Free Shadows Everywhere by John Lutz Page B

up his cigar, then leaned hack and seemed to study Day. "I know it's hard," he said. "It's always been hard."
    "I suppose it has, sir." Day really didn't want to argue with Lieutenant Weston. Like most of the other officers, he had respect for the man's professionalism and candor. A direct, almost crude man despite his shrewdness, Lieutenant Weston had a way of always letting you know where you stood with him.
    "You've blown a few lately, Day," the lieutenant said. "You're expected to be more careful."
    Again Day nodded.
    "I want you to take the office upstairs for the next two weeks. Handle the incoming calls while Rogers is on court duty."
    "All right, sir." Day tried to keep the disappointment from his voice. The desk job he was being told to man was an empty, monotonous sort of job, with little real responsibility. It was always looked at as something of a put-down when a detective was assigned to it when Rogers was away.
    The lieutenant was bent over his desk now, shuffling through some papers and ignoring Day. Day got up to leave.
    "Remember," the lieutenant said as Day reached the door, "more careful, huh?"
    Day walked from the precinct house, drove the unmarked car to the police garage and left it. Then he drove his own car home to his apartment on Grant Road.
    He parked behind the apartment building and got out of the car to go upstairs. A tall, dark-haired man with blue eyes and a boyish face, he looked like anything but a detective, and right now he was wondering if he were a detective. More and more lately, the dream of police work was conflicting sharply with the reality.
    At least he'd work fairly regular hours on Rogers' job, he figured, as he opened his front door. Audrey would be glad to hear that.
    Day's four-year-old son Greg ran to him when he came in. Grinning, Day turned the small boy away and slapped his rear with mock viciousness. After wrestling for a few minutes, Greg playfully ran off to his room.
    Audrey was in the kitchen, setting the timer on the oven. "I heard you come in," she said.
    Day smiled. "I guess you couldn't help but hear it."
    He looked at her, slim and beautiful in slacks and a sleeveless white blouse; but the lines about her eyes and about the corners of her mouth were new and didn't look as if they belonged. Day blamed himself for those lines.
    "I'll have a desk job for a few weeks," he said, hoping to make her smile. "Daytime hours for sure. I was lucky to get it."
    She didn't smile, only nodded and gave whatever she'd placed in the oven a final check.
    "I thought maybe we'd eat out tonight," Day said.
    "Too late for that. You should have called."
    "Too busy," Day lied.
    "Anyway," Audrey said, "I've got a roast in. That's your favorite." "Have a decent day today?"
    "Good enough," she said.
    "Greg behave?"
    "Good enough."
    Day turned away in discomfort. This was the kind of conversation they were having lately: trivial, circling conversations.
    After supper that evening Day played with Greg, then watched TV for a while–news, followed by a program about some kids who solved crimes–but he couldn't keep his eyes away from Audrey, from the deepening lines in the smooth flesh of her face. She was only thirty-one. He wondered what she'd look like at thirty-five. At forty.
    Things seemed to go better at home during the first week of the desk job, but work was a dull stretch of time that caused a backache. Nothing seemed to break the monotony, and Day wondered how it would be to have a steady desk job. Probably Lieutenant Weston wanted him to wonder that.
    Then one clear morning, as he was driving away from the apartment on his way to work, something registered in Day's mind.
    The small, tan foreign car behind him had been behind him yesterday morning, and there were other times he'd seen it in his rearview mirror during the past week or so. His memory was jarred by the slightly bent aerial on the car's fender, the dented grill.
    Without moving his head, Day kept an eye on the car