My Twin Stole My Fiancée and Life novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Check My License

The hearing room at Marlow Falls City Hall had six chairs and a flag.

Lark sat at the table in her dress uniform with her hands folded, and three people in suits sat across from her.

I sat in the back row with my ribs taped and my coat on my knees.

"Officer Carmody," said the woman in the middle. "The complaint says you cuffed a man at a residence without verifying his identity."

"It's true."

"It says you ignored his requests to check his license."

"Also true. He asked me three times. I'd been told there was a protective order and I stopped listening."

She didn't look at me.

"I don't offer an excuse, ma'am. I offer the fact that I noticed his key turned without force, and I took it to my sergeant that same night, and I've been trying to fix it for six days."

"The complainant in this hearing is Natasha Ellingwood, who is in county custody," said the man on the left. "She withdrew nothing."

"I'm aware."

"The man you arrested wishes to speak."

I stood up.

My voice came out rougher than I meant.

"She's the reason I wasn't locked in a hospital on Friday," I said. "She's the reason I'm alive on a road in the dark. I don't want her disciplined. I want her given a medal and a raise, and I'd like it noted that she's the best cop I've ever been arrested by."

Somebody coughed to cover a laugh.

The woman in the middle wrote a line.

"The board finds that the arrest, while mistaken, was made in good faith on a facially valid order," she said. "The officer's conduct since has been exemplary. Written reprimand, expunged in twelve months. Reinstated, effective now."

Lark didn't move for a second.

Then she let out a long, shaky breath, and turned in her chair, and found me.

In the hallway she walked straight into my chest.

"Reprimand," she said into my coat.

"A reprimand's nothing."

"It's the nicest thing a board has ever said to me."

A man's voice came from the end of the corridor.

"Lark Carmody. Come here and let me look at you."

She went stiff.

A big gray man in a Florida windbreaker stood by the water fountain with his arms open.

"Dad? You're supposed to be in Tampa."

"Your sergeant called me Saturday night. He said, your girl's in trouble, and she's the kind who won't ask." He hugged her hard and looked at me over her head. "Who's this?"

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