“I already had a drink,” John said. “This is number two.”
“Come anyway. We’ll just be a minute, Billie.”
From my office in the attic, I could still hear the music muted through the floor. I recognized Dr. Kayla’s laugh amid the indistinct thrum of party voices.
Sampson leaned against the wall. “You wanted to see me, sir? In your office?”
He had on a funny T-shirt from his basketball team in the older men’s league at St. Anthony’s. It said, “Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.”
“I didn’t want to mix work with the party,” I said.
“But you can’t help yourself.” Sampson grinned. “Can you?”
“I’m not home for too long. I have to go back to L.A., and I don’t want to wait on this anymore.”
“Well, that’s a good hook,” he said. “What’s the pitch? Let’s hear it.”
“Basically? Director Burns and I want you to think seriously about coming to work at the Bureau. We want you to make the move, John. Were you expecting it?” I asked.
He laughed. “More or less, of course. You’ve been hinting around enough. Burns looking to blackify the Bureau, sugar?”
“No. Not that I’d mind.”
What Burns wanted at the Bureau was more agents who knew the value of fieldwork, and people he could trust, his team. If I could recruit only one person, I’d told him, John Sampson would be my first choice. That was good enough for Burns.
“I’ve already got the go-ahead from the director’s office,” I said. “Ron Burns wants the same things I do. Or maybe it’s the other way around.”
“You mean he wants me?” Sampson asked.
“Well, we couldn’t get Jerome or Rakeem, or the crossing guard at the Sojourner Truth school. So yeah, he’ll settle for you.”
Sampson laughed loudly, one of my favorite sounds. “I miss you, too,” he said. “And believe it or not, I have an answer. I want you to come back to the Washington PD. How’s that for turnaround? You’re right about one thing—we do have to get back together. One way or the other. I guess I vote for the other.”
I couldn’t help laughing out loud, too; then John and I banged closed fists, agreeing that we needed to work together again, one way or the other.
I told Sampson that I’d think about his surprising proposal, and he said he’d think about mine, too. Then Sampson swung open the office door and let in the music from downstairs.
Chapter 78
“ARE WE ALLOWED to have a drink now?” said Sampson. “It’s a party, sugar. You do remember parties?”
“Vaguely,” I said.
Two minutes later, I had a beer in one hand and a rib dripping homemade barbecue sauce in the other. I found Jannie and Damon in the dining room playing Thirteen with a cousin of theirs, Michelle, and Kayla Coles. To be honest, though, it was Kayla who drew me over.
“Are you ignoring our guests?” I asked the kids.
“Not these two,” Jannie deadpanned, with a nod to Kayla and Michelle.
“No, they’re whipping my butt too much to be ignoring me,” Kayla said, sending Jannie and Damon into conspiratorial laughs. There it was again. A woman and my kids, getting along. What was it about that? What was I missing?
I gave Dr. Kayla a long look as she shuffled and dealt the cards. She was incredibly grounded, and good-looking without trying to be. The thing of it was, I liked her. I’d liked Kayla for a long, long time, ever since we were kids growing up in Southeast. And so?
“You looking at my cards?” she asked, breaking through my reverie, or whatever it was supposed to be.
“Not at your cards,” Jannie broke in. “At you, Dr. Kayla. He’s sneaky like that.”
“All right, that’s enough kidding around. I’m out of here. I have to go help Nana,” I said. I rolled my eyes for Kayla’s benefit, and then I walked away. Quickly.