Blair opened his wallet one more time and stared at the contents before closing it and putting it in his back pocket.
"That money isn't going to suddenly reappear, Chief."
"I can't believe she cleaned me out."
"I can't believe you staked all your money on that hand."
"It was a sure thing, man."
"Uh-huh."
"Hey, it was only thirty dollars."
"Your last thirty dollars before you check comes through."
"True."
"You could always use the hundred."
"Huh-uh. Don't have it."
"What happened to it?"
"It's a looooong story, man, you don't want to hear it."
Jim climbed into the truck and reached over to unlock the passenger door. When Blair got in and didn't continue the conversation, Jim sighed inwardly. Some days getting information out of the kid was like pulling teeth. In his peripheral vision, Jim saw Sandburg's knee bouncing up and down like a jackhammer. Jim waited until he'd pulled out of the parking garage before he said anything.
"C'mon, let's have it."
"Have what?"
Apparently Sandburg's brain had already moved on to greener pastures. "The hundred?"
"Oh, OK. Last week, I went out with Janie. She's a TA in the English department. She's got the most beautiful..." Sandburg glanced over at Jim and cleared his throat. "Anyway, she convinced me to go to this 'quaint little restaurant'. It's called Dom's."
"I've heard of it." Jim knew what was coming.
"Uh-huh," Blair nodded. "The place was so 'quaint' that I had to dig change out from under the seat cushions in the Volvo to pay the bill."
Jim shook his head.
"Janie ordered Lobster Thermidor. Poof!" Blair held his hands up and flicked his fingers out. "There went the hundred."
"I take it you two won't be picking out china patterns any time soon."
"Major understatement. She is totally aware of the kind of money I make. I think she'd be better off trolling for a business major." Blair changed the subject, "So what's the plan for today?"
"Go talk to Sam Ward about the jewelry heist last week. The DA needs some more background information before she tries for an indictment on the suspects."
"Can you drop me off at the University first?"
"What's the matter, Chief, not looking forward to talking to Mr. Ward again?"
Blair grinned. "Sorry, man. You know how I love prostate trivia, but I've got a lot of work to catch up on at my office."
Jim made a detour toward the university.
Blair laughed to himself.
"Voices in your head again, Chief?"
"Habañero glaze." Blair shook his head. "That was a thing of beauty."
"Mmmm."
"What, you don't think so?"
Jim shook his head. "Rafe and Brown overlooked two important things when they hatched their plan."
"Yeah?"
"One: Captain Bellows is a superior officer."
"Ouch. What's two?"
"He doesn't have a sense of humor."
Blair leaned back and closed his eyes. "Oh, man. They're toast."
"Uh-huh."
The radio crackled to life asked for any units in the vicinity of Elm Street to respond to a possible assault and attempted breaking and entering.
"That's only two blocks from here," Blair said.
"Radio dispatch and tell them we'll take it," Jim checked the traffic and did a U-turn.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
"Larry, look out!" Debra pulled her bleeding husband through the front door just as the baseball bat hit the window and caused shattered glass to fly everywhere.
She'd known her neighbor was a crude, nasty man, with no pride in his neighborhood, but she'd never expected this. He'd gone crazy when Larry had politely suggested he might want to pick up all the trash in his yard. Larry had even offered to help, saying that raccoons had probably gotten into it.
That was when Mr. Rice had started screaming obscenities and she'd run inside to call the police. While she was on the phone, her neighbor had come after Larry with a baseball bat. Now he was trying to get in.
Another blow of the bat splintered the mullions on the door. Debra shrieked as he reached through to unlock it.
Maybe reporting him to the Health Department had been a bad idea.