Ridley Pearson - Middle Of Nowhere

"Damn right."

"So are they," he said, indicating the interrogation room.

"Every right to be."

He sighed. "Yeah. Well I'm whipped. Give an 'old man' a ride home? They confiscated the Crown Vic. I'm without wheels."

He won a partial smile from her. "Old man?" she quoted.

"Pendegrass called me that."

"So blowing out his knee was generous of you."

"Damn right." He added, "More like lucky, I suppose. I'm not very good prone like that."

"You're pretty good prone," she said, pursing her lips and letting him know that they could still tease. The kiss had been forgotten. Or at least wiped away.

She tapped her purse.

Boldt missed the message. He said, "Are we going?"

She clicked the purse open. Inside was a black plastic rectangle. A videotape. She explained, "I kicked the Pendegrass home, ahead of SID, as soon as I got John's call. I looked everywhere. Turned the place upside down. Couldn't find it."

"Then what's that?" he asked.

"Bernie Lofgrin says that you owe him your original Chet Baker, the one's that's autographed." It was a 1957, original vinyl in perfect condition, one of the prizes of Boldt's jazz collection. Small change, Boldt thought. "He says that he doesn't want to know what's on the tape, and that as far as he's concerned there never was a tape."

"His guys found it."

"They make these books with fake leather bindings that aren't books at all, but hold videotapes in your bookshelf. His guys found it in the bedroom while I was out searching the garage. Lofgrin brought it to me, as lead on the search and seizure, and I had to tell him.. tell him what I thought it was… before he put it onto the inventory. Lou, I've never done anything like this." She passed it to Boldt.

He held the tape in his hand. His reputation. Possibly the end of his career on Homicide. He couldn't be sure. And then he handed it back to her. "We return it to Bernie right now while there's still time, and he puts it into the inventory," he told her. "I'll give him that album anyway… just because he was willing to go that far."

Tears formed in her eyes as she looked up at him. She nodded. This was what she wanted to hear.

He said, "It isn't us… doing something like this. And besides, Pendegrass will mention the tape… it's going to come out. The best thing we can do is stand up to it. Sheila Hill is ultimately the one to decide if our relationship compromises her department, and she's been in a few compromising positions herself. You don't need to know about that. She'll go light on us, believe me."

The tears spilled down her cheek. Tears of joy, he hoped.

"Am I allowed to say I love you?" she whispered.

"Hell, no," he said, offering her his hand and extricating her from the chair, "but that kind of thing goes both ways, so you be careful."

"Yes, sir."

"That's better," he said, touching her in the small of the back and aiming her toward the elevator. He couldn't do the stairs in the cast. It would be a while until he could do the stairs again. "Look at us. A pair of gimps."

"Yes," she said, laughing through her tears, "a pair of gimps."