“Hey. What are you doing here so early? Aren’t you supposed to be on medical leave? It’s not even 7:00 a.m.”

Cindy waved me off as she sat in one of the chairs across from my desk. “I wanted to check in, and I needed to get out of the house.” Things were still tense from the stop last week, and as far as Ron and I could tell not much had happened in the way of addressing it. Day had been evasive as hell and Cindy had stayed away.

“I’m so fucking tired of being cooped up. You’d think recovering from heart surgery wouldn’t make you homicidal, but I’m getting there.”

I shook my head at her, trying to keep a straight face. Her humor had always been pretty dark, but after her heart attack, it was getting grimmer. Still she was pushing it, and I wasn’t sure her checking in was going to help matters.

“I’m calling Lorraine and letting her know you came here instead of going to the rehab place which is what you probably told her, again.”

She looked down at herself and her workout clothes, then back at me. “You wouldn’t.”

I scoffed and gestured toward my phone. “Oh yeah, I would.”

She’d scared the shit out of all of us in the summer when she collapsed walking out of court, and there was no way I would enable her to go right back to not taking proper care of herself.

I pointed at the clock on the wall. “Thirty minutes. We can talk about what’s been going on and then you are going to your PT. You need to take care of yourself, Cin. We need you back.” I lamented. “I’m not built for all this administrative bullshit. I’m court guy, trial guy. Not a paperwork guy, and I’m starting to confirm I’m definitely not a politics guy. This sitting on my hands bullshit is not pleasant for me.”

I looked toward the hallway where the investigators usually worked. “Ron says that traffic stop was barely a bleep at the Sheriff’s department, meanwhile social media was on fire for days with community members demanding a response. This is going to escalate.”

Cindy’s shook her head, that stubborn set to her chin telling me she had not changed her mind. “First of all, you would be an outstanding DA and I really want that for this county and for you.”

I sighed, too frustrated to argue about this with her, or entertain the run-for-DA conversation.