"Geez, I'm not that bad."
"Are all Philadelphia girls as cocky as you?"
"I usually get away with it."
"Well, in my case it's in the genes. Dad was a cop, the best, he made police chief."
"You want to be just like him, right?"
"He's not around now, killed eight years ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"I was home for mid-semester. He was off duty. It was half-time on TV. I started to go for ice cream, but he said relax he'd go get it. As he parked at the convenience store, he saw a robbery in progress. He radioed for backup, but the perp came out too soon. Long story. Shots traded. Dad died on the sidewalk."
"My God!"
"When he didn't come back home right away, I figured he got some emergency call, not unusual. I'm lounging around like an idiot cheering for the Dolphins while my father is lying in a parking lot gutter bleeding to death. Later two cops came to the house. I opened the door and they just stood there. Neither one was able to speak, couldn't get one word out."
"Ever find the bastard?"
Chip shook his head, "There was a big manhunt with posters all around. We never found him. It shocked the town terribly, as if the citizens were insulted that it happened here. Park Beach changed after that, it was a turning point. As though Park Beach was innocent before, and then afterwards it was just another American town, where even the police chief wasn't safe."
"So, some piece of crap is walking around free."
"Whenever I have to go to that store, I see blood on the sidewalk." He pressed his lips together hard and paused for a moment. "It should have been me going for the ice cream."
"Not your fault. Must have been difficult for your mother."
"Don't know if my mother ever knew. She took off years earlier. I didn't know her. They were never married. She moved on. Dad raised me. Then I went in the Marines. Why am I'm telling you this?"
"Because somehow you figured out, I want to hear it."
"It's time to change the subject."
"After all that you still wanted to be a cop?"
"I wanted to catch all the guys who think they can get away with it. Actually, at first I wanted to shoot them all on sight. Later I softened and decided it was best if I just arrested them and let the justice system deal with them."
"You'll get some of them." Rough episode to live through, she thought. "Well, you've kept your head as far as I can tell. So, you want to follow his example. Are you worried about failing, I mean failing your father?"