She shook her head. ‘I’m still your baby, aren’t I, Joey?” He said yes as her eyes got heavier and she buried herself against his neck. He said it again and they began to move. She kissed his neck and pressed herself against him more. She hurried, trying to stifle the sound she made. She squeezed him, crying, kissing her way to his mouth. The bed rattled. She drove him on, running her knuckles up over his ribs suddenly; he started, he couldn’t stop. She made him keep going another full minute, then she threw herself against him. She stayed quiet, pressing her lips to his lips.

Slowly, still together, they rolled onto their sides. He ran his hand over her back.

She kissed his chin. “My leg will go to sleep.”

He let her straighten out. He was the one who was falling asleep. As always, it was like going over backwards, perfectly safe.

Chapter Seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

Joe Leland entered the Army Air Corps in 1942 with a rank in the Port Smith Police Department of Detective Second Grade, the middle rank in detectives, three steps up the ladder of promotion. He had attained that rank in two and a half years, very rapidly by the standards of the Department, which worked on a test-and-merit system, but by no means as rapidly as some men had moved during the days of spoils and patronage. Leland’s good fortune had come as a result of the action that had also led to his citation for valor, five days after he had got out of the Academy grays. He had been promoted the next day by the Commissioner to Plainclothes Patrolman, and a year later he had scored high grades on the test for Detective Third Grade. Before his enlistment in the Army he had taken the test for Detective Second Grade and, by nothing but a fluke, had made the highest grade of that year. He had been first on the list and had served a total of eight days in the new grade when he had been advised that he was subject to the draft. He and Karen had decided to use his freedom of choice while he still had it. He had been in the Air Corps a year and a half when, under political pressure, the Port Smith City Council passed a measure permitting servicemen to compete in civil service examinations. Thus, in England, Leland became a Detective Lieutenant in a police force he did not work for; and in 1946 when he was discharged, he became, at twenty-eight, second in command of detectives in the Fifth Precinct, the toughest and busiest precinct in the city.