To Catch A Wife. Lee McKenzie
a more equal footing. From time to time, Gordon would call and ask for his opinion and advice on a police matter.
“Chief, always good to be here.”
“You got a minute?” Gordon asked. “There’s something I’d like to run by you.”
“Sure. I can spare several, actually.” Rose Daniels was getting antsy, but a few more minutes weren’t going to kill her, he decided, and followed the man into his office.
Chief Fenwick closed the door. “Have a seat,” he said, settling himself into the chair behind his massive desk.
Jack sat, expecting to hear about a new case or perhaps field a few questions about the young Daniels woman. “What’s up?”
“I’ve decided to retire.”
“Seriously?” Chief Fenwick was a Riverton institution, and Jack couldn’t imagine the town without him.
“Not many people know about it yet, including my team here, so I’d appreciate you keeping it under your hat. The mayor’s going to make the official announcement at the town council meeting on Monday.”
“Of course. I have to say this seems awfully sudden.”
“Been mulling it over for the past couple of months. The missus had surgery back in February. Not sure if I told you about that.”
“My mother mentioned it.” Jack’s mother and Eleanor Fenwick had known each other for years, and Norma Evans had been beside herself when her longtime friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“She’s been going into the city for radiation treatments. Now that that’s done and she’s starting to feel more like her old self again, the docs are saying the prognosis is excellent.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
“So are we, son. So are we. And it’s been one of those wake-up calls for us. Eleanor would like to spend more time with the grandkids. We both would. They’re all over the map these days—Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Seattle—and Eleanor’s always talked about spending the winter in Florida. So we’re thinking about getting ourselves a motor home and discovering America, so to speak.”
“Then you should do it.” Jack wished his own parents would get around more. His sister, Faith, who lived in San Francisco, was constantly after their parents to fly out for a visit, but their mother hated leaving the house to sit empty, and their father wasn’t fond of big cities. “The Riverton PD won’t be the same without you, though.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Everyone’s replaceable.”
That might be a sound philosophy in many cases, but Jack wasn’t sure it extended to Chief Fenwick. The man had a reputation for remaining calm during a crisis and for inspiring his staff to rise to the same high standards he set for himself. Finding someone to fill those shoes wouldn’t be easy.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Gordon continued. “Last time you were in town, I got the impression working homicide was starting to take a toll, that you were starting to feel burned out.”
The man knew him almost as well as he knew himself, but where was he going with this?
“I’ve been considering a change,” he admitted. There were only a handful of people Jack felt comfortable confiding in, and Gord Fenwick was one of them. “Maybe back to vice, maybe something completely different. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, though, and I don’t want the department to think I can’t take the heat anymore.”
Gord tilted back in his big black leather desk chair, making Jack the sole subject of his intensely thoughtful gaze. “Looking for change doesn’t make you a bad cop. I’ve seen lots of guys—good cops—happily walk the same beat their whole career. Others, like you, quickly rise up through the ranks. I’ve seen your track record for cases solved, and it’s a lot higher than most. So, no, feeling restless doesn’t make you a bad cop,” he repeated. “It makes you one who’s ready to take on a new challenge.”
Jack studied the man on the other side of the desk. He had a hunch he knew what was coming next, and he wasn’t sure he was prepared for it.
“I’ve told the mayor I want to step down as soon as he can find a replacement, so he asked if I had any recommendations.” Chief Fenwick had a direct way of looking at people, as though he was challenging them to sit up straighter. That’s how he was looking at Jack right now.
Jack adjusted his posture accordingly.
Gord straightened his chair, picked up a gold pen off the desk and, holding the ends in the fingers of both hands, rolled it thoughtfully. “I told the mayor I knew only one person who could step in here and take over tomorrow.” He glanced away from the pen and back up at Jack. “That person is you. You know the town, the people. You already have a great rapport with everyone here in the department. This opportunity would take your career in a whole new direction, give you a fresh outlook on police work. I hope you’ll give it some serious consideration.”
Two hours ago, Jack might have brushed the offer aside, laughed at it, even. Chief of Police? Practically unheard of for anyone at this stage of their career. “I don’t know what to say, Chief. I’m flattered, of course, and honored, but this isn’t something I’ve ever aspired to. I’ve never seen myself behind a desk, being the one in charge. And, yes, I’ve been feeling a little burned out, but I love what I do, being on the street in the thick of things. I don’t think I’m the right guy for the job.” He debated whether or not to tell Gord about the baby and his plan to convince Emily to move to Chicago with him, then decided against it. Emily still needed to share the news with her family, and he would need to figure out a way to tell his folks, too. His father would be disappointed in him, but he was pretty sure his mother would bust out the knitting needles and get started on the baby’s first wardrobe.
“How long have we known each other?” Gord asked.
Jack pondered the question. “Almost twenty years?” Since that fateful night when he and his friends Eric Larsen and Paul Woodward had foolishly let themselves get drawn into a Halloween prank instigated by Jesse Wilson and his loser friends. They’d spent the next four Saturday mornings at the station, washing and waxing police cruisers.
The man nodded. “Even then I knew there was something special about you. Then, years later, after you’d graduated college and told me you were going into the police academy, I was as proud as I’d have been if you were my own son.”
Jack smiled at the recollections. “You do remember why I was here in the first place?”
Gord grinned. “Could’ve made a lot of omelets with all those eggs you boys were tossing around town.”
Not to mention the numerous rolls of toilet paper they’d used to festoon the trees lining the street in front of the high school.
Jack shook his head sheepishly. “You let us off pretty easy.”
“Let the punishment fit the crime, I always say. You and your buddies learned your lesson.”
“We sure did.”
“Wish the same was true for Jesse Wilson, but it seems some fellows never grow up.”
Jack glanced at his watch and stood. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Gord. I’ll think about it, I really will, but right now I have a witness to interview.”
Chief Fenwick stood, too, and extended his hand across the desk. “You do that. Just don’t take too long. Mayor Bartlett has assured me the job belongs to the person I recommend, and I’m recommending you.”
They shook on it. “Give my best to Eleanor, will you?” Jack said as he left the chief’s office.
On his way to the interview room and his waiting witness, the events of the past few hours swirled in his mind. A family in the making, Emily’s reluctance notwithstanding. An incredible career opportunity, albeit one he had no intention