She smiled at him in the dark. “No. I’m good,” she said.
She heard Brady unbuckling his belt, throwing clothes over a chair, saying he was “gonna hose off the day.” When he came back, naked and damp, he said, “Scooch over a few,” and got under the covers. He took Yuki into his arms.
“You smell good,” he said.
“I soaked for an hour in lemongrass and citrus. I have to do that more often.”
Brady said, “I heard a rumor that your case collapsed. Lindsay told me. Don’t be mad at her.”
“It’s okay. I was going to call you but figured I’d catch you in the middle of something.”
“I deserve that. But you know how it is.”
“Not really, Brady.”
She pushed away from him, creating a foot of distance between them. “I don’t know. So why don’t you fuckin’ tell me?”
“I will. You go first,” he said. “Your case. What happened? Are you going to be all right with it?”
“Nope, no way, no chance. I’ve reached the end of my patience, Brady. Tell me what’s going on with you or hit the couch until further notice.”
He rolled onto his back, thumped the pillows into his desired support level, and said, “I’m sorry, Yuki. I couldn’t tell you anything. I was under a mayor-mandated Chinese wall. Politics played a part in this. And the immediate future of my job and the direction of the SFPD are under scrutiny, and have been for the last three months.”
He turned to face her. “You understand where I’m going?”
“Not at all,” she said. “I lost my decoder ring.”
“Ice cream,” he said. “If I’m going to break my solemn oath to the brass, I’m doing it while eating butter pecan.”
CHAPTER 97
BRADY ROLLED OUT of bed, and Yuki’s mood dramatically shifted, from fear of a broken marriage to alarm for her husband.
What could have affected his job as well as the entire police department?
Was Brady in trouble? Had he gotten embroiled in some kind of scandal? Was he being tried by the deep state of Internal Affairs? Beyond that, she just couldn’t imagine.
Brady returned to their bedroom with a bowl of ice cream, handed her one of the two spoons, and got under the covers.
Yuki gripped his forearm with her free hand. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Okay,” he sighed. “Here it is. The whole ugly mess. Remember last year when a half dozen cops in Robbery disgraced the department?”
“Sure,” Yuki said. “A gang of them were holding up check-cashing places and Western Union outlets.”
“That’s right. Citizens were killed, bunch of them. And while these dirtbags were robbing cash stores, they also robbed a major drug kingpin’s distribution depot.”
“Kingfisher. I remember all of it, but how does this figure into your job?”
“It figures into Jacobi’s job.”
“Jacobi?”
?
?That Robbery crew was a scandal. God punished most of them, but that’s really not enough. Someone in the hierarchy of the SFPD has to take the fall for a division full of corrupt cops. Head of the crew is locked up for life. Head of Robbery was let go, but that’s not really enough.”
“So you’re saying that this is going to fall on the chief?”