“I’m sorry, I have a situation here. If you could just wait—”
But Miss INeedaJump was apparently out of patience. “Listen, I’m not trying to break up your little chitchat—”
“I paid for the soda!”
Kirsten’s indignant outburst captured his undivided attention. “Soda?” Senses tingling, Lang turned his questioning gaze back to his date. Sure enough, a bottle of diet soda dangled from her fingers. “I thought you said you wanted a pack of gum.”
“She stole the gum. I saw her put it in the pocket of her coat. The value pack. Not the regular size.” Max added the last bit as if it would up the charge.
Lang glared at Kirsten, determined to get to the bottom of this mess. “You stole a pack of gum but paid for a soda?”
“She has done it before, Detective. That is how I knew to let Elena cover the register when this woman came into my store.” Max’s grip tightened on Kirsten’s elbow and she let out a yelp.
Lang disengaged the other man’s hand and replaced it with his own. “I’ve got her.”
The woman with the dead battery cast a glance at the rapidly emptying parking lot. His distressing damsel swallowed hard as she took in the semi-sketchy area. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but do you have jumper cables I can use or not?”
Lang paused for a moment, watching with detached fascination as their fellow patrons scattered like rats abandoning ship at the first sign of trouble. He glanced down, trying to come up with the right words to reassure her. Instead, he fixated on the way the woman’s pinkie toe poked through a hole in her canvas tennis shoe.
“I demand that you arrest this woman.” Max said. “I wish to press charges.”
Any chance for a pleasant evening deflated the moment he recognized the adamancy in the other man’s tone. First generation Americans harbored a firm and abiding belief in their adopted country’s judicial system, the kind of faith bred out of their native-born countrymen long ago. He turned to Max and made a last-ditch run at reason.
“It was a pack of gum. How about she pays you for the gum—” he held up a hand to stave off another round of protests, “—plus a reasonable sum of restitution? Maybe, twenty dollars?” He cast a questioning glance in Kirsten’s direction in time to see her jaw drop.
“Twenty dollars?” She gaped at him as if he’d sprouted a second head. “It was only a pack of gum.”
“Aha! You admit that you took it!” Max crowed. “You heard her.” Spinning on his heel, he pinned Jumper-Cable Girl to the spot with an overly exuberant jab of his finger and a triumphant smile. “You are a witness. She confessed to stealing from my store.”
Lang groaned, pressing his hand to the top of his head as he dropped his chin to his chest. His hair was slick, completely soaked through with sleet. Icy pellets were beginning to accumulate on his shoulders and seep into the weave of his suit coat. Ridges of slush formed around the toes of his leather shoes.
Lifting his head just enough, he fixed Kirsten with a flat stare. “Turn your pockets inside out.”
“But—”
“Do it.” The demand slithered between his clenched teeth. The air stilled around them as Kirsten ducked her head and did as he asked. Sure enough, a mega-pack of strawberry gum landed in the slush at her feet, and Lang’s hopes of waking up from this nightmare were whipped away by the winter wind. “Shit.”
“I am pressing charges of thievery.” Max practically vibrated with justification. “Please, take this woman to the jail, Detective. I will let Elena know I will return once we have the charges in place.”
Lang sighed, his fate sealed by the evidence at the tips of his toes. His New Year’s Eve was over, and his date hadn’t even begun.
Chapter Two
More than ready to exit this little melodrama stage left, Jessica plunged her hands into the pockets of her mother’s parka but came up empty. Her gut twisted as she realized her cell phone was hooked up to its charger, which was plugged in behind the coffeepot on her mother’s kitchen counter. Back in the land of plaid couches, tofu and no internet. Not even the wired kind.
Wrapping herself in the cloak of oblivion preferred by urbanites everywhere, she turned to the store’s owner and changed tactics. “Can I use your telephone? I’ll just call a cab and get out of your way.”
“No public telephone.” The beaming little man didn’t even miss a beat before whipping that old standby out of his bag of tricks. “Detective, take your prisoner away.”
“Max, I’m not a patrol cop. This isn’t my call.” Detective TallDarkandCableless was still wrangling the alleged gum thief.
“You wouldn’t arrest me.” Blondie’s lip trembled, but her voice was soft and low and laced with the confidence girls born pretty never had to earn. “We’ll miss the party.”
Jessica stared at Officer Galahad’s profile, curious to see how he’d react to the entreaty. His jaw tightened and a tiny muscle jumped just below his ear. She had to give him credit for the look of disgust that flitted across his handsome face when Bubble Gum Barbie slipped her fingers under the lapel of his coat. Instead of melting into a puddle of IWannaGetLaid, he took a step back, effectively and efficiently dislodging her hand.
Hugging the hideous coat even tighter, Jessica thanked God for its down-filled warmth. Tiny lacewings fluttered in her stomach, but she ignored them. This was New Year’s Eve. In just a few hours this craptastic year would be over and a bright, shiny new one would start. She just needed to make it through midnight.
Detective Delicious turned stormy gray eyes in her direction and the busted zipper on the hideous coat shot to the top of Mount WhyMe. She hadn’t realized the parka wouldn’t close until her mission was well underway. If she’d known, she would have put on a bra at the very least. If she’d really felt like dressing for the holiday, she might have swapped the Hello Kitty T-shirt she’d slept in the previous night for the clean, fresh Betty Boop one perched atop the stack of laundry piled on her dresser.
Jessica drew a steadying breath and tuned back into the conversation as the guy called Max launched into a tirade about police response times, the character of the area patrol officers, and their lack of sympathy for his plight. The two men finished the debate when Shoplifting Sally oh-so-casually alluded to the fact that it was indeed New Year’s Eve and the chances of scaring up a patrol free enough to haul a gum charge into the station were somewhere between slim and none. Sadly for her, the argument seemed to sway her date to the opposing team’s side. Jessica had started to inch away from the discussion when Detective Delish threw his hands up in surrender.
“Fine. Make sure you tell Elena you’ll be a few hours and call your son in for backup.” The good detective’s lips thinned into a firm line as he peered at the dark-haired woman manning the cash register. “She shouldn’t be alone here tonight.” He fixed the store’s owner with a hard stare. “This is going to take some time, and I can promise you, your complaint will be bumped to the back of the line. You will not be a priority tonight. I can almost guarantee it. You understand me?” The shorter man nodded eagerly.
Shocked by the abrupt turn of events, Jessica turned to the detective. “Before you go, can I borrow your cell? I left mine at home. I thought I was only running out for a minute.” It never occurred to her that picking up the essentials for a New Year’s Eve party for one would prove to be such a pain in the ass. “I’ll just call a cab to get me home. I can pick my car up tomorrow.”