Chapter 2 - Hayes Had Read My File Before I Ever Met Him
The class was dismissed.
Not officially.
Hayes simply looked at Lieutenant Palmer and said, “Take them inside.”
Everyone started moving except me.
“I’m staying.”
Hayes put his jacket back on.
“No.”
“You know my mother.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Not here.”
The stranger remained beside the SUV.
His face was still blocked by the angle and afternoon glare.
I pointed at him.
“He knows her too.”
Hayes said nothing.
That infuriated me.
“You recognized my name.”
“Yes.”
“And still let me walk into class without saying anything.”
“You were a trainee.”
“What was I supposed to be?”
Hayes glanced toward the stranger.
“That's what I’m trying to understand.”
The words made me laugh.
“I’m Jake Miller.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that like it explains something.”
Hayes finally looked directly at me.
“Your mother told me twenty-two years ago that if she ever had a son, she hoped he stayed away from police work.”
That hit harder than the patrol car.
My mother knew I was in the academy.
She hadn't loved the idea.
But she had never said that.
“When did you last talk to her?”
Hayes didn’t answer.
The stranger did.
“Longer ago than he should be proud of.”
Hayes’s head turned sharply.
“Enough.”
The man ignored him.
“You asked where he learned the control.”
“Yes.”
“Ask your mother.”
I took one step toward him.
“Who are you?”
Hayes moved between us.
Not threatening.
Final.
“Inside, Miller.”
I laughed.
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“Jake.”
First name.
That somehow made everything worse.
Before I could answer, a black sedan pulled up near the administration building.
A deputy chief stepped out.
Raymond Voss.
Every trainee knew him.
Academy commander twenty years earlier.
Now deputy chief over training and professional standards.
He looked at Hayes.
Then at the stranger.
And stopped walking.
That told me more than anyone had.
Voss knew him.
Voss did not want him there.
“What is this?” Voss asked.
The stranger finally stepped around the SUV.
I caught only the side of his jaw before Hayes blocked my view again.
“State review.”
Voss’s face hardened.
“There is no scheduled state review.”
“There is now.”
Hayes looked at him.
“Thomas.”
A name.
Finally.
The man said:
“Captain Hayes.”
Thomas what?
I still didn't know.
Voss walked closer.
“Walter, take your trainee inside.”
My trainee.
Like I was suddenly part of a problem instead of a class.
I refused to move.
Voss looked at my shirt.
MILLER.
He went quiet.
There it was again.
Recognition.
“Dana’s boy?”
I hated the phrase immediately.
“What did my mother do here?”
Voss looked at Hayes.
Hayes looked at Thomas.
Nobody looked at me.
I snapped.
“I’m standing right here.”
Thomas answered from behind Hayes.
“Your mother taught this academy something it spent twenty-two years pretending came from somebody else.”
I stared at Walter.
He did not deny it.
Then Voss said:
“That is not what happened.”
Thomas replied:
“Good. Then you won’t mind me reopening the tape.”
Walter closed his eyes.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“What tape?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Ask Captain Hayes why your mother’s name was cut out of the training record.”
Walter’s face changed.
May you like
Not because the accusation was false.
Because I had heard it.
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