street. I described her to Guppo and he remembers seeing a girl like that in Lake Place Park where the homeless hang out. I also called Brooke at the shelter on First, and she says Cat is a regular. Guppo and Brooke both said the same thing. Sooner or later, something bad’s going to happen to this girl.’
‘That’s what I’m trying to stop,’ Stride said.
Maggie said nothing, but he watched her face turn sour.
‘What’s going on with you, Mags?’ he asked. ‘You obviously don’t like this girl. Why?’
‘I don’t know anything about her. Neither do you.’
‘She’s the daughter of an old friend. She’s a good kid in trouble. Do I need something more than that?’
Maggie shrugged. ‘Do whatever you want. You said it’s personal, right? So it’s none of my business.’
‘Except you’re giving me the cold shoulder all of a sudden. It feels to me like this is about something else.’
Her golden face swung toward him. ‘Meaning what?’
‘You know what I’m talking about. Is this about Cat, or is it about you and me?’
‘There’s no you and me,’ she retorted. ‘We tried, we failed. End of story. We said we weren’t going to talk about it anymore.’
‘Yeah, that’s what we said.’
Stride stared at his partner, whose fists were clenched around the steering wheel of the Avalanche. They’d been friends for years, as close as two people could be without being lovers. The trouble was, that had all changed. He knew things about her now that he was never meant to know. He knew about the birth mark on her upper thigh. He knew that she slept face down in her pillow and somehow didn’t suffocate. He knew that her ears got bright pink as she reached orgasm. Those were things he couldn’t put back in a box. He couldn’t will the knowledge out of his head.
Years earlier, his wife Cindy had warned him how easy it would be to break Maggie’s heart like the porcelain pieces of a Chinese doll. He’d treated her with kid gloves for years, but now he’d done what he always swore he never would. He’d gotten involved. He’d let it end badly. He’d wounded her in a way that no other man could.
She read his face and knew what he was thinking. ‘Spare me the sympathy. I’m a big girl.’
‘I know that.’
‘We fucked for, what, six weeks?’
He didn’t answer her. She was trying to make their brief affair sound unimportant by swearing about it. She wanted to pretend there had never been an emotional bond between them, which wasn’t true at all.
‘We were good at the fucking part,’ she went on. ‘I liked it. Did you like it? Or was this all in my head?’
‘Sure I did, but it’s not about that.’
‘I know. Look, it happened by accident. We both blew it. We knew this was never going to work out, and it didn’t. I don’t regret giving it a try, but I know you do. I’m sorry I screwed up your life.’
‘I never said I regretted it.’
‘You didn’t have to. Your poker face isn’t as good as you think, not with me. Whenever we were in bed, Serena was there with us, and not in a fun way.’
It wasn’t really funny. They didn’t laugh. He knew Maggie was right.
‘So what now?’ he asked.
‘Now we move on. We go back to the way things were.’
‘Just like that?’
‘I can if you can,’ she said.
‘Okay.’
‘Okay. Done. Let’s forget about it.’
He didn’t think anything was that easy.
‘Are you seeing someone?’ he asked.
‘Does it matter?’
‘I’m curious.’
‘Okay, yes, I’m seeing someone.’
‘Anybody I know?’
She sighed. ‘Fine. Remember Ken McCarty?’
‘Sure. Is he back in town?’
‘No, but we hooked up a couple weeks ago when he was here to get some evidence from the property room on a larceny case in Minneapolis. For now, it’s just sex. Nobody knows about it, and whatever you do, do
not
tell Guppo. I’ll never hear the end of it.’
‘Ken’s pretty young, Mags,’ he said. It was a joke, but it was the wrong thing
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