“Hell yes,” he said. “Go home and get a good night’s sleep for once.” With that, Rodney turned with a smirk and walked back to his car.
She looked to Simon. “We can catch a ride with him, if you want.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It might be easier to grab a taxi.”
“Not with the traffic jam we’ve got going on here.” But, as she turned to look around, traffic was moving again, and a cab pulled up beside them.
“Like I said,” Simon said, pointing at the cab, “let’s take this.” He opened up the passenger side, and the two of them hopped in. He looked at the same cabbie from before and nodded.
The cabbie just shook his head and said, “I don’t know what’s going on, man.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just take me home,” he said. “There’s a big tip in it for you. I promise.”
At that, the cabbie’s face split into a big grin. “In that case, home it is.”
Honestly, Simon didn’t think he’d heard better words in a hell of a long time.
Chapter 21
Kate’s Friday Morning
When Kate walkedinto work the next morning, she’d already got a statement from Simon. They did that last night over coffee to get all of their impressions down on paper first.
“That was a hell of a deal last night,” Rodney said.
“Yeah, it was,” she said, yawning.
“Did you get any sleep?”
She gave him a sideways look. “Some.”
“Good job!” he said, with a ridiculous grin.
“What are you? Fifteen?” she said, rolling her eyes. They both filled their cups with coffee and walked back into the squad room, where they were met with cheers.
She laughed. “That was a hell of a night.”
“More great news,” Lilliana said. “Our drive-by shooter confessed. That is worth a lot too.”
Kate sat back, relaxed and happy, and said, “As for the bad news, we’ve got a ton of paperwork to do to clean all this up. But I’d much rather do the paperwork to put them away, than the guesswork to figure them out,” she said, then yawned.
Just then, Colby walked in, nodded at her, and said, “Good job.”
“Thanks,” she said, and once again yawned.
He looked at her and said, “You could go home and get some rest, you know.”
“I could,” she said, “but I figured the details on these reports needed to get recorded, while they were still fresh, and we could get as much down as possible.”
“Good thought,” he said, “but, when you’re done, go ahead and take a few days.”
“I won’t say no to that,” she said. “I’m too damn tired.”
He grinned and said, “Well, no reason to say no. Just get the reports done up and then get the hell out of here.”
She smiled, nodded, and said, “Those are orders I can accept.” And, with that, she finished up her paperwork, and by noon she had handed off as much as she could to the others and said, “I’m out of here for a couple days.”
Outside she stood in front of the station, stared up at the blue sky and the sunshine, and rotated her neck and shoulders, trying to let out some of the stress of the last few days. As she stood here, she heard a whistle. She turned to see Simon, walking toward her, two cups of coffee in his hands.