Free Deadly Force by Beverly Long

her father didn’t push you off the roof when you weren’t looking.”
    “Believe me, long after the garage had a new roof, I stayed far away when he had a hammer in his hand.”
    “What changed?”
    Patrick sat down on the stool next to Sam. He turned it so that he was facing out at the crowd,and then leaned back against the wood bar, as if he was royalty watching over his kingdom. “I think he realized that I loved her dearly and that it was mutual. I think he saw, too, that age is a number. When a boy is sixteen and a girl is a baby, the difference is forever. Even when a man is twenty-eight and the girl is barely gracing twelve, it’s a river too wide and deep to cross. But when aman is thirty-nine and his bride is twenty-three, the river dwindles to a small stream. When the man is forty-five and the twenty-nine-year-old woman bears him a child, the sixteen years are a blessing.”
    Sixteen? Nine? None of that mattered. He’d just gotten surprised tonight. Hadn’t expected to find a sweaty, half-naked woman in his spare room. Hadn’t expected that he’d react like a teenager.Hadn’t expected that she’d look so hurt when he’d pushed her away.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’ll see you later.”
    “Don’t be a stranger,” Murphy called after him.
    He wasn’t a stranger, but he was acting pretty damn strange. He needed to get a grip. He would not be undone by a pair of brown eyes. He would not grovel, beg or via any similar action or reaction,let it be known that he’d taken one look at her legs and almost sworn off breasts. Almost.
    There was no sense going overboard.
    Sam walked at a slow pace and let the air clear his head. He felt almost normal by the time he got home. That is, until he discovered that his house was empty. Claire’s cell phone and purse were lying on the table next to the futon.
    He found the note onhis second pass through the kitchen. I took Nightmare for a run.
    In the dark? What was she thinking? He looked at his watch. The ten o’clock news had just started.
    Did she have any idea of what could happen to a woman at night? Did she really think some stupid dog could protect her? One little bullet, right between the eyes, and Nightmare would be down for the count.
    Where wouldshe go? There was a park about three blocks away. Would she head that direction? Did she even know about it? Would she just walk the streets?
    He grabbed his keys and was halfway out the door before he stopped. He’d had three beers on an empty stomach. Not enough that he felt anything, but maybe just enough to put him over the legal limit.
    Jamie Donaldson’s face flashed before his eyes.Jamie had been one of the best detectives on the force. One night, coming home from a party, well over the legal limit, he’d hit two twelve-year-olds as they crossed the street. The girls had been dead before the paramedics arrived. Not only had Jamie about lost his mind, he’d lost his job and more. He was doing five to ten at Joliet, sharing cell space with scum that he’d helped put away.
    No way would he get behind the wheel of a car. If he got caught, it could cost him everything.
    Yeah, but, not doing anything could cost Claire her life.
    He pounded on his tenant’s door and waited impatiently. He knocked again and finally Tom Ames opened the door. He wore ratty black shorts, a T-shirt with a huge hole under one arm and reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. Whiteacne medication dotted his face. He held an open, four-inch-thick microbiology textbook up to his chest. “Sam?” he asked.
    “I’m sorry to bother you,” Sam said. “But I need your help.”
    “ You need my help?”
    “Yeah. I need to go look for a friend who took Nightmare for a walk. I can’t drive. I had a couple beers earlier tonight.”
    Tom, who was working on his second master’s degree,nodded. Tom’s mother worked for the department and no doubt Tom, too, had heard the story of Jamie Donaldson.