Free Finding Susan by Dakota Kahn Page B

 
    “Why’s that?” Blake said.
    “They called me ma’am.”

    *********

    “My house is up one more block,” Mary said, her voice sounding tiny in the back of the car. Blake offered her shotgun, be she refused it. She truly looked miniscule now, Kate thought, so tiny there besides the pile of wood planks. She was like a little sprite. It was amazing for Kate to think that she’d been that little once.  
    “I think...” Kate started, and then she looked over at Blake to see if he was about to mount an objection. He wasn’t. “I think it might be better if your parents don’t see you driving up to the house in a car with a police officer and an attorney,” Kate said. “We don’t want any guilt by association.”
    Mary nodded, and gave a secretive little smile, then she opened the door. “Thanks,” she said, and then her face took on that solemn seriousness that only the young can muster as she walked down the street towards her house and the certain doom that represented.  
    “That’s gotta be hard for the kid,” Kate said.
    “Well, could have been worse. Good idea, this not driving up to the house. Shows you to be full of that, whaddya call it. Human compassion,” Blake said.  
    Kate giggled. “Well, we can’t all be tough as nails like you, copper.”
    “Yeah. Say, what the heck was it with the ice cream? I’m trying to show this girl some sense of responsibility for her actions, and you were going to go there and undermine me with this whole ice cream business. Not good reinforcement.”
    “I didn’t know children were so Pavlovian. It was a bad idea - did you see the look on her face?”
    “Shouldn’t have gone stealing,” Blake said.
    Kate decided not to press the point, but one thing was sure—she’d been impressed at the way Blake handled his job. She didn’t know he was such a good and caring policeman. It did make her think.  
    But there was one thing about cops--there was a certain line at which they weren’t willing to compromise. In her profession, compromise was the name of the game. She wondered if maybe, with some gentle cajoling she could illicit a little more warmth from craggy old Blake Spanner. She doubted it, but it was worth a try. Say, a project, like him fixing up her porch. Though he seemed to be destroying the village in order to save it with the porch.  
    And there was one more thing. She told him about her encounter with the veterinarian.  
    “I think you ought to check out old Allison,” she told him.  
    “Why?”
    “I’ll bet she’s running a meth lab in that veterinary clinic of hers.”
    Blake nodded. “Good for her. Good for the local economy.”
    “I’m not kidding. She used to send Susan home with all kinds of strange potions. And when you talk to her, she looks a little bleary. I think she’s on drugs.”
    Blake rolled his eyes. “Just leave Allison alone. If she likes to get high now and then, more power to her. I could take her over a bottle of tequila and let her do it that way.”
    “Some law enforcement officer you are.”
    He gave her a look. “I thought you were a defender in San Francisco. You sound more like a prosecutor to me.”
    She sighed and he suddenly had a grin growing across his handsome face. He was having a Eureka! moment. She was supposed to be a defender, but by nature, prosecution was her basic instinct. Bingo.
    “You know, I think I have just mined the gold nugget out of the matrix,” he said, chortling.   “I’ve uncovered the nub of the problem. I know your secret.”
    “What?” She looked at him, half annoyed.  
    He smiled at her.  
    She poked him with her index finger. “What? If it’s such a big deal, tell me.”
    He was still smiling, shaking his head. At last he knew something about her that she didn’t seem to know herself.  
    “Never mind.”
    He had to run by the sheriff’s station and check on some emails he was expecting. She stayed in the car and waited for him, thinking about Susan,