Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(7)
“I know that.”
“And you’ll see people who are hurt every day. You will see horrors that will turn your stomach. Your mom always—” Jerry stopped talking and seemed to think here about whether to go on. Finally he did. “Your mom sheltered you. You were barely even allowed out of the house till you were 18. And that one time you got bullied at school she pulled you out and home schooled you till you graduated. It’s not going to be like that if you’re a cop. People won’t treat you with kid gloves. Criminals swear at you and spit on you and even try to shoot you. Even your fellow cops are going to swear at you. It’s not an easy job.”
Jen swallowed and nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly! I want that Jerry! I want everything you just said. I know Mom sheltered me. Why do you think I’m so trusting? So naive? I bet I won’t be naive after a few months of working as a cop.”
Jerry looked at Sara again, and this time Sara smiled and shrugged. “She’s got a point, Jerry.”
“OK, OK, I just want to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.” He got up and walked to the stove again, then turned around and pointed the spatula at her. “You’ll have to dye your hair blond again, you know. They won’t let you wear it pink like that.”
Jen’s hands fluttered to her hair. She pulled a pretty pink lock through her fingers and looked at it. She hadn’t thought of that. It was the first thing that seemed like a negative to her. But it was a small negative. “I can do that. No problem.”
Jerry threw some more bacon in the pan and spoke with his back to her. Jen had to strain to hear him over the popping and sizzling. “It’s going to take longer than a few weeks, you know. I don’t know when the recruit class starts, but I would bet it isn’t for months. First you’ll have to take a written test, then a physical test, then a lie detector test, and then if you pass all of that you’ll get to start recruit class. Sometimes the process takes five or six months.”
Jen’s good feelings took a nosedive. “Really? That long?” That meant she’d had to get a job between now and then. And that was five or six months to change her mind in. Not that she wanted to change her mind, but if her friends, or her mother, started in on her relentlessly, they might be able to convince her to give it up. She knew she wasn’t good at holding on to a conviction (wasn’t that why she was doing this?), especially if her mother thought it was a bad idea. And she knew her mother would think this was a bad idea. Her mother was in Arizona right now, helping sickly Aunt Betty, and she might be there for a few weeks yet, but five months? No way. Anxiety started to creep in to Jen’s mind. She groped around madly for something to say. Something to make her forget she was feeling anxious. “How do you know that Jerry? Do you know any cops?”
He came back to the table with some more breakfast and filled Sara’s plate. “I know a few. But I know that because it’s the same for all city jobs. First written test, then physical test if there is one, and then lie detector test if there is one. Prison guard, firefighter, and cop all have a physical test and a lie detector test.”
“What kind of stuff do they ask you?”
“On the lie detector? Easy stuff. How many times have you smoked pot, how many harder drugs have you done, have your ever hit a family member, have you ever stolen anything?”
“Oh,” Jen said quietly. That was an easy one. She hadn’t ever done any drugs or hit anyone or stolen anything. But somehow the thought of having to take a lie detector test to get a job scared her. “And the physical test? What’s that like?”
Jerry grinned. “It’s almost like a maze. You have to run a course and jump over stuff and through windows and drag weights and finish in a certain time. I know where they hold it. Want me to take you over there and run you through it? I could help you train for it. You’ll probably do well though - your muscles are pretty well-developed from surfing every day.”
Jen’s anxiousness evaporated. Jerry was going to help her. Jerry was going to support her. She laughed and gave him a one-armed hug while she finished her breakfast with the other hand. “Yeah - let’s go now!”
Chapter 4
Sergeant Hunter Foley scanned the metal bleachers, laughing at himself for doing so, even though that was exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He knew what, or rather who, he was looking for. The girl with the pink hair. He didn’t know her name. He didn’t even know if she’d passed the written test, although he guessed she probably did. He wouldn’t get a look at the applications and test scores until after today’s test was finished. But he liked to get a handle on the possible candidates before he knew their names and their test scores. Test scores alter your perceptions of someone. He’d learned that seven recruit classes ago.
Ever since that lesson he preferred to show up at the police applicant written test, and again at the physical test, and make a list of his possible candidates by watching them move and talk. Pulling police recruits out of recruit class and putting them undercover was dangerous. Very dangerous. And he didn’t want his decisions mucked up by how book-smart the recruit was. Because book-smarts almost never kept you alive in undercover work. Not looking and smelling like a cop kept you alive. The ability to think on your feet kept you alive. And even good old charm actually worked well in undercover work to keep you alive. That was something he never would have believed seven years ago when he had started doing this, but he’d seen it time and time again. If the criminal liked you, he was reluctant to think you were a cop.