Page 34 of Jethro

Carter folded his hands the way his lawyer had taught him before depositions. He had rehearsed this for eleven hours. He was very good at sounding worried.

"I'll be honest, Chief. Aurora and I haven't always been close. But she's my little girl, and when she called to say she'd married a man we'd never even heard of, well. I'm sure you can imagine."

Bennett said nothing. Across the diner, the bearded giant turned a page.

"So, I asked around, and what I heard has kept me up at night. There's talk he's been taking pain medication from his ambulance. I don't blame him, after the war. But a man dependent on those pills shouldn't be beside my daughter in a burning building." Mike said nothing. He gave no head nods, no notion that he was listening at all.

"And there's more," Carter went on. "A temper. Drinking. Gambling debts, maybe. And then he marries a young woman who's just come into an inheritance. In secret. You see how that looks."

"I see how you'd like it to look," Bennett said mildly.

"I'm only asking that someone look into it. Quietly. A drug test. A transfer to another shift. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to her."

"That's a lot of hearing, Mr. Langley." Mike stared directly at the man and noticed the fine bead of sweat beginning at his hairline. "You've heard he steals pills, drinks, gambles, and fights. That's a whole lot of hearing for a man who found out your son-in-law existed a few days ago."

Carter swallowed, half thinking he might just stand and leave. This was not going as smoothly as he’d hoped.

"So, let's start with the pills. Who told you?"

"I'd rather not say. I don't want to get anyone in trouble." Mike continued to glare at him.

"Someone in my department?"

"I... Well. Someone with knowledge of the situation." Carter was stumbling over his words, not something he typically did.

"Which ambulance?" asked Mike, taking a sip of his coffee. Carter blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"You said he's been stealing from the ambulance he works on. Which one? We run three units out of the station."

"I don't know the number of the..." Carter cleared his throat. "The one he's assigned to, I'd imagine."

"Medic Two," Bennett said. "Double-locked narcotics box. Counted by two people every shift change and checked every week. His counts have never been off by a single tablet."

"Well, records can be... Things get missed... I didn't mean..." Carter reached for the coffee he hadn't ordered and found his hand was not quite steady.

"He's also been drug tested at random six times," Bennett said. "Six clean results."

"Chief, I don't think I need to be cross-examined for being concerned about my own child."

"You came to my town and accused one of my firefighters of a felony, Mr. Langley. I'm asking what any decent chief would ask before he ruins a man's career." Bennett's voice had not risen at all. Carter knew he was in deep shit. This man wasn’t just some uneducated, blue-collar worker. A firefighter. A firefighter was getting the best of him.

"Let's try an easier one," Bennett said. "What shift does Aurora work?"

"She... The same as his, I believe. My wife mentioned it."

"B shift. Twenty-four on, forty-eight off. What station is she out of?"

"Station... I don't recall the number."

"When was the last time you saw her? In person." Mike was waiting for this one and he knew that Jethro was as well.

"That's... It's been a while. She's very busy. We're all very busy."

"Did you know she was hurt in the recent warehouse fire earlier this month? Two nights in the local hospital.” Mike knew it wasn’t the truth. He knew she’d only been in the hospital because of her flashbacks. But Carter didn’t know that. “Know who sat beside her bed every one of those nights?" Carter's mouth had gone dry.

"I wasn't informed."