TOG: Out of Touch, tidbit 2

Here is the last tidbit or excerpt for Out of Touch, the first book in the Touch of Gray series.  It is available now on Amazon Kindle for $0.99USD or free through Kindle Unlimited.

From Chapter Eleven: ______________________________________________________________________

I had one hour between returning from lunch and my teleconference with Sheriff Helki. I put that time to good use by surfing ridiculous Reddit threads. Whatever, I was feeling horribly lazy and I was the boss, dang it. Fifteen minutes before the teleconference was to start, I received an instant message from Dani.

Chica, Sheriff Helki just walked in the office with me. He would like to have the meeting with you in person, and not in the conference room.

UGH, he couldn’t have requested this earlier? I could have meet with him in his office. Glare at him for me, you know my scary stare. Tell him to give me ten minutes to get my office in order. He can sit on a chair and wait, and don’t offer him anything to drink. He doesn’t deserve it.

I will do none of what you said. I just took him the conference room to wait and he is drinking a glass of ice water. I told him you will come and get him in about ten minutes. You are welcome.

Dani, just know that you are not getting any thanks from me. Is your dad with him?

Good thing you pay me in money, not gratitude. And no, Dad isn’t with him. I just returned from lunch with him and he was going to wait for you to bring him on the call.

Good to know, but still no thanks from me.

My office was off limits usually, but Sheriff Helki was not someone I could easily turn down. He could make life on the conservatorship very uncomfortable. Well, I was about to return the favor. I placed a disposable ream on my visitor’s chair. The ream was similar to what doctor’s offices drape the exam bench with. I then pulled the background curtain down to separate my consultation area from the rest of the office and I unhooked a wooden beaded curtain that Wendy designed to cover my bathroom hallway entrance. I brought my office chair to sit beside the visitor’s chair, which was as far away from my desk and the consultative area as I could get. Finally, I pulled on my gloves as I left my office, made a quick stop in the hallway closet to grab a bundle, then headed to the conference room.

Pulling open one of the sliding panels after knocking a brief alert, I took stock of the occupant. Sheriff Helki was tall, a little over 6 feet. His black hair was parted down the middle with two small braids on either side of his face, leaving the rest to fall free midway past his shoulders. His face was slightly broad with wonderfully prominent cheekbones below his dark grey eyes. His choker necklace used bison bones, beads, turquoise, and silver which flowed down to join his chest plate. Jeans tucked into tall deer-skin moccasins with wraparound leather strings and a woven shirt completed his look. Like all able-bodied GT citizens, Sheriff Helki did two years of military service, but this was before I moved to Bosque. The compulsory military service also served as a time for him to obtain an associate degree in criminal justice. He knew that he wanted to be with the police, so after completing his two years military service, he became an officer of SWACon and worked on getting his bachelor’s degree. Sheriff Helki has since acquired two master’s degrees, good on him. He was in his mid-to-late-thirties yet looked like he was twenty-five. A good-looking twenty-five at that, but do not tell him I said so.

“Sheriff. I thought this was going to be a teleconference. If I had known you wanted to meet in person, I would have joined you at the police station. Do you still wish to have the meeting here, or would you like to reschedule for later today, so I can meet you at your office?”

His eyes seemed to smirk at my mild tone of miff. “I am being bombarded at work today, so I thought it would be best for me to leave the office for a bit. I have an open-door policy, but sometimes I just need to not be readily available or within reach. Here is fine.” I felt that he was holding a smile back, though as usual, his face did not even hint at a grin.

“Yes, which leaves us with meeting in my office. So, you have no one to blame but yourself for how the next thirty minutes will go. First, please wipe down your tablet with the equipment wipes on the conference table. Then, put this PPE on, and yes, I’m serious. I suggest you tie your air back first, then booties, coverall, mask, pull up the coverall hood, and finally gloves. Gloves are last because I don’t want your gloves to come in contact with your skin or hair. I won’t make you wear eye protection today, but if you try this again, the goggles are coming out. You can stay in here to don everything. This is a sign listing the order in which put on the PPE, in case you forget. It also provides visual aid if the PPE we use is unfamiliar. After your PPE is on, please wipe down your tablet again with a fresh wipe. Use a wipe to open the conference room doors, please. I’ll bring you a fresh glass of ice water to my office and wait for you outside my door, it is to the right of the main room. Fair warning, I think something died under my window, so there is an odor. It is on my list of things to look into on Saturday.”

    The neutral expression that he habitually wore was now slightly incredulous. I put the PPE on the table, grabbed the used glass with a latex glove, then left him to it.
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