The Birthday List(76)

A dog like her should have a name like Sadie or Bailey. Instead, she was named after some weird pet dragon from one of Kali’s cartoons. But I seemed to be the only one who thought Nazboo was a ridiculous fucking name. Everyone else loved it, especially Poppy. So I hadn’t put up much of a fight and started calling her Naz, which was easier to swallow.

“I think she might be the best puppy I’ve ever seen,” Matt said. “I told my wife I’d consider getting one too if I could guarantee she acted like Naz.”

“We lucked out, that’s for sure.” Naz rarely had an accident, she didn’t nip at fingers, and she’d only chewed one of Poppy’s shoes. After that, we’d made sure to always have a rawhide nearby, and from then on out, Naz had never chewed on anything else. But it was her personality we all loved the most. She was mellow—for a puppy—and as sweet as sugar cane.

Naz had become my sidekick during the day, hanging out with me at the station or riding around in my truck if we were doing fieldwork. Bozeman was a dog-friendly town, and a couple of years ago, the station had started allowing senior officers to bring their dogs to work. Naz was now one of three dogs in the bull pen on a regular basis, and the times that I couldn’t bring her with me, she stayed with Mom.

“All right.” Dad checked his watch. “I’ve got another meeting in five. Keep me posted on how your interviews go.”

Matt nodded. “Will do.”

We all stood and Dad shook Matt’s hand. “Nice work, Matt.”

“Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “This guy has been doing most of the work.”

I scoffed. “I don’t know about that.”

I’d been the one to watch the majority of the camera footage, but Matt hadn’t been sitting idle. He took his role as lead seriously and he’d done a lot of fieldwork while I sat behind the scenes. He’d interviewed all of the original witnesses again. He’d spent hours at the shopping complex, learning all of the ins and outs of the area so we could zero in on potential blind spots the suspect could have hidden in. Matt had even spent hours going over the case with Simmons.

Surprisingly, Simmons had memorized a lot from the case. He might have delegated things too far down the chain and his documentation skills were shit, but what he hadn’t written down, he’d kept in his head. I was still pissed at Simmons for being lazy these last few years, but he wasn’t the one to blame for letting Jamie Maysen’s killer walk free. He’d just looked at the investigation like the rest of us had.

For a man.

Female killers were rare, and even though we’d been trained to keep our eyes open to any possibility, I couldn’t blame Simmons for spending his time focusing on a male suspect. The camera footage from the liquor store was deceiving. The killer looked like a man.

But maybe we were finally getting somewhere.

“It’s been a team effort,” Matt said. “I’d better get back to it. Bye, Chief.”

“Bye, Dad.” I turned to follow Matt out the door but Dad stopped me.

“Cole, stick around for a sec.”

I sighed, jealous that Matt had made his escape. Lucky bastard. “What’s up?”

Dad pointed to the chair, so I resumed my seat. “I’ve decided on something and wanted to tell you before the announcement is made next week.”

The muscles in my shoulders tensed at his tone. “Okay.”

“I’ve set my retirement date. Two more years, and I’m done.”

“Wow.” I’d expected Dad to work for at least another five. Maybe ten. He loved his job. “That’s . . . soon.”

“It is, but your mom and I have been talking a lot about how we want to spend the remainder of our years. Both of us are in good health. We’ve been careful with our money. So rather than waste these next ten years in the office, we want to have some time together. Maybe travel. And we want to be close with our grandkids.”

Grandkids. That was the reason behind the sudden short timeline. My sister had stopped by the station two weeks ago and told me she was pregnant. I was fucking ecstatic for Evie and her husband, Zack. They’d been trying to get pregnant for years until they’d finally resorted to IVF. Now my sister was as happy as I’d ever seen her and the early ultrasounds showed they were expecting triplets. It made sense that Mom and Dad would want to be around to help with three grandbabies on the way.

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” He nodded. “But that means we need to get serious about making transition plans. Two years is going to fly by and we’ve got to start prepping you to take over as chief. We should get you involved in more committees. I’d like you to get more play in the politics and—”

“Hold up.” I raised my hands. “Dad, we talked about this. I don’t want to be the next chief of police.”

“Right. I know you’re still considering things.” He nodded but he wasn’t hearing me. “We’ve got time, but what’s the harm in learning more about what I do? Just in case.”

Just in case.

Three words I was really fucking sick of hearing.

“Look, Dad—” My phone rang in my pocket before I could put my foot down. “Sorry,” I muttered, digging it out.