Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [28]
“Sounds like me and my brother looking for parts for the 1969 Mustang we restored together. We’d go to swap meets and car shows searching for parts. So, yeah, I know about the fun of the hunt.”
She suspected looking for car parts wasn’t Logan’s only hunt. He went after what he wanted. Sometimes that was a good thing. Sometimes it wasn’t.
“Anyway,” she continued, “our friendship just got deeper after graduation. She got her teaching degree. I got my library degree. We started our first jobs in our new professions. There was this cop who used to stop by the library where I worked. He was funny and nice and we became friends. But there was no chemistry between us. So I recommended that he meet my best friend, Wendy. Sure enough, they hit it off and began dating. They got married a year later. They had a baby girl a year after that.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that he abused her. Verbally at first. Then physically. He terrified her. Warned her that if she called the police, they wouldn’t do anything. And he was right. They refused to help. They looked the other way. His buddies at the precinct were all on his side, blaming Wendy for being a bad wife, for not understanding the stresses he was under.” Megan paused, trying to get her residual anger under control. Her emotions were so close to the surface right now, not just because of Wendy but also because of what Megan had been through in the past twenty-four hours and the fact that she hadn’t gotten any sleep. “She was afraid to tell me. I couldn’t understand why she’d cancel our get-togethers. I thought she was just busy with the baby and her new life. I had no idea what was going on until she showed up out of the blue on my doorstep with her daughter and nothing but her purse and the clothes on their backs. Wendy had a black eye and a loose front tooth.”
Megan took a deep breath before admitting. “I felt so guilty.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the one who introduced her to the bastard.”
“Did he abuse her when they were dating?” Logan asked.
“No, not at all.”
“Then how could you have known?”
“I should have picked up on something. He blamed Wendy for setting him off. Then afterward he’d be all apologetic and say it would never happen again. But it did. She was afraid to tell anyone. Afraid they wouldn’t believe her because everyone said what a great guy he was. And she was also afraid for their safety, because he’d make threats about what he and his buddies on the force would do if she ever tried to leave him or tell anyone.”
“He sounds like a real bastard. You should blame him, not the entire force.”
“Come on. You know spousal abuse is a problem among law enforcement,”
“A few rotten apples ...”
“It wasn’t a few rotten apples. It’s the mentality that cops are special. Special allowances are made for them. And alcohol didn’t help matters any. I don’t have to tell you about the us-versus-them mentality that is so pervasive. You’re not denying that, are you?”
“You have to understand that it’s hard to realize what the job is like unless you’ve done it yourself. That’s why cops stick together.”
“The only thing I understand is that there is an underlying violence in them that can be unleashed on the people they claim to love.”
“Look, I don’t deny that cops are exposed to violence on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean they’re all abusers. Plenty of bankers, lawyers and doctors are guilty of domestic violence too.”
“The difference is that cops are used to giving orders and having them obeyed. They are control freaks.”
“There’s too damn much we can’t control,” he said bitterly. “I only wish we could. Maybe then ...”
She saw the darkness flickering in his eyes. She knew anguish when she saw it. Her voice softened. “Maybe then what?”
“Things might be different.”
“Things? What kind of things?”
“All kinds of things.”
“Care to be more specific than that?”
“Not really.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “What happened to your friend?”
“She’s safe now.”
“And?”
“And that’s all I’m saying.”
“You don’t trust me.” It wasn’t a question.
“Not with her information,