JOE CARRIED THE BOX of personal items he’d cleaned out of his desk to his car on Thursday afternoon. He placed it in the open trunk, shut the lid, then looked at Trish.
“You ready?”
“I am. You?”
Joe winked. “Let’s get this over with,” he told her, and hand-in-hand they went back inside and headed into the breakroom, where Joe’s retirement party was about to start.
“I’d just like to say a few words about Joe Wallace,” the section chief began once everyone had their cups of punch in hand.
Joe fought the urge to roll his eyes, even as he felt his cheeks going pink from everyone in the room gazing at him intently. Trish squeezed his hand in solidarity as his boss lauded Joe’s storied career with the Fort Worth Police Department.
Several minutes later, the section chief wrapped his tribut
