and he was still weighing them. “Who in their right mind would go up against Charlie? I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Annie patted his arm and said with mock seriousness, “Humility is a good thing, Joshua. A very good thing.”

RILEY COULD HEAR Joshua talking to a woman who sounded so happy and cheerful that it was almost painful to listen to. “Did you hear it’s going to snow tonight?” the woman asked. “Who would have thought we were all wailing about having no snow not too long ago?” She laughed for some reason, then asked, “How’s J.J. doing?”

J.J.? His wife? Riley had seen a wedding ring on his finger.

“She’s doing great,” he said.

“You give her a big hug for me, you hear?”

“Absolutely.”

Her voice was getting farther away as she spoke. “Say hi to your folks?”

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Good to have you back, Josh. See you soon.” A door opened, then closed and there was silence.

Riley pulled the blankets off the cot, threw them into the left front corner of the cell onto the floor, then crossed over and sank onto them. She could see out the security door from here and right into the office she’d been in earlier. If she stayed on the cot, all she could see was empty desks. She sat back, resting against the bars, and looked around the cell. Dull walls, cement flooring, the spindly cot with its thin mattress, the stark toilet and a sink stuck in the wall. Someone had brought in a corrugated screen that was about four feet high and three feet wide, made of what looked like cardboard. It was supposed to be for some privacy in the toilet area, but all it did was add more ugliness to the space. Even the single window looked stark.

She closed her eyes to shut out her surroundings and pulled up her knees to press her forehead against them. Joshua and that Annie person sounded like friends; old, comfortable friends. They teased a bit, talked about family. And for a moment, she ached with the sense that she didn’t have that. She never had. Friends. Family. She closed her eyes so tightly colors exploded behind them. She didn’t know much about those things.

“What in the hell?”

Her head jerked up at the sound of Joshua’s sharp exclamation and she twisted around to see him inside the lockdown area on the other side of the bars to her cell, staring at her. “What’s wrong?” she asked, scrambling to her feet.

He was holding a bright orange bag in one hand, his face set in a dark frown. “I didn’t see you there,” he said.

She sank back on the blankets and watched him as he crossed to the security panel. He punched in the code and the cell door clicked. He turned, reaching for the cell door and sliding it back. “Oh, I get it. You thought I’d made a break for it, didn’t you?”

He didn’t look at her as he crossed to the small table by the cot. “I don’t know what I thought,” he said as he reached into the bag and took out a foam carton and a small covered cup.

“Whatever,” she murmured as he turned and crossed to where she was sitting.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” he asked. “Were you dizzy again or sick or something?”

She had to crane her neck a bit to look up at him. “Just thinking,” she said.

“The bed’s not too uncomfortable, and I can bring in a chair if you need a place to sit, a place to think.”

She shrugged, then brushed at the denim on her legs. “Thanks, but I’m good.”

He shook his head, as if he questioned her sanity. “Well, there’s hot soup and a sandwich over there when you want it.”

She was silent.

He frowned at her. “You know, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. And personally, I prefer the easy way.”

“Easy for you,” she said, and got quickly to her feet.

Her movement caught him off guard and she accidentally bumped into his shoulder, rocking her backward. He caught her just before she would have struck the bars, and held her with both hands, gripping her shoulders. For a moment they were inches from each other and she could see a flare of gold in his hazel eyes. “Steady?” he asked.

She hadn’t felt steady since she’d first heard the siren and seen the flashing lights. “Sure,” she lied. “I’m steady.”

He hesitated, then let her go, but didn’t move back to give her any space. “Let’s make this as easy on both of us as we can, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” she said on a sigh. “Coffee sounds lovely if it’s convenient for you and you don’t have to go out of your way to get it.”

“I’ll get it,” he said, and for a moment she thought he was going to smile. There was something in his eyes, maybe a shadow of humor at his lips. She wasn’t sure. “Coffee it is.” He crossed to the cell door, then turned back to her. “Cream and sugar?”

“No, thank you very much.”

This time he did smile, a quick, quirky expression that took years off his features before it was gone. And he was gone, leaving the cell door standing open. She thought of her crack about making a break for it, and if she’d had any place to go, she might have considered it. But she didn’t have anywhere to go.

So she checked on the food—a turkey sandwich on some wheat bread and a small cup with a lid. She opened the cup, found some sort of fragrant vegetable soup, then took it back with her to the corner of the cell and dropped down onto the floor. She sat cross-legged and hardly noticed when Joshua returned.