Free This Is What I Want by Craig Lancaster Page B

the heck are you?”
    “Pretty good. So what happened here?”
    Swarthbeck, still holding on to his shoulder, commandeered Norby and moved him a few feet farther away from the cleanup. “Oh, you know, little mishap. Jeez, kid, I’ve gotta tell you, didn’t expect to see you around, so I’m sorry it took me a minute. It was like opening the door to the fridge and seeing an aquarium. A little hard to ponder.”
    “No biggie.”
    Swarthbeck looked him up and down a couple of times. “So this is the California look, huh? Long hair. No socks in your shoes.”
    “I guess.”
    “That what they call metrosexual or something?”
    Norby clenched his fists instinctively, without any real plan for what to do next. He searched the mayor’s face for some indication of intent behind the remark but couldn’t suss any out.
    “I’m just joshing you,” Swarthbeck said at last, nudging Norby with an elbow. “Naw, you look good, kid. The coastal life’s been good to you, I guess.”
    “I guess.” Norby switched gears. “You seen my dad?”
    The mayor cast a dismissive wave toward downtown. “Down at the park, putting up the bunting or some shit. It’s his show, you know.”
    “Thanks, Mayor.”
    “He’s there with that kid, Omar. You know about him?”
    “I’ve heard some stories.”
    “He’s the real deal. Better basketball player than you, that kid.”
    There was no mistaking that one. The words had been sharpened and aimed at the heart. Norby turned and walked away, ears burning. At least half of the sting, he told himself, lay in the fact that he allowed the stupid comment to pierce his skin. It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard it all before from people much more significant in his life than the mayor. He’d been called a coward, though he had no idea how anyone could support that contention. There’s nothing cowardly about telling your coach you won’t play again, no matter how much he’s counting on you. Nobody with fear ruling his heart stands in front of his father and says the same, while offering no explanation, because who would have believed it? He’d had ten years to make his peace with what he’d done, and he knew, in the deepest part of him, that given another hundred chances to make the decision, he’d do it the same way. Every time.

THE CHIEF
    At the north-side downtown blockade, Adair nosed the squad car off to the right, up a street, and into the alley. She didn’t care for not being able to drive the full length of Main, and she’d told the mayor as much several weeks earlier, when the nuts-and-bolts planning kicked in. Still, she couldn’t argue with the general principle of keeping a rowdy, alcohol-fueled crowd penned in once the nighttime festivities began.
    She emerged from the alley onto Sixth Street, and what she saw brought her to a stop. She couldn’t believe it. Here, hours earlier, had stood the charcoal ruins of the mayor’s office. Now it was a hole in the street, just a bare foundation, like the gap left by a missing tooth.
    “What the hell?” she said.
    She checked the mirrors behind her, and craned her neck out of the window. Nobody on the street. Just an empty space and dust stirred by a gentle wind.
    Adair’s cell phone buzzed. She checked the text messages. LaMer.
    You coming? These guys are ready to eat.
    Yeah.
    You got everything?
    Yeah. Where’s Sakota?
    On patrol. You want him?
    Loaded question, Adair thought. Yeah, she wanted him. She wanted his head on a spike. A building doesn’t just up and disappear, and if it does, the police chief damn well better get a call.
    No. Be a sec.
     
    With little trouble, Adair got food ordered for the hungry men in her charge, and while they waited for Pete to knock out the orders, she made a show of handing out yellow T-shirts with the town insignia on them, as well as zip ties for each man to use as handcuffs should the occasion warrant it.
    The mayor had been direct about his wishes when Adair decided to hire the extra