“Will you tell him to get off of me?” Grant growled with his face pressed against the porch.

Tina sighed. “Officer, I know this man. Let him up, please.”

Reluctantly the cop stood up and rather roughly helped Grant to his feet. Grant brushed off the front of his clothes and glared at the police officer. “Do you know who I am?”

Tina rolled her eyes. “Grant, don’t start. He was just doing his job.”

“This early in the morning?”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Tina asked.

Grant rubbed his shoulder sullenly. “I’ve been here all night.”

Tina raised her eyebrows. “Is that right?”

“I didn’t feel right about leaving you alone.”

“I told you I could take care of myself,” Tina said firmly. She glanced at the cop, who looked rather young all of a sudden. “And you,” Tina said, “Isn’t it a little early for patrols, officer?”

The cop looked rather sheepish. “I just, ah, I thought I would drop by and see how you were gettin’ on. You seemed so shook up yesterday. I was just going to drive by and make sure you were okay. Then I saw this one,” the officer jerked his head toward Grant, “skulkin’ around your place. Didn’t look quite right so I told him to identify himself. He wouldn’t cooperate so I needed to remind him who was in charge here.”

“You heard her. She said she knows me, Barney Fife,” Grant said disdainfully, smoothing his dark hair back into place. “My father is a good friend of the Chief’s. He’ll hear about this.”

The cop squared up to Grant and looked him calmly in the eye. “I was doin’ my job and well within my rights to restrain an uncooperative nuisance. You ain’t been cleared as a suspect in the fire. Run and tell your Daddy that.”

Tina glanced back and forth between the two men and noticed Grant clenching his fists. Tina knew he didn’t take well to being challenged by anyone. The tense moment was broken by a female voice and Tina looked beyond the two men at Bette, who was standing on the sidewalk with a bemused look on her face.