The Cruelest Cut by Rick Reed Page B

mounting files and, thankfully, had rejected the idea of bringing in a psychologist. But before Jack went back to his office, he had to see someone. He left headquarters and drove the short distance to the neighborhood he had grown up in, and parked a little way down from the familiar house so he would have more time to think up a good reason for being there. But the truth of the matter was that he wasn’t sure himself why he was there.
    The sky was dark, threatening rain, and the air had turned cool. Winter was months away, but, according to the old-timers, it would be an especially harsh one.
    He walked down the brick walkway that he and his father had laid when he was a kid, and up onto the porch of the house he had grown up in. His ex-wife, Katie, opened the door before he could knock. When they had divorced, they’d agreed that she would keep the house, and he moved into the river cabin that his grandfather had built.
    â€œI saw you coming up the walk,” she said, and smiled at him.
    Even with everything that was happening, Katie’s smile warmed him, and he wondered, not for the first time, how he could have managed to screw up their marriage so completely.
    â€œHi, Katie,” he said, and waited to be shown into the house they used to share. He knew every nook and cranny of the house, from which floorboards creaked to how the wind would sometimes whistle in the bathroom window if it wasn’t shut tight. She led him into the living room and sat on the recliner, leaving him to the couch, and the thought struck him that Katie had remembered that he couldn’t sit in the chair when he was wearing his gun. He’d always sat on the couch, where he had more room. But even with the fact that she had remembered such a trivial point, he still felt uneasy here. It didn’t feel like his house anymore.
    â€œHow’ve you been?” he asked, inwardly groaning at his stupid question.
    She averted her eyes and said, “Oh, you know…fine, I guess. How’s Susan?” she asked.
    The remark had surprised him. Embarrassed him. Why should I feel guilty? It’s not like Susan and Katie aren’t on friendly terms. Sometimes a little too friendly. In fact, Katie and Susan had become such good friends that he sometimes felt like the outsider. He would have understood it better if Katie and Susan had felt threatened by each other, but instead they had formed a bond around a common cause. And that cause was Jack Murphy.
    He also knew that Katie was dating an attorney. How could she possibly be attracted to an attorney? He had often wondered if she was doing that just to spite him, but Katie wasn’t like that. After he had been released from the hospital, both she and Susan had taken turns caring for him, feeding him, changing his bandages.
    But recently it had all become very uncomfortable for him. And when he was alone with Katie, which didn’t happen often, she seemed uncomfortable as well.
    He realized she was talking to him, and said, “What?”
    â€œWhy are you here, Jack?” Katie asked. Her features clouded with a familiar look of worry. He wanted to apologize for coming over without calling and then run for his car. But he needed someone to talk to that had nothing to do with the case, or the police. When they were married, no matter how serious a case he was investigating, he would sit with her and talk about nothing. Just being near her helped him clear his head, helped him realize that there were still good people in the world, and that he was putting up with this job in the sewer of society for the protection of people like Katie. He had never shared his concerns or the ugly part of his life with her because he was protecting her. He had to keep her clean of all of that. He had to have something unblemished, untouched by evil, to come home to.
    But he knew, in his own way, he had ruined the very thing that he needed the most. She had been right to divorce