Falling in Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

his hands out of his pockets and
making no sudden moves.
    Nice.
    She crouched way down and took a look
under the seats. She dropped the sun visors in case he had stuffed
anything up there. Nothing in the door pockets. There were no signs
or smell of alcohol. No pills, no mysterious containers…just that
smell. A lot of stale tobacco and a little bit of stale cold coffee
smell was there too, just to make it interesting. Her nose was
trained and experienced.
    She withdrew and went around to the
cruiser again as he stood in the cold. Her door thudded. Her
footsteps crunched over to him, her shadow large and looming. It
was all very dramatic. Their breathing sounded loud in the sudden
silence. The only sound other than their two idling engines was the
trucks six or eight kilometres over to the west.
    She handed him back his
papers.
    “ Sir, have you been
smoking marijuana?”
    “ Ah, yes, Constable.”
White vapor hung in front of his face.
    She was facing away from the wind and
it just whipped away.
    With the wind chill, they said it was
supposed to go down to minus twenty-five.
    “ Do you have any on
you?”
    “ No, Constable. I chucked
it.”
    “ You chucked it?
Where?”
    “ On the road.”
    She considered it.
    “ I can smell it in your
car.”
    “ Ah, yes, I know,
Constable.”
    “ I don’t like it when
people lie to me.”
    “ I wouldn’t lie to you,
Officer.”
    “ And you don’t have any on
you?”
    “ No, Ma’am.”
    “ All right, sir. Your
license plate bulb is burned out. That’s why I stopped
you.”
    The guy took a quick look, and found
it was true.
    “ I’m sorry. I didn’t know.
I probably have a spare in my toolbox.”
    “ Not too many people go
down that road. Especially at night.”
    He just nodded.
    “ How much marijuana have
you smoked?”
    “ I only had one joint,
Constable. I just lit up. Then I saw you go by. Your taillights
disappeared, and then I saw headlights, coming up where they had no
right to be. There was just no way. I knew it was you.”
    He kept looking at her,
blinking at more or less the expected rate… hmn.
    Nothing personal, it’s
just that I saw you coming.
    “ Okay. I’m going to ask
you to put your hands on the back of your vehicle. Lean forward.
Feet back. Feet farther apart. Back a bit more.” He was still
cooperating. “Hold still, please. I’m just going to check your
pockets. Do you have anything sharp in your pockets?’
    “ Um. No, Ma’am. Nothing
sharp in my pockets.”
    The man huddled there as she rummaged
around with her left hand, her tight hand on the butt of her Colt
and moving to one side or the other as necessary. Keeping an eye on
his face and posture, necessarily much of her search was by
feel.
    The keys were in the car, and the
wallet was on the seat. He didn’t have much on him, although he did
seem to have a lot of pockets.
    “ Nothing in your shoes,
sir?”
    “ Ah, no, Ma’am.” He seemed
resigned, not particularly resentful.
    His head turned and he gave her a
grin.
    That one came out of
nowhere.
    Spontaneity.
    Huh. I like it.
    “ All right, I’ll take your
word for it.” That grin said something about him,
anyway.
    She gave him back his cigarettes and
lighter. There were a few small coins. Nothing much.
    “ All right, sir. Get back
in your car and wait for me there, okay?” It was a standard ploy,
almost.
    The really dumb ones, the ones with
paper, or warrants, or restrictions on their bail, sometimes took
off. They knew they were going back to jail. There were the wild
spirits, and every town had a few of those, mostly young and
stupid, drunk or whatever, but this one wasn’t one of
them.
    She was pretty sure of
that.
    First impressions were often pretty
accurate.
    It wasn’t deliberate provocation as
long as they treated everyone the same way. It was their choice,
nothing more.
    She watched him get in and then she
sat in her car for a moment talking it over with
dispatch.
    Details, details. Other units didn’t
seem