Chapter 16

Osborn and I left the gym at 9pm. We both were absolutely exhausted. She followed me to the pub for dinner. Juanita had made a giant taco salad from which she dished a bowl of stuff for each of us.

I had a dark beer and the salad, while Osborn had a bowl of the salad and a diet coke. "What's up with the diet coke?" I asked.

"I'd like to have a body a little more like yours, than like mine," she said.

"You have to be kidding. Didn't you see how those guys looked at you. They looked at you like you were a bowl of crack cocaine," I said.

"Yeah I noticed, but gang bangers are not my type, not even reformed ones," she said.

"Who told you they had reformed. Those guys are the same ones you are going to meet out there while you are working. You better earn their respect, or one day you will have to fight them." I said. "Damn this taco salad is good.

"You have me working out in a gym filled with gang bangers who hate cops," she said.

"Yeah, kind of elegant isn't it?" I asked.

"You are out of your mind," she said with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah but you will find it easier to go to that gym next time, than you would to walk into a crowd on a street corner. Then one day it will be as easy to walk into crowd on the street corner, as it is to walk into that gym," I said.

"Jeremy could I have a draft please, make it a Michelob," Osborn said. She didn't look anything but angry. That she would get over I knew.

After dinner, and the one beer we headed out in different directions. I went home and cued up some porn on the computer. Yeah it was girl on girl porn, but I did not have any plans to mess with Osborn.

I slept okay but I set the clock for five. The days were getting longer so I planned to run early and hit the gym later. I called Osborn planning to leave a message, but to my surprise she was awake. "I'm headed out to run, if you can wake up enough come on over to the track," I said.

"I'll meet you there," she answered.

I got to the field and noted her car but no Osborn. I took my water and towel over to the bleachers and left them beside hers. I waited and caught her as she came around. "How long you been running," I asked.

"I should say two laps, but only one," she said as she passed me. I ran to catch up and then continued on with her. I ran at my own speed and let her run at hers. Of course I got my five laps in running and even managed to walk one more before she completed five.

"When are we going to that stinky old gym?" she asked.

"Are you going to make your 7AM start time?" I asked.

"I will have to hurry but I live close. I can shower even," she informed me.

"Well I will have time for a quick shower and breakfast before I go in to work. I'll bring you a biscuit if you swing by the station at 8:30," I said.

"I took the shower and dressed in what had become my uniform. A green tee shirt baggy fatigue pants with lots of pockets and a utility jacket. To hide the pistol and to give me even more pockets. It was a fairly cool uniform temperature wise. Of course I soaked the tee shirt within the first hour, but even that tended to help keep me cool.

I stopped by Hardee's in the plaza. I ordered at the drive through in order to save a few minutes. I had three coffees and three bacon egg and cheese biscuits all in one bag. Okay the coffee was in one of those hazardous carrying cartons. But it was all in the floor on the passenger side of the truck. I still hadn't bothered to take the Sheriff's car. If I needed to be official, I planned to just get a ride with someone around the station who had a marked car.

When I did arrive at the station, I went directly down to the basement lab. It was there that I unpacked the food and coffee. I also placed a call to let Mrs. West explaining where I was. Osborn was already sitting with Wilson. Wilson was telling her all about his latest discovery.

"Okay why don't you fill the sheriff in before you fill in the junior detective?" I asked only have seriously upset.

"I found an online bank statement for Lucy Martinez. Her family might have been struggling but Lucy had a rather large bank account. So I followed the money," he said.

"Of course you did, so where was she getting it?" I asked.

"That I'm afraid is for you to figure out Sheriff. I will tell you this, it is considerably more than she would be expected to make as a nanny," he said.

"Let's assume for the moment that she was an exceptional nanny," I said. "And we will keep this quiet and on a need to know basis?"

"Yes sheriff," they both agreed.

Money always threw a nasty twist into the mix. Where there was too much money, there was suspicious behavior. "Osborn we need to find out where Lucy went the night she died. Any ideas?" I asked directly since she hadn't volunteered any of her online discoveries.

"Not exactly, her face book account mentioned a place in Abbottsville," Osborn suggested. "She was inviting people on her facebook page to come to a club to see her. I have no idea what club, or if she was there that night. Just that she mentioned it a few other nights as well."

"Well the person to ask is Ellie, but only if we can get her away from her dad," I suggested.

"That would be illegal," Osborn said.

"More like unprofessional. Now my two computer geeks, find out where Ellie hangs out," I demanded. Then I left to man the office, issue some statements, and a few management decisions. One of those decisions was to fill an empty patrol slot.