think there’s any chance Chandler’s responsible for this leak?”
“No.” A half smile lifted Colin’s mouth. “I didn’t ask for his endorsement, you know. He offered it.”
“He could very easily give with one hand and then take back with the other,” Alec pointed out.
Colin gave a bark of laughter. “Cait would geld him if she found he’d done something like that.”
Alec had to grin.
“No,” Colin repeated. “I didn’t like his decision not to support me to take over the department here in Angel Butte, but I do understand it. He didn’t try to hide what he’d done or why. No question he can be ruthless, but he’s not underhanded.”
Alec mulled that over for a minute. He didn’t know Noah Chandler as well as McAllister did, but finally he nodded his agreement. “You’re right. He’s been honest with me. He didn’t want to hire me, either, you know.”
He wasn’t quite sure why he was telling McAllister this, but the time felt right.
Colin’s eyebrows rose. “No, I didn’t. Why not?”
“Apparently he’d chosen a candidate who was already doing essentially this job and wanted to move up to a larger city. Chandler didn’t believe I had the administrative or political experience required.”
“Guess he was wrong.”
Alec offered a smile that had been described by his officers as feral. “He was wrong.” Seeing McAllister’s amusement, Alec added, “He was also less than thrilled because I’ll be going back to L.A. a couple of times to testify. One trial in particular may pull me away for as much as a couple of weeks.”
“Unusual for a lieutenant.”
“I wasn’t one when I made this bust.” He quirked an eyebrow. “You ever read Bleak House by Dickens?”
Colin laughed. “The never-ending court case?”
“That’s this one, but it looks like it’s finally coming to a head.” He hesitated. “The murder was related to drug trafficking. I arrested the head of a cartel.”
“So you feel right at home here,” McAllister said ironically.
He lifted a shoulder in acknowledgment. “Back to my hire. I didn’t know it at the time, but I suspect a majority in the city council was seizing the chance to slap our mayor’s hand. They went along with his decision not to hire you, but reveled in the chance to also refuse to give him what he wanted.”
“Petty, but that’s politics.”
“Yeah, it is.” Alec took a swallow of his coffee. “It’ll be interesting to see what His Honor the mayor has to say to our press corps.”
“Goddamn,” Colin growled. “I was looking good in the polls.”
“Better this came out now than later,” Alec suggested. “If I’d been running Brock’s campaign, I’d have waited to spring it on voters until the final weeks before the election. As it is, you have time to counteract any dip.” Four months, to be exact. Julia had waited until school let out in L.A. to move the kids. Today was only—he glanced at the small calendar on his desk blotter—June 26.
McAllister rose to his feet. “Thank you for the support out there.” He sounded a little stiff, no surprise for a man who disliked having to depend on anyone else.
“Early on, I told Chandler he had his head up his ass. He should have hired you.”
“I’d have liked to be a fly on the wall.”
“I phrased it a little more circumspectly at the time.”
Colin was outright grinning now. “You mean, you have some political instincts after all?”
“Appears so.”
They were both laughing when McAllister left Alec alone in his office.
* * *
“DO YOU MIND if I turn on the local news before we go to dinner?” Alec gestured to the television in the hotel room.
He’d offered to spend the evening with her and the kids again. Julia was immensely grateful but was also unpleasantly conscious of being the object of his well-developed sense of obligation.
“Of course not,” she said. She narrowed a look at her daughter, who had already opened her mouth to whine.
Lately it seemed as if the kids could eat nonstop. Maybe they were both on the verge of a growth spurt. If so, she hoped they’d get it out of the way before she bought back-to-school wardrobes.
She sat next to Alec at the foot of one of the room’s two queen-size beds. Liana sat cross-legged behind them, reading. On the other bed, Matt sprawled with his eyes closed, listening to music on his iPod. Great way to shut everyone else out.
Uncomfortably aware of Alec so close to her, Julia tried to concentrate on the news.
There had been a head-on accident on Highway 97, just south of Sunriver. The anchor told viewers solemnly that there had been one fatality and a second person who had been riding in the same car was clinging to life. The driver of the vehicle that had crossed the center line had walked away. Police were awaiting the results of tests for alcohol and drug use.
Julia’s gaze slid to Alec’s profile, clean-cut, sharp-edged. She drank in the sight of his jaw, darkened by the beginnings of stubble.
The second piece came on, and Alec used the remote to raise the volume. Watching intently, he leaned forward, forearms braced on his thighs. His interest made Julia pay attention, too.
“Scandal broke today in the race for Butte County sheriff,” a young man told them. He was positioned in front of the historic courthouse in Angel Butte. “Staffers for incumbent sheriff Eugene Brock learned that police captain Colin McAllister, who has been leading in recent polls, was denied the job as police chief in Angel Butte when the mayor blacklisted him for reasons no official wants to discuss.”
The camera focused on a tall man with a craggy face. “Mayor Chandler has endorsed me,” he said tersely. “Feel free to take your questions to him.”
The reporter said, “Angel Butte police chief Alec Raynor also commented.”
Alec had joined the other man on the steps. A muffled voice could be heard. “You must know Mayor Chandler’s reasoning.”
Julia watched with intense interest.
“I do know,” he said, maintaining what she thought of as his cop face, “and I can tell you honestly that if I had been in the mayor’s position, I would have hired Captain McAllister. I have only the highest respect for his expertise as a law-enforcement officer, his leadership ability and his integrity.” He smiled faintly. “I’d have been the loser, of course, so I can’t altogether regret the decision.”
The picture returned to the reporter at the courthouse. “Mayor Chandler has been persuaded to speak to us about the rumors,”
