Faye Kellerman - Street Dreams

“See, I can behave myself.”

They walked to his Porsche. Again he opened the door for her. Cindy smiled at his courtly behavior and Decker smiled back, always the gentleman. After her father slid behind the wheel, she asked if she could borrow his cell phone, wanting to call Koby.

Decker didn’t start the motor right away.

“First things first. Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I’m fine, Loo.”

“Good.”

She waited for her father to fork over the phone. When he didn’t, she said, “Uh, can I have your cell now, please?”

“No.”

She had asked the question as a formality. “ No? ”

“No. Let him sleep.”

“Dad, he’s waiting for my phone call.”

“I’m sure he is. But if you call him, he’ll insist on seeing you. Right now, that’s not a good idea.”

Cindy waited for an explanation, but none came. Instead, Decker said, “What’s your status right now?”

“I have the day off.”

“It wasn’t out of charity,” Decker said. “They’re pulling you off active duty pending an investigation.”

“They want me to call in at noon.”

“Standard procedure.”

“What are they investigating? They don’t have the car; the license plates are stolen; no one checked into the hospital with gunshot wounds.”

“Not yet.”

Cindy was silent.

Decker said, “You were shot at, Cynthia, and you discharged your weapon. Or at least Koby did. Someone’s going to be checking out your story. So if you have something to add or subtract, now is the time to tell me.”

Leaning over, she kissed her father’s stubble-coated cheek. “I told them everything. I was completely straight with them other than the minor modification. So let them check me out.”

“You didn’t tail the car or try to stop it or-”

“No, no, no.” She was adamant. “I pulled over just to get the Nova’s license plate because the car was tailing me. I had planned to go back to the station house and run it through DMV. I didn’t try to apprehend anyone. I certainly didn’t instigate anything.”

“And they fired first?”

“That’s insulting, Dad.”

“I had to ask, Cynthia.”

“Yes, they fired first.”

“Then you should be fine.” Decker rubbed his neck and rolled his shoulders.

“Are we going?” Cindy asked.

Decker sidestepped the question. “You know, if Koby hadn’t fired back, it would have made your life simpler-”

“Dad, you weren’t there.”

“Just hear me out, okay?”

Livid, she sat back in the seat, arms crossed over her chest, immediately defensive and angry. But she kept her mouth shut. Decker knew she was listening with half an ear.

He said, “If he hadn’t fired back, it would have made your life simpler. Don’t interrupt, even though you’re dying to, all right?”

“I’m not interrupting! Go on!”

Decker said, “If he hadn’t fired your weapon, they wouldn’t have pulled you off duty. They would have just given you the day off, done a one-two inquiry, and that would have been that. Because no one in the opposing car could have possibly gotten hurt and there wouldn’t have been even the remotest possibility of a lawsuit… which now there is, of course. If someone got hurt, lots of questions are going to be asked, and guess whose derriere is in the hot seat?”

Cindy spoke through a clenched jaw. “He did the right thing!”

“Stop fuming! Why did he have to shoot?”

“Because we were under attack.”

“You couldn’t get away?”

“No, Dad, I couldn’t get away. That was the point! ”

“Would you have done the same thing if the positions had been reversed? Would you have shot at the Nova?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Yeah, I think I would have-”

“You think? ”

“I definitely would have, all right?”

“I hope you mean that. I hope you sincerely feel that that was the right way to fly. Because he bought you lots of hassle-”

“He did the right thing!” She turned to him, her face red and furious. “You know, maybe I will take a cab-”

“Stop-”

“I just dealt with those morons for four hours and I’m not in the mood for this garbage, okay?”

Decker held her arm. “You want to know what I think?”

“No, actually, I don’t want to know. But I’m sure I’m going to find out.”

“I know that Koby absolutely did the right thing. And I know why.” His eyes zoomed in on his daughter’s. “The question is… do you know why?”

Cindy glared at him. It was then that Decker noticed her eyes were wet. She wiped them and said, “I’m a little tired for a test right now. Get to the point.”

Decker shrugged. “If he hadn’t shot back, if he hadn’t reacted… nobody, and I mean nobody, would have wanted to work with you. They would have taken one look at his shot-out car and they’d all be thinking, what the hell was she doing while this was going down? Was she ducking while he was dodging bullets? What if that had been my ass behind the wheel? No one wants a partner who freezes.”

Cindy’s mouth opened. A moment later, she shut it.

Decker said, “He knew the cardinal rule, Cynthia. It’s better to be overreactive and alive than rational and dead. Do you know why he knew it?”

She looked away, waiting for him to continue.

“Because for that one brief moment, he was back in combat being hammered by the PLO or Hamas or Hezbollah or whatever terrorist organization they have over there. Your boyfriend understands survival-the mentality that says, It’s either you or me, buddy. Do you understand that mentality, Cindy?”

She took in her father’s eyes, but couldn’t quite hold them. “Probably not in the same way that you two do. But I think after my experiences last year, I’ve shown myself to be a good fighter.”

“Cynthia, you are as tough as they come. Like I told you, life has thrown you some bad curveballs, and you cope far better than I do. But you’re also a good girl. Compassion isn’t always the answer.”

“You think I’m sheltered.”

“Of course, you’re sheltered.”

“How can you say that after what happened to me?”

“Nobody could have survived what you did. I’m so damn…” Decker’s eyes turned moist. “Honey, all I’m saying is you need to recognize threat. You have to ask yourself, if you had been in Koby’s position, would you have ducked in the passenger’s seat or would you have taken out your gun and opened fire?”

“I gave him the gun, you know.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

She was quiet, giving the question some honest thought. “The best I can come up with is I’m almost positive I would have done the same thing. Fair enough?”

“Fair enough.”

“Now can I have the phone, please?”

“No, you can’t.” Again he drilled into her eyes. “Koby’s bought you a whole lot of goodwill.”

“So let me call and thank him.”

“No, because right now, I’m going to buy you a set of balls.”

Silence. Cindy blinked, staring at her father. “I’ve done okay for twenty-eight years without them. What on earth do you have in mind?”

Decker answered her question by starting the Porsche. It roared, then purred. He peeled rubber, going south onto Wilton until he hit Olympic. Then he went east toward downtown L.A. “Somebody tried to kill you, Cynthia. Aren’t you curious?”

She didn’t answer. The question was rhetorical.

Decker said, “Am I correct in assuming that you still have no idea who perpetrated the hit-and-run against Belinda Syracuse?”