Old World Murder - Kathleen Ernst [109]
“Maybe I actually like working for the Eagle PD. Did that ever occur to you?”
“Name one thing about a part-time job in Eagle that’s better than your career in Milwaukee,” she said quietly. “Just one.”
“Here’s one. The first time I saluted the chief, he told me to cut the crap.” Roelke folded his arms. “He talks with me, not at me. Want another reason? I’ve yet to meet a mother in Eagle who’s taught her kids to hate anyone in uniform because cops put their daddy in prison. Want another? When a man calls the station in tears after I’ve just hauled his wife up to detox for the fifth time, I actually have time to talk with him. To help him.”
“OK,” Libby said.
“So cut the I’m-wiser-than-you bullshit.” He pulled the kettle from the stove and poured steaming water into two mugs. “I mean it, Libs. I’m sick of it.”
“O-kay,” she said. “I get it.”
“Eagle is a good fit for me.” Roelke rummaged in his cupboard until he found a box of herbal orange spice tea. He sat down across from his cousin. The tea steeped in silence.
“It’s the little things,” he said finally. “I do a lot of little things that no one ever sees, or even knows about, but they make Eagle safer. And if that makes me some kind of a lesser cop in your eyes—”
“I never said that,” Libby protested.
“You might as well have.”
“Look, I’m sorry.” Libby put a hand over his. “I was wrong, OK? I was wrong.”
On Monday morning, Chloe stopped first at Ed House. When she arrived at the trailer, she found the expected summons from Ralph taped to the door: COME TO MY OFFICE. Chloe got back into her car and drove to the administration building.
“Thank you for coming in,” Ralph said stiffly, when she knocked on his door. He indicated a chair. She took it.
Ralph regarded her. “Shall I be frank, Ms. Ellefson?”
“You might as well.” All Chloe wanted was to get this done with.
“In the short time that you have been an employee at Old World Wisconsin, you have persistently ignored my directives. You have exhibited a complete disregard for my authority. You were disrespectful in the staff meeting.”
He waited, perhaps giving her time for rebuttal, but she had nothing to say. It was all true.
“I asked repeatedly for a preliminary plan for a collections storage facility, and you refused to comply. I had a donor waiting. She had money to give, and she needed to give it quickly.”
Well hell, Chloe thought irritably, why didn’t you share that little tidbit earlier? “I didn’t know that.”
“You didn’t need to know that.”
She shifted in her chair, trying to ease the strain on her thigh. So much for getting this over with quickly.
Ralph tented his fingers. “When I went to Madison last week, I met with the division administrator and Leila. I made a clear case for firing you. The administrator authorized me to do so.”
Chloe nodded. She wanted to get through this final exchange with some shred of dignity. She had nothing else left.
“If you had not called in sick on Thursday, I would have fired you first thing in the morning.”
“I wasn’t shirking,” she observed mildly. “The ER doctor told me to stay home for a couple of days after—after what happened.”
“Yes. ‘What happened.’” Ralph’s mouth twisted with distaste. “As I understand it, ‘what happened’ was a direct result of you ignoring my instructions to stop looking for the ale bowl.”
Oh for God’s sake, Chloe thought. Just cut to the chase. “Look, if—”
“However.” Ralph leaned back in his chair. “Your escapade at Kvaale, and the recovery of the ale bowl, has generated a lot of publicity. The division administrator called me Friday afternoon. He is having second thoughts about firing you.”
Chloe raised her eyebrows, trying to wrap her brain around that unexpected announcement.
“Ms. Ellefson. Do you wish to remain employed at Old World Wisconsin?”
Chloe thought of the cramped trailers and of sandhill cranes calling as they flew overhead, of the crushing backlog of collections work and of the taste of heavy rye bread still warm from its brick bakeoven. “Yes,” she heard herself say. “I guess I do.”
Ralph’s gaze was stony.